Idaho Legislature on the brink of wrapping up its work for the year
The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 23, 2024. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
After 88 days in session, the Idaho Legislature moved closer to finishing its business for the year Thursday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.
On Thursday night, the Idaho House of Representatives adjourned until 10 a.m. Friday, while the Idaho Senate adjourned until 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Legislators hoped to wrap up all of their work Thursday. But just before 7 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, said the Senate was short on staff and the paperwork and procedural work necessary to wrap up would have taxed the staff and kept everyone at the Statehouse way too late.
Moments later, House Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, said the House hopes to finish its work Friday, but House members may need to work into the afternoon.
'Hopefully we'll be able to finish it all up tomorrow,' Monks said Thursday night.
To move closer to adjournment, legislators passed many of the unresolved agency budgets over the course of about 12 hours Thursday.
The Idaho Senate kicked off the action Thursday morning by unanimously passing a key fiscal year 2026 natural resources maintenance of operations budget that the Senate had retained on its calendar for a month without taking action.
The natural resources budget, House Bill 248, was the last of 10 maintenance of operations budgets that needed to pass both chambers of the Idaho Legislature. The Idaho House of Representatives had already passed the natural resources budget back on Feb. 20.
By Thursday afternoon, the House picked up the budget-passing baton, passing key budgets for the Idaho Transportation Department, the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources and Idaho State Liquor Division — all three of which had previously failed.
Thursday's action by the Idaho Senate and Idaho House to pass many of the final budgets built upon the momentum JFAC generated a day earlier by rewriting the final failed budget enhancements and sending those rewritten budgets on to the Idaho House and Idaho Senate.
During a break in the action Thursday, Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, provided a summary of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Horman said the full budget represents a 6.7% increase over the current budget, with 5% of the increase accounted for in the maintenance of operations budgets.
Horman said legislators are leaving a $400 million ending balance, in case of an economic downturn.
'We have work that we can all be proud of, because we have been able to fund essential governance services while returning as much money to the taxpayer as possible in setting a balanced budget,' Horman said.
Thursday was the 88th day of the 2025 legislative session, which gaveled in back on Jan. 6.
There is no requirement to adjourn legislative sessions by any certain date.
Most legislative sessions run for about 80 to 90 days.
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