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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
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Idaho state revenues lag nearly $100 million behind Legislature's projections
The rotunda at the Idaho Capitol in Boise on Jan.17, 2022. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun) Through April, state revenues are $97.7 million below the Idaho Legislature's forecast for the current 2025 fiscal year, according to a new monthly revenue report released by the Idaho Legislative Services Office. Although revenue collections are more than they were last year at this time, they are below the Idaho Legislature's forecast for the current fiscal year, according to the April edition of the Fiscal Year 2025 General Fund Budget Monitor report. That's important because the Idaho Legislature used the forecast in the state's 2025 fiscal year budget. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX When legislators left the Idaho State Capitol in Boise at the end of the 2025 session, they were forecasting to end the 2025 fiscal year on June 30 with a positive ending balance of $420.3 million. But just over a month later, the projected ending balance has shrunk to $322.7 million, according to the new budget monitor report. 'Thats why we left such a strong ending balance,' said Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as the co-chair of the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC. JFAC is a powerful legislative committee that sets every budget for every state agency and department. 'At the time we adjourned Sine Die there were questions about the impacts of tariffs, and we gave more tax relief than the governor proposed,' Horman added, using the Latin phrase Sine Die that signifies the annual legislative session has ended for the year 'We wanted to make sure we had a cushion there to cover us – not only through the end of this fiscal year, but also carrying over to start FY26, and that's what we did.' 'At this time, we are still very well positioned moving into the next fiscal year,' Horman said. Idaho's budget runs on a calendar where fiscal year 2025 ends June 30 and fiscal year 2026 begins July 1. For fiscal year 2025, the Idaho Legislature adopted a revenue figure that was $42.1 million higher than the revenue projection Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho Division of Financial Management issued. Sales tax distributions appear to be a major driving factor in the revenue picture. The state's April revenue report indicates sales tax distributions to the state's general fund are $95.6 million less than last year. In a written statement Tuesday, Idaho Division of Financial Management Administrator Lori Wolff said she does not foresee the need for any holdbacks in the current budget. With the April revenue numbers coming in, Wolff said the state is still within 1% of its revenue projections. 'The governor and the Legislature left $400 million on the bottom line as cushion, and we do not anticipate any holdbacks will be necessary for FY25,' Wolff wrote Tuesday. 'The Governor's Office and (Division of Financial Management) will continue to monitor revenue, but the strength of our economy combined with responsible budgeting do not create any significant concerns about the state budget at this time.' With only two months left in the 2025 fiscal year, it doesn't look like the state will have a problem finishing this year with a balanced budget. CONTACT US But Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, is worried that revenue cuts approved by legislators could lead the Idaho Legislature to cut funding for programs Idahoans depend on during next year's legislative session. 'It may cause some havoc; in the next session we may see the Legislature cutting things,' Wintrow said in a phone interview Tuesday. 'Overall what I am deeply disturbed by – and what we are seeing in revenue collections – is I don't think Gov. Little or the Idaho Legislature is keeping its promises to Idahoans,' Wintrow added. In addition to serving as the leader of the Democrats in the Idaho Senate, Wintrow is a member of the Legislature's budget committee, JFAC. During the 2025 legislative session, Idaho legislators cut taxes by about $400 million and provided an additional $50 million in a refundable tax credit for education expenses including tuition at a private, religious school. In a press conference Monday, Little said the state can afford the $400 million in tax cuts this year, but it's important to consider the future. To pay for the tax cuts and tax credits, legislators reduced revenue that is available for funding in the state budget by about $453 million. Some of the Idaho Legislature's laws, like 2024's House Bill 521, divert sales tax revenue away from the general fund and put it to other uses, like paying for school facilities or reducing other taxes. On Tuesday, Horman did say she is concerned about the sales tax revenue diverted away before it reaches the state general fund. She said she first spoke out about the issue a couple of years ago. 'There has been a concern as we continue to draw from gross sales tax revenues in a way that distributes them before they are appropriated that we need to be cautious that the percentage going to cities and counties doesn't get so out of balance that when the next recession hits they feel the worst of the brunt of reduced revenues,' Horman said. Wintrow is also concerned about diverting sales tax revenue before it reaches the general fund budget. