Latest news with #JFAC
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislators tour Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research facilities as lab plans new reactors
Idaho state Rep. Steven Miller, R-Fairfield, looks through protective glass into a hot room while touring facilities at Idaho National Laboratory in southern Idaho. (Photo courtesy of the Idaho National Laboratory) IDAHO FALLS – Members of the Idaho Legislature's budget committee toured Idaho National Laboratory research facilities Wednesday as the lab is in the process of building its first new nuclear reactors in 50 years. Some of INL's top officials told the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee they expected the next four years to usher in a new nuclear renaissance that INL will be at the center of. 'It's really intended to get INL back into the role of building and operating new reactors on site and supply chains that need to be exercised, getting us back into design and then ultimately building them and operating them,' INL Deputy Director Todd Combs said. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, is a powerful legislative committee that sets all of the budgets for every state agency and department. JFAC's tour included stops at Idaho National Laboratory's Research and Education Campus located in Idaho Falls as well as the Hot Fuel Examination Facility and the Sample Preparation Laboratory located at the Materials and Fuels Complex. The Materials and Fuels Complex is part of a vast 890 square-mile research complex located in the desert west of Idaho Falls that is often referred to simply as 'the site.' INL currently operates four nuclear reactors and is considered the country's leading nuclear energy research and development national laboratory. But Combs told JFAC members INL does a lot more than nuclear energy and fuels research. INL researchers and staff also focus on cyber security, electric vehicle infrastructure, artificial intelligence, or AI, homeland security and defense. INL has built armor for the Abrams tanks and conducted research into vulnerabilities in the electric grid and how to combat those vulnerabilities. INL teams have conducted research on electric vehicle infrastructure like charging stations and built the system that powered the Mars Perseverance rover. 'One might ask, how does this align currently with what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish?' Combs said. 'And if you look at executive orders like Unleashing American Energy, and if you look at Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright), his initial memo, and everything he's been talking about since he took over as secretary of energy, we fall right in line with what they're trying to accomplish.' INL celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, and Combs told legislators the lab is growing and ramping up research and operations. Since 2017, INL has grown from about 3,750 employees to 6,500 employees today. Since what is now known as INL was founded in 1949, 52 reactors have been built and demonstrated on the site, Combs said. INL currently operates four nuclear reactors, but the lab is in the process of building its first new reactors in 50 years. 'We've got a number of projects right now over the next decade that are coming online as well that are going to be reactors, 53 and 54 and beyond,' Combs said. INL made headlines last month when state officials and Department of Energy officials announced a waiver to a 1995 nuclear waste settlement agreement that allows for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho for research at INL. A waiver was necessary because the 1995 settlement agreement called for limiting new shipments of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho and removing certain types of spent nuclear fuel in order to prevent the state from becoming a dumping ground for the nation's spent nuclear fuel. Although the Idaho Legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session on April 4 and is not in session now, JFAC regularly conducts interim meetings to keep an eye on the state budget and learn about how different agencies and organizations spend the money that JFAC approves in the budget every year. 'I've never been out there (to INL's site),' Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said. 'Born and raised in Idaho. You would think I would have (visited before), but no. I loved it, and it was fascinating. The thing that really grabbed me was they did so much more than just the nuclear energy. I had no idea about the tanks and all that kind of stuff they're doing, and the AI. It's just cutting-edge scientific stuff going on out there.' CONTACT US 'It's good, I think, for the whole JFAC bench to get a chance to see that and to see we've been involved in buying buildings (that INL uses),' Grow added. 'The state is involved in this, even though we tend to think that it's a federal (facility).' A clear highlight for several JFAC members was entering a hot room at the Sample Preparation Laboratory that is under construction at the site. There isn't yet any nuclear material in the hot room because it is under construction. But once nuclear materials enter the facility, the public won't be able to enter the hot room that JFAC members entered Wednesday. Legislators did not vote on any bills or budgets during the three-day interim meeting tour. The tour kicked off Monday at College of Eastern Idaho, where two health care officials told legislators that Idaho's near total abortion ban has caused OB-GYNs and other medical professionals to leave the state. JFAC members may conduct a fall interim tour this year as well, although a legislative staffer told the Idaho Capital Sun on Wednesday that plans are not finalized. The next regular session of the Idaho Legislature is scheduled to begin in January. Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as a JFAC co-chair with Grow, said the entire three-day spring tour was valuable. Horman said the tour gave legislators who normally work out of the Idaho State Capitol in Boise a rare opportunity to get a closer look at important facilities and programs located in eastern Idaho that they might not have otherwise seen. 'I was so proud to see the way our community here welcomes legislators from across the state, and wanted to share with us the great things they're doing to help the citizens of Idaho,' Horman said. An Idaho Capita Sun reporter participated in the entirety of Wednesday's tour of INL facilities, and the reporter agreed not to take any photos, in accordance with INL's photo policy. Instead, an INL photographer documented the JFAC tour. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho now has a powerful mini-legislature within its official Legislature
