GOVERNOR ISSUES STIMULUS RECOMMENDATIONS
LEGISLATIVE LEADERS PRESENTED WITH PLAN FOR USING $1.24 BILLION

(BOISE) – Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter issued his recommendations today for how to use $1,240,062,000 in federal stimulus funding being made available to Idaho by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“I want to thank the members of my Executive Stimulus Committee who assessed this complicated federal law and what opportunities it presents for our state – as well as all the associated costs and what strings are attached. They did a great job of providing me with insightful and meaningful analysis,” Governor Otter said. “These decisions are difficult, and I took them very seriously. We don’t get any do-overs here, so I’m grateful to the folks on the committee and the Division of Financial Management staff for making this process manageable.”

The Governor’s recommendations are based on seven basic criteria:

• Create and protect jobs in all regions of the state
• Provide for quality education of Idaho’s school-aged children
• Provide temporary relief for Idahoans directly impacted by the global recession
• Minimize ongoing costs to taxpayers in the current year as well as future years
• Do not use the funds to create new state programs
• Do not use the funds to expand the size of state government
• Delay use of rainy day funds as a hedge against continued declines in state revenue

The recommendations include allocating $408,770,000 for health and welfare programs; $260,468,980 for public schools; $36,078,300 for higher education; $159,978,000 for unemployment benefits and workforce development; $61,894,000 for environmental quality projects; $200,334,100 for transportation; $15,268,000 for public housing, low-income housing and homelessness prevention; and $97,270,700 for other state government programs.

The recommendations, and an appendix breaking down how the funds would be expended over Fiscal Years 2009, 2010 and 2011, are on the DFM Web site at http://dfm.idaho.gov/fed_stimulus.html.

Governor Otter briefed legislative leaders from both parties on his recommendations before releasing them to the public today. Wayne Hammon, administrator of the state Division of Financial Management, will appear at 8:30 a.m. Thursday to present the recommendations to the Legislature’s Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Governor Otter has scheduled an 11:30 a.m. media availability in the 2nd Floor Courtroom of the Borah Building in Boise to respond to questions about his stimulus funding recommendations. An unedited audio recording of the media availability will be placed online Thursday afternoon at http://gov.idaho.gov/press/conference.html.

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