We are starting to see the human cost created by fiscal mismanagement by our state political leaders. And, unfortunately, based on reports from the governor’s budget office it looks like only the beginning of this self-inflicted wound on our great state.

On Wednesday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield announced that she is backing off her top legislative priority – asking next year’s Legislature to increase funding for Idaho’s 33,000 special education students by $50 million. This is a program that serves our state’s most vulnerable students.

The Legislature’s own Office of Performance Evaluations reported earlier this year that an $82 million gap exists in the program, not including charter schools which would push the shortage to $100 million.
In September, Critchfield’s chief of staff, Greg Wilson, told the media, “This is the one area that deserves the Legislature’s attention, the governor’s attention.”

Now it won’t get any attention. Why? Because the Legislature and Governor Little have created a fiscal crisis that could soar to between $600 million and $1 billion next year, according to Lori Wolff, head of the governor’s Division of Financial Management.

It’s not just k-12 public school students who are feeling the pinch. On December 1, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare eliminated funding for the state’s Assertive Community Treatment program because of the deficit. The program serves hundreds of Idahoans with the most serious mental health issues. For these Idahoans, it is the “treatment regime of last resort” and prevents them from long-term hospitalization.

The reason for cutting the funding: The budget crisis facing the state.

Now four families have filed a lawsuit in federal court to force the state to restore the funding. The families are getting support from Idaho law enforcement. In a letter to the Governor and Legislature, the Idaho Sheriffs Association said, “We know from the history of the mental health system in Idaho (that) when these services are reduced or eliminated, we see an increase in crisis events, emergency room utilization and incarceration in county jails.”

Governor Little has already ordered a 3 percent cut in state budgets to cover an expected deficit in this year’s budget. Besides the cut to this critically needed mental health program, the 3 percent holdback has reduced funding for post-secondary education by $13 million at the time we need more skilled and educated workers in our state.

So far, Governor Little has not imposed budget cuts on K-12 education but given the gargantuan projected budget deficit we face next fiscal year it may be only a matter of time before our elementary and secondary students face reduced support too. That comes at a time when Idaho still has the lowest per pupil expenditure in the country.

Idaho has had to reduce budgets before because of economic downturns like the Great Recession of 2008. This made sense because the whole nation had gone through one of the most challenging economic crises in history.

But the fiscal crisis our state now faces is self-inflicted by the $4 billion in lost revenue the Governor and Legislature have given away over the past five years, including $453 million in tax cuts last winter.

This year’s reduction in the state’s revenue base included a constitutionally questionable $50 million voucher tax credit so students can attend private and religious schools. By creating this tax credit, the

Governor and Legislature created a new taxpayer-supported school system at a time when they are not even meeting the constitutional mandate to fund a uniform and thorough public-education system for our more than 300,000 Idaho kids.

State leaders like Governor Little, Superintendent Critchfield and legislative leaders are treating this budget crisis like any other economic downturn which has required budget cuts. They wring hands and say the only solution is cutting money for education and mental health services and not fully funding K-12 education.

But this is not the typical budget crisis caused by a national economic downturn. This crisis is caused by decisions the Legislature and the Governor have intentionally made. Decisions that are not fiscally responsible and are quite different from the good, old-fashioned conservative values of previous legislatures and governors like Phil Batt.

The Governor and Legislature dug us into this hole. They have the power – and responsibility – to dig us out of it by reversing some of the financial decisions they made last session and doing no more harm like complying with the big, beautiful federal tax bill. A good start would be repealing the $50 million subsidy they are giving to private and religious schools.

That decision alone would help close the funding gap for our special education kids who could use the money. It is a small step, yet an important one toward fully supporting the programs that our people, students, and business community depend on for a healthy and prosperous state. And a step toward more fiscally responsible management.