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, the Idaho Legislature's powerful budget committee, meets daily during the legislative session. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Idahoans can breathe a sigh of relief now that the Legislature has folded its tent and gone home. The bright side of this year's session is that it could have been worse. The session lasted two weeks longer than expected, costing taxpayers about $20,000-$30,000 per day. The main reason for the delay was the inability of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) to finalize budgets for state programs. JFAC set many budgets even before it knew how much revenue would be available, and it then squandered time figuring out how to operate without defined procedural rules. Without a guiding script, Idaho Legislature's budget committee strays from voting procedures Adding to the delay was JFAC's decision to ignore the constitutional order of setting budgets. Since statehood, general legislation, which establishes state laws, was the job of the entire Legislature. Committees hold hearings, take testimony and produce bills for debate in both houses before sending them to the governor. JFAC's job has been confined to providing the funding to finance the programs established through that policy-making process. However, in recent years JFAC has had the nerve to set itself up as a mini-legislature within the official Legislature. That is, to fund legislative policies with appropriation bills but also to set its own policies with 'intent language' in the bills. JFAC co-chair, Rep. Wendy Horman, justified the committee's use of policy-making intent language, claiming it is the committee's job to set 'conditions, limitations and restrictions' on spending. She said, 'it is the job of JFAC to set fiscal policy.' The Idaho Constitution would disagree. Appropriation bills are to fund the government, not to set state policy. Several JFAC members have raised legitimate concerns. Sen. Julie VanOrden said the use of intent language to set policy skirts the public vetting process and is 'a real abuse of power.' Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking correctly observed that JFAC is 'a budgeting committee, it's not a policy committee.' JFAC's constitutionally improper policy-making has created memorable problems in the past. In the 2022 session, JFAC put intent language in House Bill 764, saying that federal money designed to make up for pandemic-related learning loss was to serve 'school-aged participants ages 5 through 13 years.' When about 80 legitimate schools and child care centers received grants, the extreme-right outrage machine swung into action, claiming fraud and abuse because some kids under 5 might have benefited from the federal money, which federal guidelines allowed. That resulted in a flurry of pointless legal actions and investigations, which ended up costing the state way more than the miniscule amount that may have been incidentally spent on kids under 5. In 2024, JFAC put intent language in House Bill 770, the funding bill for the Department of Transportation, that killed a favorable sale of the bedraggled transportation department building on State Street in Boise. The restriction resulted in litigation and will end up costing the state millions trying to renovate an outdated building that will be an unusable money pit. This year, JFAC has picked up the pace of its unlawful policy-making. In House Bill 459, the Department of Labor appropriation bill, the mini-legislature required the preparation of several reports, including one requiring 'an analysis of the impact of illegal immigration on the state's labor market and the potential costs and benefits of using E-Verify.' This should be done through legislative action, not in the funding process. Senate Bill 1209 calls for several legislative items. Among other things, Section 4 requires Idaho State University to lead any negotiations toward acquisition of the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine. Section 6 requires the State Board of Education to develop a new outcomes-based funding model for Idaho's colleges and universities. Section 7 requires audits of state institutions of higher learning for compliance with Idaho's ill-defined diversity, equity and inclusion laws. In essence, the DEI laws prohibit many of the virtues that Jesus taught in the New Testament. Senate Bill 1196, requires the Idaho Commission for Libraries to report on compliance by state and school libraries with Idaho book ban laws. There are a number of other similar policy-making bills the JFAC mini-legislature churned out this session, but the list is too lengthy to lay out here. It is high time for JFAC leadership to establish procedural rules to expedite the funding of programs enacted through the established legislative process. More important, however, is that the committee get back into its proper lane of setting budgets, rather than establishing state policy. If not, it may be necessary for those affected by its improper policy-making to institute court proceedings to get JFAC to comply with its limited duty of funding programs enacted by the official Legislature. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho Legislature's budget committee rewrites final failed budgets
