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Committee accepts technical corrections to CEC letter as DFM outlines small governor revisions
Summary
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee accepted technical corrections to the committee's CEC recommendation letter and heard a summary of the governor's revised budget memo, which contained roughly $920,000 in small corrections across several items.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Jan. 13 unanimously accepted technical corrections to the committee's CEC (Compensation, Employee Classification) recommendation letter after staff identified wording and funding-coding errors.
The corrections follow a memo from the Division of Financial Management (DFM) outlining a total governor's revision of about $920,000 to the executive budget. Ms. Wolf of DFM told the committee that the largest change, about $870,000, corrected the calculation for the Idaho Digital Learning Academy so it was included properly in CEC calculations; smaller corrections included $45,000 related to SwiCap billing for the Legislative Services Office, a $5,000 pay-grade correction at the Department of Health and Welfare, and a technical, $0-impact endowment fund adjustment for Idaho State University.
The corrections recommended to the CEC letter were described to the committee by Frances Lippett, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services. Lippett told members the committee's earlier motion had omitted language about a $1.55-per-hour pay increase per full-time position (per FTP) and that the committee had not intended to include the previously drafted flexibility language. She also clarified that a 4.5% market-based increase recommended for IT and engineering staff is in addition to the $1.55-per-FTP adjustment.
"The motion in committee that passed did not include that flexibility language," Lippett said when describing the correction to the letter.
Representative Petzke asked whether the IT and engineering market increase applied to IT and engineering staff in all agencies or only those in the classified salary schedule; Lippett said the committee motion applied to employees on the IT and engineering salary schedule and may not include nonclassified staff, such as employees of constitutional officers.
After discussion, Lippett requested unanimous consent to accept the corrected CEC letter. With no objection, the committee agreed and the corrections were ordered adopted.
Why it matters: The CEC letter provides the committee's formal budget recommendations on employee compensation and salary schedules; accurate wording and correct fund coding affect how agencies implement pay changes and how those costs appear in the final appropriation packages.
What to watch next: The committee will use the corrected language when setting program-maintenance and enhancement bills later in the session, and members indicated they may consider whether similar market-based increases should extend to nonclassified IT staff.
