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Legislative staff demo Idaho Base Analysis Tool to give lawmakers searchable view of agency base budgets
Summary
Legislative staff demonstrated a new online tool (Idaho Base Analysis Tool) that pulls 25 years of appropriations and agency narratives into an interactive interface to help lawmakers trace how base budgets were built and why, with plans to roll out agency data this fall.
Paul Headley of the Legislative Services Office and Casey Hartwig demonstrated the Idaho Base Analysis Tool (referred to in the briefing as IVAT), an interactive dashboard that assembles historical appropriations, base builder details, and narrative from fiscal reports to make base budgets searchable and transparent.
Headley told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee that roughly 90 percent of statewide appropriations sit in the base and that the tool is intended to help lawmakers and staff “answer questions about not only how the base was built with the numbers, but why the base was built.” The tool links each year’s base, maintenance adjustments and ongoing enhancements to spending categories, personnel FTE, and the original appropriation narratives that described intended outcomes.
Casey Hartwig walked committee members through the tool using the Idaho Lottery, Department of Corrections and other agencies as examples, showing timelines, 25‑year appropriation charts and expandable “base builder” line items. The presenters showed how a large 2013 drop in Lottery base appropriation could be traced, with drilldowns, to a change in vendor fee treatment. They demonstrated filters for fund source (general, dedicated, federal), expenditure category (personnel, operating, trustee/benefit, capital), and program level details; the team said the goal is a September rollout of initial agency pages and a continuing build‑out of historical data.
Committee members were encouraged to request personalized walkthroughs and to raise questions with analysts; staff said agency links to existing public resources such as Transparent Idaho would be retained and that the tool will support deeper diligence in appropriation decisions.