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Instead of cutting income taxes and diverting sales tax revenue, Wintrow said legislators should push to increase funding for special education programs and increase pay for state employees. Between the revenue cuts and Republican legislators announcing a new Idaho Department of Government Efficiency task force that seeks to consolidate state agencies and reduce the number of state employees – an effort similar to the Trump administration's and Elon Musk's DOGE process –, Wintrow worries cuts to programs are coming next year. 'Its not very conservative to hack your revenue stream so hard it potentially puts us in a place where we may have to continue to whittle at the oak tree until it's a splinter,' Wintrow said. 'Many of us (Democrats), and some Republicans, really were raising the alarm bell on that, to cut revenue so deeply at a time when the economy is going haywire.' The new April budget monitor report isn't the first sign that revenues were lagging projections. Little's budget office released a preliminary revenue report in March that showed revenues were lagging behind state projections at that point. JFAC is scheduled to conduct interim committee meetings next week in Idaho Falls. JFAC members are scheduled to receive a general fund and budget update Monday. Budget and Revenue Monitor 10
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho legislative session marked by budget conflicts, ‘medical freedom,' tax cuts
Day after day inside Idaho's Capitol, a group of hardline conservative lawmakers calling themselves the 'Gang of 8' rejected dozens of proposed budgets this legislative session. They told fellow lawmakers that they wanted no new government employees, no federal money and limited spending. Meanwhile, the Legislature approved $450 million worth of new tax cuts, which will come out of the state's general fund every year. In interviews with the Idaho Statesman, several said their approach was at least partly inspired by President Donald Trump's cost-cutting actions. 'The DOGE phenomenon is sweeping across the nation,' said Sen. Joshua Kohl, R-Twin Falls, referring to the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency. 'We want to be part of that in Idaho. We want to truly be a leader in the conservative movement, really slashing the growth of government.' But the group's approach clashed with other lawmakers' desire to ensure government agencies had the funding they said they needed to perform their duties. 'I like to give the agencies what they need, within reason, and it doesn't feel to me like we were giving them their asks,' Rep. Marco Erickson, R-Idaho Falls, told the Statesman. These diverging philosophies were a key source of disagreement this legislative session, sparking fierce debate and contributing to the extension of the legislative session past its target end date. In a whirlwind of last-minute budget approvals, Idaho lawmakers Friday wrapped up this year's regular legislative session, three months marked by fierce debate over how to fund state agencies and departments. The adjournment date was two weeks past their goal of ending by March 21. 'Our job is to run the government and our state. So we have to pass budgets,' said Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston. 'This session probably killed more budgets than I can ever remember.' She said she wished lawmakers would use 'a pocket knife instead of a chainsaw to balance the budget,' she told the Statesman. Idaho lawmakers have long sought to keep budgets trim, but many this year invoked the idea of DOGE when rejecting budgets they deemed excessive, Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, D-Boise, told the Statesman. McCann attributed that in part to a growing number of far-right legislators joining the body. Those who wanted to cut agencies' budgets expressed distrust of the funds those agencies requested through the Legislature's powerful budget-setting group, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. The committee approves budget proposals before they move to the House and Senate floors. Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, who co-chairs the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, has said that lawmakers on JFAC have done their job of holding agencies accountable for the money. Horman on Thursday touted the work they accomplished on budgets. 'We have work that we can all be proud of,' Horman said on the floor. 'We have been able to fund essential government services while returning as much money to the taxpayer as possible.' In the last few days of the session, lawmakers also sped through approving a controversial measure that banned businesses and schools from requiring medical interventions, including vaccines and any action taken to prevent the spread of diseases. The first version of the proposal was the only bill Little vetoed so far this year. The bill would have converted the state's Coronavirus Stop Act into a broader 'Medical Freedom Act,' a law that prohibits businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, and bans requiring medical interventions and action taken to prevent the spread of disease. Little said the bill would have forbid schools and day cares from sending contagious children home. To override a veto, lawmakers must vote on the bill again and secure two-thirds majority support in both chambers. An attempt to do so for the 'medical freedom' bill failed in the Senate. Lawmakers then passed a new version of the bill that allows some exceptions for schools. When asked about a potential veto of the latest bill, Assistant