Plan would split Idaho Commerce & Labor Department.

Byline: Lora Volkert

The House State Affairs Committee unanimously voted to the House floor a bill to split the Department of Commerce and Labor in two. The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee has already started work on the state budget. The Commerce and Labor budgets would have to be some of the last set if the Legislature can decide on the split, said department spokesman Bob Fick, but it's not too late. I've seen bills pass in four hours from introduction to final passage, said Fick, who was a veteran Associated Press reporter before moving on towork for the state. Because the House State Affairs Committee recommended passage, Fick said, that suggests to me they're confident something's going to happen. In his State of the State address last month, Gov.

C.L. Butch Otter championed splitting the department, which was first combined in 2004. Didn't we just combine these departments several years ago? Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart asked Randy Tilley, a financial management analyst for the state, who introduced the billon behalf of the governor. In the governor's opinion we need to take a step back, Tilley said. The department should devolve, he said, so  Commerce and Labor can respectively focus on their original areas -labor and securities laws for the Labor Department, and economic development for the Commerce Department. Despite claims that this will help the Commerce Department focus on economic development, Otter's budget recommendations gutted a number of Commerce Department programs, including the Rural Initiative Program, the Technology Development and Marketing Fund and Small Business Assistance Grants. Pasley-Stuart questioned Tilley about the fiscal impact of the bill. Tilley said it would cost $150,000 to separate the departments, mainly for a phone system, software and maintenance. The Department of Labor eliminated about 80 vacant positions in the last four to five years because of declining federal funding for unemployment insurance and services programs, Fick said.