Capitol Letters: Boise State president grilled over student fees

Ryan Suppe
McClatchy

By Ryan Suppe, State Politics Reporter

Boise State University President Marlene Tromp ran the gauntlet yesterday, as lawmakers scrutinized the university’s budget.

Presidents from each of Idaho’s public colleges this week are presenting their spending requests for the next fiscal year to the Legislature’s budget-setting Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC).

Tromp faced questions about the school’s recent fee increase, as well as its request for equipment purchases costing millions of dollars and its intent to hire an administrator responsible for “inclusion and belonging.”

Student fees cover a range of campus expenses, from facilities to activities, like intramural sports, to student government. All Idaho universities increased student fees last year, but Boise State’s $304 hike, a 4% increase, was the largest. By comparison, Idaho State University raised fees by $86, a 1% increase. Boise State’s fee hike accounts for nearly $5 million.

“I think some of us were very caught off guard by the extent to which fees were increased,” said Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, who co-chairs JFAC. “We understand inflation, but that was a massive increase.”

Tromp said the student government last year voted to increase fees, to grow staff and reduce wait times for campus mental health services. Tromp said she didn’t know whether the university is obligated to adhere to the student government’s direction on fees.

Sen. Ben Adams, R-Nampa, asked multiple times to know the salary of a provost of inclusion and belonging position that the university is currently hiring for. Boise State officials said they didn’t know the salary off-hand.

Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, questioned whether the university needs about $3.5 million in replacement funds, for vehicles, lab equipment, printers and other tools.

“Those numbers are huge,” Tanner said. “How many vehicles are we actually trying to purchase, and what are we actually doing with this money?”

Next moves on Medicaid expansion

The Senate and House Health and Welfare committees are preparing a recommendation to the Legislature on whether to continue offering expanded Medicaid eligibility.

Lawmakers have a Jan. 31 deadline to reconsider Medicaid expansion, after voters approved it in 2018. Medicaid expansion is expected to cost about $1 billion next year, a 3% increase — 90% of the budget is funded by the federal government.

After a Monday presentation on next year’s budget projections, the Health and Welfare committees met separately yesterday to discuss their next moves.

In the House, Rep. Marco Erickson, R-Idaho Falls, recommended waiting two or three years before making changes. Lawmakers would benefit from a clearer picture of the costs, without the effects of COVID-19, he said.

“We had a really strange couple of years,” Erickson said. “We see some skewed numbers, and we didn’t get a true understanding of what’s really going to happen with this expansion.”

House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said she’s concerned defunding Medicaid expansion would remove access to cancer treatment drugs and antipsychotic medication.

“I think we could see ... fallout in society that transcends something that might appear on a fiscal spreadsheet,” Rubel said.

In the Senate, freshman Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the cost of Medicaid expansion is “not as much as people like to think it is” and the program is “run very well” by the Department of Health and Welfare. But Bjerke said he’s concerned about sharing financial responsibility with the federal government.

“My worry would be that, incrementally, they start backing out of their commitment to this program, and more and more of that burden starts to fall on the state,” he said. “I haven’t convinced myself yet one way or the other.”

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Abby Lee, R-Fruitland, asked Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials to find areas where the state has discretion to curb the “exponential” trajectory of costs.

“We’ve got to figure out a solution,” Lee said. “It’s going to take a partnership between the Legislature and our providers to try to get ahead of some of these costs.”

Neither committee settled on a recommendation to the full Legislature. Committee chairs Sen. Julie VanOrden, R-Pingree, and Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, said they plan to meet this week.

What to expect today

  • 8 a.m. Joint Finance-Appropriations. Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield is giving a presentation on public school financing.

  • 8 a.m. Senate State Affairs. Sen. Doug Okuniewicz, R-Hayden, is proposing an amendment to the Idaho Constitution provision that grants citizens power to enact laws by ballot initiative.

  • 1:30 p.m. Senate Judiciary and Rules. A proposal from Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, to eliminate marriage licensing was originally scheduled for a Monday hearing but was rescheduled to Wednesday. Eliminating licenses has been a tactic by Republicans in other states to avoid recognizing same-sex marriages. Herndon in the past has vowed to uphold “traditional marriage.”

  • 1:30 p.m. House Business. Rep. James Petzke, R-Meridian, is proposing legislation that would block banks from disclosing certain financial information to the Internal Revenue Service.

Catch up on last session

If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend or colleague, and they can sign up here.

Advertisement