Idaho Legislature’s JFAC finishes setting 2024 state budget

Public schools would see an increase of $378.6M in state general funding, including $145M increase for teacher raises

By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun

The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee reached a major checkpoint in this year’s legislative session as it finished setting the fiscal year 2024 state budget March 14 and signed off on a 16.4% increase in state funding for K-12 public schools.

Altogether, JFAC approved a $378.6 million increase in state general fund spending for public schools. That includes a $145 million increase in state funding for teacher raises — enough for the state to send an additional $6,359 per teacher to school districts and charter schools. That brings that statewide minimum starting teacher salary in Idaho to $47,477 next year.

That starting salary meets a major goal Gov. Brad Little outlined in his Jan. 9 State of the State address, where he called to increase starting teacher pay to place in the top 10 nationally based on 2020-’21 National Education Association data.

The $378.6 million increase in state general fund spending also satisfies the $330 million funding increase for public schools that legislators approved in House Bill 1 during the Sept. 1 special session.

In a statement released by his office March 14, Little called the budget JFAC set a promise kept.

“Thank you to JFAC for your support of our public schools this morning!” Little wrote. “You put Idaho students and families first by approving increased pay for teachers and classified staff across the board. We’re making the teaching profession in Idaho more competitive and rewarding, which keeps great teachers in the classroom to help our students achieve.”

“Last September, we secured historic investments in public schools and workforce training while cutting taxes, and 80% of Idaho voters approved the move,” Little added. “This is a ‘promises made, promises kept’ moment, and I am proud of my legislative partners for putting Idaho first.”

The K-12 budget JFAC set March 14 was broken into seven divisions, and each will be written up as a separate budget bill that will need to pass the Idaho House of Representatives and Idaho Senate.

In terms of total state general fund dollars, the budget is the largest for public schools in Idaho history.

Idaho Education Association President Layne McInelly said in a statement released March 14 that the increases, if passed, will allow school districts to pay a livable wage to education support professionals and classified school district employees, including office assistants, nurses, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, classroom paraprofessionals and others

“These proposed budgets show all educators — both certified teachers and classified educators — the respect they deserve by providing the competitive, fair compensation Idahoans want them to have,” McInelly said in the statement. “They are a bold and important step toward reversing Idaho’s decades of chronical underfunding of public education and begins to address many of the challenges facing our public schools, including the ongoing educator vacancy crisis crippling school districts across the state.”

In an interview March 14, JFAC co-chair Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said the public school budgets include “historic numbers.”

Horman told the Idaho Capital Sun the raises for teachers and school classified employees who do not require a teaching certificate, such as information technology specialists, paraprofessionals or clerical workers, are larger than the raises approved for other state employees. The state is sending school districts and charters enough money to pay for raises of $6,359 for all teachers through the career ladder salary allocation system, but teacher salaries in Idaho are negotiated at the local district level each year and vary between school districts and charter schools.

There is also additional money outside of the public schools budgets for arts grants, public school safety and career-technical education, she said.

“It is a huge investment in public schools,” Horman told the Sun. “And we hope that districts will see the investment that is being made here and give property tax relief to their property tax payers.”

Horman said she hopes the education funding increases from the Idaho Legislature will curb local school districts’ needs to put forward supplemental levies to local voters.

Passing the 2024 budget moves Idaho’s legislative session

Closer To Adjournment

The K-12 public school budgets were among the largest and one of the last aspects of the state’s fiscal year 2024 budget that needed to be set. JFAC’s original deadline to finish setting the 2024 budget was March 10, but JFAC’s budget setting hearing schedule was affected last week by ceremonies honoring the late-Idaho Gov. Phil Batt.

Republican legislative leaders are working to adjourn the 2023 legislative session for the year on Friday, March 24 — the end of next week. As a general rule of thumb, it takes about two weeks for budget bills to be written and have the time to pass through both legislative chambers. However, legislators are able to suspend rules and work quickly in the final days of a legislative session.

For the session to adjourn on time, all of the budget bills would need to pass both legislative chambers and be signed into law.

If either the Idaho House or Idaho Senate kills a budget bill this week or next, that could extend the session beyond the March 24 target deadline. A legislative impasse over a major pending bill like the new property tax bill could also threaten to extend the session.

