Idahoans can virtually testify for or against H153 during a public hearing on College Budgets Friday morning.

This bill would require the legislature to produce separate appropriation bills for each of the state institutions of higher education: Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Idaho, and Lewis-Clark State College.

Currently the budgets of the colleges and universities are in a single $632 million appropriations bill, which is the 4th largest spending bill in the state.

Representative Priscilla Giddings explains that H153 would hold each institution accountable for its programs, curriculum, and actions without affecting the other institutions.

Rep Giddings also said since each of these institutions has a unique mission, unique students, different fees, and different community needs, each of their budgetary requirements are different.

Registration is required to testify remotely:

https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2021/joint/jfac/?fbclid=IwAR1L5t0v5CuEcMBxUOLmeFTrwkRm7SaxVBHSPLdDPBHYLneXJx6kKFfVTt4#hcode-tab-style2testimony-registration-remote-in-person

View proceedings live:

https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/idahoinsession/Legislature/

H153 Public Hearing on College/University Budgets

This bill will require the legislature to produce separate appropriation bills for each of the state institutions of higher education: Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Idaho, and Lewis-Clark State College. The bill details are linked here.

Idahoans can virtually testify for or against this bill by registering below. The committee meets at 8:00 MT, but testimony may not start until 8:30 MT or 9:00 MT. The proceedings can be watched live by following the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee Stream linked here.

Sign up to testify virtually by clicking here.

Rep Priscilla Giddings District 7

Committees:

Joint Finance & Appropriations
Agricultural Affairs
Commerce & Human Resources

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Priscilladistrict7/

Why Does Idaho Need H153?

1. Each institution can be held accountable for its programs, curriculum, and actions without affecting the other institutions.

2. Every year each institution submits an individualized budget request, and then one legislative services budget analyst works to combine all of requests. This creates an unnecessary layer of data computation.

3. Since each of these institutions has a unique mission, unique students, different fees, and different community needs, each of their budgetary requirements are different.

4. These institutions’ budgets were separate in the past, and there are no laws, policies, or legislative rules that require the budgets to be combined.

5. There are more than 120 budget bills that go through the legislative process. Of these, the K-12 budget has been split into more than 15 different bills, but the budgets of the colleges and universities are lumped together into a single $632 million appropriations bill. It is the 4th largest spending bill in the state.

Testimony Advice:

– Testimony will probably be limited to 1-3 minutes.

– Testimony about Social Justice Ideology will probably be objected to unless…

– The testimony topic is shown to relate to the bill language or one of the points above.

Thank you for being willing to speak up for budget transparency!

Your participation is just as important as the content of your testimony.