Idaho Legislature's budget committee rewrites final failed budgets
The Idaho Legislature's powerful budget committee redrafted two failed budgets on Wednesday afternoon and sent signals that a potential compromise or deal had been reached.
But less than two hours after the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, redrafted those two budgets, the Idaho House of Representatives killed a different budget – House Bill 475, one of the public school budget enhancements.
All the budget back-and-forth is a telling signal of where the Idaho Legislature found itself Wednesday: 87 days into a contentious session where mainstream Republicans and Democrats in the minority are having to fight tooth-and-nail against hardline conservatives to pass budgets.
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During a rare afternoon meeting – and its second meeting of the day Wednesday – the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee drafted failed budgets for the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources and Idaho Transportation Department.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, sets every budget for every state agency and department and then sends those budgets to the full Idaho House of Representatives and Idaho Senate for consideration.
The Idaho Senate killed earlier versions of both budgets in recent days.
The Senate killed an earlier version of the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources budget, Senate Bill 1191, on Friday. Senators then killed an earlier version of the Idaho Transportation Department budget, Senate Bill 1205, on Tuesday.
However, after changes were made both budgets made it through JFAC on Wednesday without incident or serious opposition – signaling that legislators may have reached some sort of compromise that could eventually pave the way for them to pass the remaining unfinished budgets and adjourn the legislative session for the year.
'Our hope is that this will be our last JFAC meeting, unless either the House or the Senate kills something and we might have to come back,' said Sen. Scott Grow, an Eagle Republican who serves as the co-chair of JFAC.
Some JFAC members themselves even spoke openly of a compromise during Wednesday afternoon's meeting.
'I would like to congratulate the committee, because the definition of compromise is when everybody's unhappy, and I think we achieved that – except for the good chairman (Grow),' said Rep. Steven Miller, R-Fairfield. 'We have a different Legislature than we've had before. We've got a different committee than we've had before, and so we're going to learn how to compromise and learn how to work ourselves through that process and to do it civilly and understand that there's times that you feel things so passionately about, this is very difficult to let go of that.'
Grow also spoke of negotiation and compromise.
'I always hope we're trying to do more good than bad, and that's our objective,' Grow said. 'I think we've accomplished that as people have negotiated. (There's) been a lot of back and forth, a lot of strong feelings. But I feel that everybody has acted civilly, respectfully. So we commend the committee for the great work you've done and the great attitude in which you've done the work.'
In the new Idaho Transportation Department budget, JFAC members removed budget intent language that the Idaho Senate objected to Tuesday night when it killed the earlier budget in a lopsided 3-31 vote. Budget writers also reduced funding for Idaho Transportation Department divisions by $100.
For the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources budget, JFAC zeroed out a $481,000 request from Gov. Brad Little to create a SPEED Council to expedite the review of permits for large scale projects like mines or energy transmission lines.
For the second time, JFAC also refused to accept $24.6 million in federal grant funding to provide Home Energy Rebates Program rebates to Idahoans who buy new appliances or increase the efficiency of their home. Idahoans could have accessed a total of $80.1 million in federal funding for the rebates through 2031, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. But once again, JFAC refused. State budget analysts told JFAC members that if Idaho passes up the federal funding, the money will go to other states participating in the program – the money won't be available to cut taxes or reduce the federal budget deficit.
Rep. James Petzke, R-Meridian, voted for the budget because he said it needs to pass and be finished. But Petzke said he is disappointed by walking away from the funding, and that he hopes Idaho residents speak out against the Legislature for doing so.
'We're basically giving up tens of millions of dollars that could have gone into Idaho's economy,' Petzke said. 'And it's not going to. It's going to go to other states instead. And that's extremely disappointing. But it's where we're at right now as a body, it seems. And so I hope that people are upset about that and let us know, because I think that this is unfortunate for Idaho's economy.'
Both the Idaho Department of Labor budget and the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources budgets still need to pass the full Idaho House and Idaho Senate in order to take effect.
Wednesday marked the 87th day of the 2025 legislative session. Legislators already missed their nonbinding target date to adjourn the session for the year March 21. Most Idaho legislative sessions run for about 80-90 days, although there is no requirement to adjourn by a certain date.
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