Even though the 2024 budget is set, JFAC met again March 15 to consider transfers. There are also a handful of bills circulating that would spend additional state money if they are passed into law. If those bills pass, JFAC may reconvene to draft so-called trailer bills to provide funding for those bills. They are called trailer bills because they follow behind a traditional agency budget.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com

Storied Futures exhibit reception invites public to take in local history, consider approach to development

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

The quote “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” is widely attributed to writer Mark Twain, though historians aren’t certain that he was the one who actually said it. Regardless of attribution, more certain is the truth in the turn of phrase — history never reflects in exactitudes, but the themes remain intact regardless of era.

In Sandpoint, the history of development is a patchwork of the same conversation again and again: How can we grow and change without losing what’s already been established as our community character? It’s a theme of today, and one that’s persisted for well over a century.

It’s also the concept behind a new community-curated exhibit known as Storied Futures, which showcases the findings of a two-year research project on the history of Sandpoint’s Elsasser Homestead. A reception for the exhibit will take place Friday, March 17 at Evans Brothers Coffee (524 Church St.) from 5-7:30 p.m.

The project takes a microcosmic look at what can be learned through studying the creation and ultimate demolition of a local homestead to make way for a modern housing development. Storied Futures came to life through a partnership between architect Reid Weber, Hannah Combs of the Bonner County Historical Society, writer Emily Erickson, community member Cynthia Dalsing and illustrator Owen Leisy.

The exhibit will be on display at Evans Brothers until May. Look for a bigger story on the Storied Futures project in an upcoming edition of the Reader

Bouquets:

•It’s rare that I give Bouquets to the Idaho House of Representatives, but I have to give credit where it’s due. I was pleased to see the House voted 30-40 to kill off House Bill 205, which would have prohibited Idahoans from voting by absentee ballot for convenience. One thing we’ve learned from more than two years of constant whining from election deniers is that our elections are in fact secure. That isn’t my opinion or said for entertainment — it’s a fact, supported by more than 60 judicial rulings in the aftermath of the 2020 election. There’s just no “there” there. Any attempts to restrict access or convenient methods to vote should always be turned away at the pass. If someone is of legal voting age and eligible to vote, we should never make it more difficult for them to do so.

Kudos to Rep. Mark Sauter for voting to kill this bill. Too bad his colleague Rep. Sage Dixon voted to pass it.

• I was so pleased to read about the Storied Futures exhibit currently on display at Evans Brothers Coffee. It sounds like a really cool idea and I encourage anyone interested to attend the opening reception from 5-7:30 p.m., Friday, March 17 at the coffee shop. The project is a collaboration of a two-year research process between Hannah Combs with the Bonner County History Museum, architect Reid Weber, writer Emily Erickson, community member Cynthia Dalsing and SHS senior Owen Leisy. I’m really pleased to see the next generation of stewards taking a step forward to promote and produce events like this. Please keep up the good work and shine a light on our history.

Barbs: Next week, friends.

A young person’s perspective…

Dear editor,

From a 15-year-old’s perspective of our country, deep sadness fills my heart as I look back at what our country used to be. My tears fall vainly for a country that’s dying, but I will always remember the men who died so we can all be free. Look at the Star-Spangled Banner waving in the wind with fierce pride. In God we trust shall be our motto, land of the free home of the brave.

Why do the “elites” treat us this way? For all they see is money and power. In a world full of wickedness, will goodness and truth surely prevail?

Without God our country is nothing. Without religion and morality, freedom cannot stand firm in its foundations. My future is set up for totalitarianism between the government and artificial intelligence. They will try to control me with their deceiving ways. In God I will trust, for America is the land of the free home of the brave!

Lauryn Bowlin Spirit Lake

concerned about the full disclosure of details of sexual abuse forced upon children in our community. There is absolutely no valid reason to report such shocking details in a small local paper. It only needlessly stigmatizes the victims, further traumatizing the children.

This kind of sensationalistic journalism also discourages other victims from reporting abuse. The research on this goes back decades.

This type of reporting also targets victims among their peers and unhealthy adults who seem to enjoy the further exploitation of others. The only purpose of detailing sexual abuse is to sell more newspapers and it’s appalling that our local paper is stooping to this level of re-traumatizing children who’ve already been through hell.

Anyone who supports this type of content, which absolutely re-traumatizes victims, needs to take a hard look at the quality of their moral fiber.

Instead of this salacious type of reporting, how about detailing what our elected officials are up to here locally and in Boise that has the potential of causing great harm for generations to come? How about educating the public on topics to engage our society to work for a better future, rather than exploit vulnerable abuse victims?