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) 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. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 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. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho Legislature's budget committee seeks $2M funding cut for Boise State, University of Idaho
Idaho state Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, (left) shakes the hand of state Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, (right) during the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meeting on Jan. 7, 2025, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. Also pictured is Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow (center). (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) The Idaho Legislature's budget committee is attempting to cut $2 million in ongoing general fund money from both Boise State University and the University of Idaho. A divided Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, on Tuesday took up the fiscal year 2026 budget enhancements for the state's colleges and universities. JFAC sets every budget for every state agency and department. The higher education budget was one of the final large budgets JFAC has set during the 2025 legislative session as legislators seek to wind down the session. Rep. Elaine Price, R-Coeur d'Alene, led the effort to reduce the funding for Boise State University and University of Idaho. Price, who has an accounting associate degree from North Idaho College, and JFAC did not make corresponding reductions to Idaho State University or any of the state's other colleges. When asked for an explanation of the cuts, Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, said he was concerned the two universities were incorporating elements of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, into programs despite the state prohibiting colleges and universities from using state money for such programs. 'I've had a real tough time with universities,' Tanner, a graduate of Boise State, said. 'The more I dig in, the more frustrated I actually get. The more I actually look into – whether you look into the DEI aspects, critical race theory, the actual professors and some of the classes that are actually being taught – it saddens me to see the direction that our universities have taken.' Rep. James Petzke, R-Meridian, a Boise State and Harvard Extension School grad, and Sen. Codi Galloway, R-Boise, who attended Brigham Young University for undergrad and Northwest Nazarene University for her graduate degree, attempted to push back against the $2 million cuts and the suggestion universities were using state money on DEI programs. 'If this is related to DEI, I guess I'm a little bit confused, because there's been language in the university's budget the last couple of years that has specifically prohibited the universities from using any state appropriated funds on anything DEI related,' Petzke said. 'So this reduction would not impact any DEI programs that were at the universities, which to my knowledge, have all been eliminated thanks to the State Board's actions.' Galloway was even more outspoken. Galloway said she had concerns about the use of DEI programs several years ago. But Galloway said college and university officials and the State Board of Education have made changes to restrict and eliminate DEI programs. 'I would argue now, today, that there has been a course change, there's been a correction, and it's not over, and there's more to be done,' Galloway said. 'But if we continue to punish and be punitive to our universities, we lose our negotiating power. We cannot ask people to make change, watch them make change and then continue to punish them. That is not how it works in negotiations. That is not how it works in the real business world.' Galloway warned that continuing to punish universities after they make changes could backfire. 'The money here is not very important,' Galloway continued. '$2 million, when you take the balance out, the money is small. A message we send is big. If we ask our agencies to make changes, they make significant changes and we refuse to change course with them, then our power of the purse is no longer relevant. They have no reason to listen to us or to make accommodations, because it doesn't matter.' Galloway pushed unsuccessfully to pass the higher education budget without cutting funding from Boise State and the University of Idaho, but it failed on votes of 5-5 among Senate JFAC members and 5-5 among House members. Price's motion to cut $2 million in funding from both universities also produced a 5-5 vote among the Senate JFAC members, but House JFAC members voted 8-2 to support it, yielding a 13-7 vote among all of JFAC. Without formal published rules in place, JFAC co-chairs Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, have different interpretations of JFACs voting procedures, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. In adherence to the Senate interpretation of JFAC voting procedures that Grow supports, Grow sent the colleges and universities budget with the funding cuts to the Idaho Senate on Tuesday because that is the legislative chamber where it failed to achieve a majority vote. It will be up to Senate Republican leaders to decide what to do with the budget. The higher education budget provides funding for more than just Boise State University and University of Idaho. The higher education budget provides funding for all of Idaho's public universities and community colleges. Compared to the current fiscal year 2025 budget, the fiscal year 2026 higher education budget JFAC set Tuesday includes an increase of $3.2 million in total funding, and a 5.6% increase from the current budget. The higher education budget will be sent next to the Idaho Senate for consideration. In order for the budget to take effect, it must pass the Idaho Senate and Idaho House of Representatives with a simple majority of votes in each legislative chamber and not be vetoed by Gov. Brad Little. JFAC is scheduled to reconvene at 8 a.m. on Wednesday to resume setting budgets. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
