Idaho's Health and Human Services Budget

I had a chat with someone who told me that the legislature has again cut the budget for the Idaho Health and Human Services Department--so I decided to find out how heartless our legislature is.

Look on page 9 of this summary; it shows that Health & Human Services has increased spending from $772,100,000 to $1,719,200,000 between FY 1997 and FY 2007. CPI-U (consumer price index urban consumers) increased from 159.1 in January 1997 to 202.416 in January 2007--or about a 27% inflation in the value of the dollar. The 1997 population of Idaho was about 1.22 million; the 2006 population estimate (closest that I could find) was 1,466,465. That means that the 1997 Health & Human Services per capita spending, in 1997 dollars, was $632.86; the 2007 per capita spending, in 1997 dollars, was $923.10. That's a 45.9% increase in per capita spending, inflation adjusted, over the last ten years.

I'm not sure who told my friend that the legislature has been cutting the budget on this, but they are wrong. The 2008 budget request from the Health and Human Services Department was $1,800,035,700; the Governor's recommendation is $1,768,205,500. The Governor's request is 2.8% larger than last year, probably just enough to keep up with inflation and population growth.