Majority Leader Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, told reporters in a news conference that 'I think everyone's in agreement and the issues are resolved.' Little signed the bill into law 15 minutes after it arrived on his desk. Idaho Republicans ultimately accomplished passing several of their longstanding proposals, including the use of public funds for private school tuition, also known as school vouchers; cuts to the state's voter-approved Medicaid expansion; and the creation of a state crime for illegal entry, directing local police to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ACLU of Idaho immediately sued the state and temporarily blocked the immigration law from taking place. They continued on the body's streak of tax cuts, which Little has called 'historic,' with a measure on property tax relief, a reduction on income tax and an increase of the state's grocery tax credit. 'We did a really good job this year,' House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told reporters Friday. 'It was a good year for Idaho.' Lawmakers also said they tried to address Idaho's doctor shortage. After years of the state operating under one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, prompting an exodus of OB-GYNs, the Legislature passed a bill that would allow judges to dismiss frivolous lawsuits against medical professionals being sued for an illegal procedure. Susie Keller, CEO of the Idaho Medical Association, told the Statesman that the bill doesn't address doctors' concerns about liability. The law, which threatens doctors with up to five years in prison and loss of their medical license, allows abortions only in cases of reported rape or incest, ectopic pregnancies, or when saving the life of the pregnant patient. The narrow exemptions have created uncertainty and anxiety among doctors about what treatment is legally allowed, and when, Keller said. 'That's a high bar,' Keller previously told the Statesman. 'What I hear our doctors say is, 'How close to death does she have to be? Has she lost 10% of her blood? Has she lost (more)?'' Last year, Idaho lawmakers decided to shake up their budgeting approach. Going forward, budget committee members decided they would separate out 'maintenance' budgets to keep agency operations intact, then consider any funding above last year's in a separate supplemental budget bill. That approach, some told the Statesman, has created the impression that keeping budgets flat year over year is enough to keep agencies operating. For example, the members of the 'Gang of 8' have promised to reject any budget that exceeds 1% growth over baseline funding in an effort to keep government spending flat and save money. But the additional 'enhancement' funds that agencies request are often critical, lawmakers said — such as money requested in Senate Bill 1160 to replace 60 aging vehicles in the Department of Health and Welfare. 'Those cars are eventually going to have to be replaced, and they're just going to cost more money' in the future as costs rise, said Rep. Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley, who expressed disapproval of this and other examples of 'deferred maintenance' to keep budgets flat. A supplemental budget for the state's Liquor Division, similarly, faced repeated pushback in part over its inclusion of shrink wrap — which the division uses to streamline packaging and prevent theft. Items like these are 'mandatory to keep things going smoothly,' said Senate Minority Caucus Chair Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise. There was an 'internal battle' in the Legislature when it weighed this approach to budgeting last year, Erickson said, because of concerns that it would slow the process and block funding for important government functions. 'There were several of us who said this is going to happen,' he said. 'And that's what we've seen play out.' Idaho Democrats in a news conference said their party leaders are the ones who have stood up for Idaho values, in the face of irresponsible governing by the Republican Party. They touted standing up for health care and public schools, and in a news release criticized GOP infighting that 'brought chaos' to the budget-setting process. 'Republicans siphoned money needed for public education to subsidize private school tuition for the wealthy, they eliminated affordable housing funds, and actually managed to make our physician shortage worse, all while leaving us facing future revenue shortfalls,' Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said in the release. 'They have abandoned the values they once claimed to stand for: fiscal responsibility, local control and limited government. It is Idaho Democrats who champion these values.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
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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. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-03-2025
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Idaho Legislature's budget co-chair unsure when budgets will be ready to move forward