Councilman (and later Mayor) Ray Miller frequently said that the one thing we did not need was another study. I agree with his sentiments and applaud the recent comments of former Sandpoint Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk along that line [Letters, “City of Sandpoint should look local for its future…,” March 3, 2023].

And surely we don’t need “experts” from hundreds of miles away who can’t even identify the mountain ranges around us.

It’s now been seven years since the city hired an administrator to run our city. I’ve lost track of how many “studies” and “plans” the city has paid for. Abdicating their leadership roles as a city council didn’t work in the late 1970s and it sure isn’t working now.

Helen Newton Sandpoint

Dear editor, I listen each week to a different area pastor’s invocation for the Board of Bonner County Commissioners’ regular business meetings, appealing for moral consideration toward just and reasonable conduct of county business. I’m listening!

to even be objected to by fairground beneficiaries, not to mention the Idaho attorney general and a great many citizens in red, white and blue heaven.

A reasonable and simple resolution exists when constitutional county officers are embroiled in significant disagreement and division. Provide judicial review back to the county residents via the largest public hearing available, a non-binding advisory ballot question: Justice Complex use or fairground campground use.

We shall not be silenced. County business shall not be secreted. Our grievances are being assembled.

Dan Rose Samuels

Dear editor,

I am a veteran and have owned and used guns for sport for over 60 years. The Idaho Legislature is considering repealing all or part of the state’s law banning private militias. I think that would be opening the door for evil people to take up arms and take the law into their own hands. What we saw in D.C. on Jan 6, 2021 was just a glimpse of what a world with militias could be like.

Dear editor,

If the city goes forward and submits a plan to ITD for the Couplet it will be placed into ITD’s capital plan. It isn’t going to languish there until 2040 or later when traffic conditions might actually warrant doing something. ITD will commit to funding and that project will be on the ground within seven years. That’s a big highway bisecting Sandpoint, as Government Way does in Coeur d’Alene.

With that proposed project also comes a return of through trucks downtown. Is this the legacy mayor and council want to leave? That they divided Sandpoint and brought truck traffic back to downtown Sandpoint?

Carrie Logan Sandpoint

Dear editor, Recently there have been a series of articles in the Daily Bee that I feel need to be called out. The many mental health care workers that I’ve spoken with are extremely

Cindy Aase Sandpoint

Dear editor,

In 1995, when mayoral and council candidates were addressing the issues facing the city, the candidates shared one basic issue: They said we need to return to basics in city government. They said things had become too complicated and more attention had to be paid to what residents wanted in their city government.

“We need some common sense in government,” said mayoral candidate John Conlan, a Sandpoint icon. “We need to solve things, not study things until they’re so complicated that no one can understand them.”

They echoed one another, saying the city must find out from residents what kind of a town they want Sandpoint to be and follow that path.

My recollection from 24 years as Sandpoint’s city clerk is that

I then observe the newly chosen BOCC chair [Commissioner Steve Bradshaw] turn long-standing precedent of public business on its head by invoking unlawful executive session to secret public business, to deny appropriate authority of vested public duties and responsibilities, to capriciously wield the advice of counsel, and to apply censorship of public comment for bureaucratic convenience and a surreptitious proxy agenda, and uses verbal threats to “throw us all out of the room” for daring to participate, or Lord forbid, make any challenge of to this public servant.

Additionally, I’ve heard Sheriff Wheeler’s plea to both the BOCC and the public for civil engagement. I commend Sheriff Wheeler for standing firm in defense of the Constitutional right to partake in civil First Amendment rights, without mitigation.

In full disclosure, the BOCC’s pursuit of the conveyance of county property from current and future Justice Complex use, for skating rink and then campground use, defies fiduciary land management. The BOCC misrepresentations of fact, and lack of compliance to code, toward land use usurpation appears

Idaho’s Constitution states that the “military shall be subordinate to the civil power” and similar statements are in the constitutions of 48 of the states. Repealing the law would be unconstitutional.

Supporters of repealing the law say that the law is antiquated and not in compliance with the First and Second amendments. It’s not the law that bans militias that is antiquated, it’s the militias that are antiquated. This is not the 1800s. Also, established case law has repeatedly said laws banning militias are constitutional.

Militias are not about expanding freedoms; they are about taking away freedoms by forcing their beliefs on others.

Militias are not about the rule of law; they are about bypassing the rule of law.

Militias are not about fighting for our independence; they are about taking away independence.

Militias are not about protecting democracy; they would be legalized anarchy with guns.

Ken Thacker Sagle