Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee chairman C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, listens to a presentation from Legislative Services Office Division Manager Keith Bybee during the committee’s Jan. 7, 2025, meeting at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
Idaho legislators, who will soon begin setting the next year’s state budget, conducted their first meeting of the new legislative session Tuesday in Boise.
The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, is a powerful legislative committee that meets daily during the legislative session and sets all of the budgets for every state agency and department.
There are 20 legislators serving on JFAC – 10 each from the Idaho House and Idaho Senate. Nine of JFAC’s 20 members did not serve on the committee last year.
The Idaho Constitution requires that legislators set a balanced budget for state agencies where expenses do not exceed revenues.
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JFAC members did not set any budgets Tuesday. Instead, committee members prepared to start setting budgets by reviewing the fiscal year 2026 budget recommendations Gov. Brad Little proposed with his State of the State address on Monday.
In conjunction with his State of the State address, Little released a proposed fiscal year 2026 budget on Monday. The budget proposal includes $5.2 billion in general fund expenditures, a 4.6% increase from the current budget.
Little’s budget proposal leaves a $200 million ending balance at the end of the fiscal year and a record $1.4 billion saved in state rainy day funds.
The Idaho Legislature actually sets the state budget each year, so Little will have to work with legislators in order to enact any budget priorities.
JFAC members also reviewed the budget procedure changes from last year and their schedules for hearing and setting budgets.
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Idaho’s budget-setting committee will retain same procedures established last year
Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as JFAC co-chair, said JFAC will operate under the same procedures as last year. The chairperson of JFAC will alternate between her and Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, each day. Budgets will be split up between maintenance budgets and budget enhancements. And in order to pass JFAC, all budgets must receive a majority of votes from both the 10 Senate members serving on JFAC and the 10 House members on JFAC. If a budget fails to receive both majorities it will be retained in the committee and may be rewritten.
Horman and Grow said leaders of the Idaho House and Idaho Senate disagree over some of the rules governing JFAC voting procedures and are now operating using precedents from last year.
At any rate, the first big budget action is scheduled for Jan. 17, when JFAC members will set the so-called maintenance budgets for all state agencies for fiscal year 2026. Horman and Grow describe maintenance budgets as a version of last year’s budgets, with all of the one-time funding removed, that are designed just to keep the lights on for the state government. All requests for new funding are considered separately as budget enhancements.
Budget hearings for the two largest state budgets are scheduled for March.
The public schools budget hearing is scheduled for March 4, while the Medicaid hearing is planned for March 5.
JFAC’s schedule calls for setting the last budget enhancements March 12.
There was one lineup change announced Tuesday in JFAC. Rep. Soñia Galaviz, D-Boise, will substitute for Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, on the committee.
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