Idaho Legislature Budget and Policy Analyst France Lippett gives a presentation to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee at the State Capitol building on Jan. 23, 2024. JFAC co-chairs Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, (center) and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls (right) are leading the meeting. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun) The Idaho Legislature's powerful budget committee may have hit another speed bump Friday as legislators are attempting to wind down the 2025 legislative session. Legislative leaders set a nonbinding target date to adjourn the session next week on March 21. But any realistic hope of adjourning by March 21 has gone out the window. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, has not yet considered or set the largest budgets in the state – including the Medicaid budget and the public schools budgets. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX On Friday, JFAC co-chair Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, adjourned JFAC 'subject to the call of the chair' rather than adjourning until Monday like normal. Horman said JFAC may not meet on Monday, as it usually would, because budget motions may not be ready to be voted on by the committee. Friday was the 68th day of the 2025 legislative session, and legislators say they are waiting on JFAC to set the budget before adjourning the legislative session for the year. Last year, when Horman and JFAC co-Chairman Scott Grow, R-Eagle, announced major changes to JFACs budget and policy procedures, they said the new JFAC procedures would be more efficient and ensure all the budgets weren't coming forward at the end of the legislative session. However, this year, unfinished budgets threaten to extend the length of the legislative session. On Friday, Horman said JFAC needs to carve out time for the smaller work groups of JFAC members to meet. Work groups are small sub groups of the committee that are assigned to work on certain budget topics, like natural resources, education or health and human services. The work groups meet privately to develop budget motions to bring forward for all of JFAC to vote on. With JFAC daily meetings running right up until the Idaho Senate morning floor sessions this week, Horman said the work groups did not have much dedicated structured time to meet this week to develop budget motions. CONTACT US 'We have lost five hours of work group time this week due to the Senate going on the floor at 10 a.m.,' Horman said Friday. 'We are uncertain if we have any budgets that we can pass or even bring forward on Monday,' Horman said Friday. 'So we will consult with our staff following this meeting, but we will adjourn subject to call of the chair.' Grow also said the work groups need time to meet and develop consensus. 'We recognize the importance of these work groups,' Grow said. 'We are trying to get all the time we can, because if we lose a day voting, that just puts us back another day, potentially, longer before we can sine die.' Sine die is the Latin phrase legislators use when they adjourn the legislative session for the year without scheduling a day to reconvene. In an interview Friday, Horman said that even though she was unsure if JFAC could meet Monday or would even have budgets to consider, she is not shutting the committee down for the year. Horman told the Idaho Capital Sun that JFAC will reconvene next week to set budgets. 'Yes, it's call of the chair, simply because we don't know if we are meeting Monday or Tuesday,' Horman said. By Friday afternoon, several hours after Horman made her initial announcement, a potential path forward may have started to emerge. Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, announced the Idaho Senate would reconvene slightly later, at 10:30 a.m. Monday instead of 10 a.m. JFAC staffers also posted an agenda on the Idaho Legislature's website calling for JFAC to meet Monday morning. At noon on Friday, House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said he hopes the work groups find time to meet next week and that JFAC finishes setting all of the state budgets next week. Moyle said it generally takes two additional weeks after JFAC finishes setting budgets to wrap up the legislative session. But Moyle also warned there could be trouble coming even after JFAC sets the budgets. After JFAC sets all the budgets, those budgets are then sent to the floor of both the Idaho House and Idaho Senate, where they need to pass with a simple majority vote. 'There's some concerns with a lot of budgets too, which could keep us here longer, too,' Moyle told the Sun. 'Hopefully they've got a path (forward),' Moyle said. 'We visited last night. I think they've got a path to try to get those done (in JFAC) by the middle of next week. Hopefully we get that done, and we can get those budgets going to get out of here.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
03-03-2025
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Budgets are moving forward, but Idaho Legislature does not know how much money it has to spend
The door to the JFAC committee room at the Idaho State Capitol building is pictured on Jan. 6, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun) After eight full weeks in session, the Idaho Legislature still has not set a revenue projection to base the fiscal year 2026 budget around, despite the fact that legislators are moving forward with dozens of budgets and major tax cutting bills. The Idaho Constitution requires the Idaho Legislature to set a balanced budget where expenses do not exceed revenues. The Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, discussed revenue projections during the second week of the legislative session. But on Jan. 16, JFAC voted down two different revenue projections and decided to set revenues at a later date. JFAC is a powerful legislative committee that meets daily to set all the budgets for every state agency and department. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Legislators wrapped up their eighth week in session on Friday and still had not set a revenue target. On Feb. 20, Rep. Wendy Horman, the Idaho Falls Republican who serves as co-chair of JFAC, told the Idaho Capital Sun that she hopes JFAC will set a revenue target sooner rather than later. 'The House is ready to move, the Senate is not and that's why there is a holdup,' Horman said Feb. 20. When the Sun asked Horman on Friday for an update on where discussions about the revenue projection stand, Horman said the House members serving on JFAC may move forward even if the Senate members serving on JFAC are not ready. 'House Appropriations can find a way to meet separately to adopt a revenue number if the Senate is unwilling to take it up as a joint committee,' Horman told the Sun Friday afternoon. Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, who is the other co-chairman of JFAC, told the Sun late Friday afternoon he has not heard any discussion of House members voting separately on a revenue figure. 'There's been no discussion really on that, and it's the kind of thing that, with a joint committee, you always try to do things jointly,' Grow said in a phone interview. 'There have been differences of opinion on the House and the Senate between the (revenue) numbers, and so we're trying to work with individuals and see if we can get people to come together, because that's always the best way to make things happen – get agreement.' Grow said JFAC was slowed down for a few weeks earlier in the session when the committee couldn't agree on raises for state employees. JFAC did eventually agree on raises for state employees on Feb. 6, but Grow said the slowdown also delayed action on setting a revenue projection. Grow told the Sun he hopes JFAC will agree on a revenue projection by March 7. 'I would love it if we could get it by next Friday,' Grow said. 'Friday might be the day that it could happen, because we're just doing budget setting, that kind of thing, on Friday.' Unlike most committees in the Idaho Legislature, JFAC includes 10 members each from the Idaho House and Idaho Senate. Most other committees, such as the House Education Committee, only include members from one legislative chamber. Until about two years ago, JFAC voted as one joint committee. It required a simple majority of votes (11 members out of 20 if all JFAC members were physically present) to pass a budget or motion. But leading up to the 2024 legislative session, Horman and Grow unveiled a series of major changes to JFAC's budget and meeting procedures. Now, budgets are separated into different parts referred to as maintenance of operations budgets and budget enhancements. JFAC's daily meeting schedule has been reconfigured to include shorter daily public meetings and the addition of smaller working groups of JFAC members who meet regularly in private to draft budgets and craft motions. Another major JFAC change has to do with how votes are counted. Instead of passing with a simple majority vote among all 20 members, budgets and motions need to pass with a majority of support from both the 10 JFAC members serving in the House and also the 10 JFAC members serving in the Senate. Horman said the change ensures there is support from both House members and Senate members before budgets advance to the floor of the full House or Senate. Grow said it takes six legislators from each chamber to constitute a majority, regardless of how many legislators are present and voting. Changing the way votes are counted means that smaller groups of JFAC members can work together to kill budgets or motions before they reach the floor. Now, any five JFAC members from the House or any five JFAC members from the Senate can team up to kill a budget or motion. Before JFAC's changes were launched, it took 10 members in JFAC to kill a budget or motion if everyone was present. The impact of the voting rule change became clear during Friday's JFAC meeting, when the committee considered more than 20 budget enhancements, supplemental funding requests or technical changes. Three senators serving on JFAC – Sens. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg; Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls; and Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins – voted against multiple budget enhancements or supplemental funding requests. Then Sens. Cody Galloway, R-Boise, and Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d'Alene, joined Hart, Zuiderveld and Carlson, in voting against a $1 million request for body-worn cameras for the Idaho Department of Correction. Those five senators prevented the request to pay for body-worn cameras from receiving majority support among Senate members on JFAC, which resulted in a tied 5-5 vote in the Senate, even though House members on JFAC voted 7-3 to approve the body-worn cameras. Under JFAC procedures in place before 2023, the request for body-worn cameras would have passed 12-8, but Friday it failed to receive a majority and was then sent to the Idaho Senate – the body where it failed to receive majority support. Things became even more confusing Friday when Grow stepped out of JFAC for several minutes and was absent for a handful of votes. Grow told the Sun he stopped out to present a bill in another committee. He then returned to JFAC a short time later. But while Grow was away and not able to vote, Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d'Alene, joined Hart, Zuiderveld and Carlson in voting against the $2.5 million Idaho Department of Correction community corrections budget for fiscal year 2026. Even though the vote