Lt. Gov. McGeachin blasts lawmakers after budget cut Betsy Z. Russell
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The Legislature’s joint budget committee on Tuesday sliced a long-vacant full-time position and $17,400 out of Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s budget for next year, after she told the panel at a January budget hearing that it was up to lawmakers whether the position stayed in her budget or not.
The move sparked protest from Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, who said the position has since been filled and that his alternate budget motion, to keep the funding and the position in the budget, “would not require firing anyone.”
According to state records, the lieutenant governor’s office hired a part-time administrative assistant on Feb. 22, one of two shown in her office, and also still continued to pay for a contract with Idaho Freedom Foundation analyst Parrish Miller for information technology services at $800 a month. The most recent payments to Miller, two for $800 each, were made Feb. 11, ac