among JFAC senators was 5-4 in favor of the community correction budget, legislative staffers announced the budget failed to receive majority support. Grow told the Sun that is because it did not receive support from the majority of senators serving on JFAC, which is six. It wasn't enough that a majority of senators physically present in the room voted to pass it. The community correction budget was then sent to the Senate because that is the body where it failed to receive majority support. Grow said it will be up to the Republican Senate leadership team to decide what becomes of the budget requests that failed to receive majority support among Senate JFAC members. When the votes for all the senators and House members serving on JFAC were tallied, the vote on the community correction budget was 14-5 in favor, but it didn't matter. It still failed to receive majority support from the 10 Senate members on JFAC. Grow told the Sun that it takes six votes to constitute a majority among both senators and House members on JFAC, regardless of how many members are physically present. Grow said the process has been in place for a couple of years. JFAC members – or members of Republican legislative leadership teams – have also disagreed over rules that govern JFAC, so JFAC has not published official rules outlining the committee's procedures and rules. Horman has told the Sun that JFAC instead operates under precedent. May Roberts, a policy analyst with the nonpartisan Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, said it is unusual that legislators are moving forward setting the 2026 budget and proposing tax cuts that reduce revenue without first having a revenue projection in place. 'It's usually set at the beginning of the legislative session, because that is what they will be budgeting against when they set the budget,' Roberts said in a phone interview. 'It's very unusual that decisions would be made without a revenue target in place. It feels a little like putting the cart before the horse making those decisions without having a revenue target in place.' In a Feb. 20 interview at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, Rep. Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, also said it is unusual not to have a revenue target in place. To put the issue in context, Furniss described things in terms of a household family budget. Furniss told the Sun he would never make large personal purchases or financial commitments, like signing a lease or paying for home repairs, without first knowing how much money he has available to spend. 'It sets a limit on the amount that we can spend, and so just like in your household, you wouldn't go out and spend a bunch of money and then set your income limit (afterwards),' Furniss said. 'That's really the same concept that we have in the state, and we just need to set that so we know where it's at.' Roberts, who specializes in the areas of taxes, revenue and budgets, said the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, strives to provide the public with transparent information about the budget decisions that Idaho elected officials make. But without a revenue target, Roberts said it's more difficult to track how the budget is shaping up or how much more money is available to spend. 'Our mission is to produce accurate information and analysis to inform the public about decisions that impact Idahoans,' Roberts said. 'That kind of analysis is hard to provide when we don't have a baseline to match it to.' While there is not yet a revenue projection in place, Gov. Brad Little is concerned about the magnitude of tax cuts proposed by the Idaho Legislature and the amount of revenue those tax cuts would reduce. In his Jan. 6 State of the State address, Little called for setting aside $100 million for tax cuts. CONTACT US But Republican legislative leaders have proposed more than $400 million in tax cuts through a combination of bills that reduce income tax rates for individuals and corporations, increase the so-called grocery tax credit to offset the sales tax Idahoans pay on food and shift money to funds used to reduce homeowners property taxes and pay for public school facilities. House Bill 40, lowers the individual and corporate income tax and reduces state revenue by $253 million. House Bill 304, shifts money to a state property tax reduction fund and a fund to pay for school facilities, reducing state revenue by $100 million. House Bill 231, increases the so-called grocery tax credit to offset the sales tax Idahoans pay for food, reducing state revenue by $50 million. Each of those three bills reduce the amount of taxes Idahoans or Idaho corporations pay, but to do so they reduce revenue that would be available to the state for its budget. Another bill, House Bill 93, which Little signed into law Thursday, provides Idaho families with a refundable tax credit for education expenses, including tuition at private, religious schools. That bill reduces state revenue by $50 million, bringing the total revenue reductions for those four bills to $453 million. During a breakfast meeting Tuesday, Little told reporters he doesn't think the state has enough money to do it all and still pass a balanced budget where expenses don't exceed revenues. 'I love the signal that every year in Idaho your tax burden is going to get less, but you've got to temper that with all those other things,' Little said Tuesday. 'If I would have thought we could do $450 (million in tax cuts), I would have proposed $450 (million),' Little said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
