Idaho Legislature committee prepares to set FY 2025 state budget with new procedures

The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee took its first steps toward operating under new procedures during the committee’s first meeting of the new 2024 legislative session Tuesday.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, often referred to as JFAC, is responsible for setting each element of the state budget. 

This session, JFAC’s co-chairs are changing several of their budgeting procedures, including shortening the public portion of the committee’s daily meeting from about three hours down to about 90 minutes. 

This year, the committee is also elevating the role of auditing in the budget process and imposing new spending caps designed to leave funding available for new initiatives that legislators propose that are not included in Gov. Brad Little’s budget request. 

JFAC members are also separating out new spending requests from “maintenance of operations budgets” in the budget setting process.

Aside from the length of the public portion of daily meetings changing, JFAC is also changing its Friday schedules, beginning Jan. 26. JFAC members will set aside their Friday meetings to actually set the budgets the committee discussed during the previous two weeks of meetings. That breaks from the last several years of tradition where JFAC members conducted budget hearings for each state agency during the first half of an annual legislative session and then didn’t begin actually setting budgets until all of the budget hearings were completed.

“We’re hoping that will also expedite the whole process here in the Legislature,” JFAC co-chair Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, told the committee Tuesday.

Grow said when JFC doesn’t begin budget setting until the second half of a legislative session, that results in a logjam of more than 100 budget bills backing up on the House or Senate floor late in the session.

“When you’re hearing approximately 100 budgets in a two-week time frame, it seems like that is all you’re hearing at the end,” Grow added. “That can get monotonous and repetitive for our fellow legislators. So we think by moving this budget setting up earlier we can start the flow of bills out to the House and Senate earlier in the session.”

Idaho Democrat expresses concerns over new budget procedures

On Monday, Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, who serves on JFAC, told reporters she has concerns about JFAC’s new working procedures. 

“I’m also very concerned about the transparency,” Ward-Engelking told reporters at a Democratic press conference Monday. “We’re cutting the amount of time for presentations in JFAC by about half. And so I’m worried the public isn’t going to have the same information. It’s not going to be as transparent, those questions that we now have to ask the (agency) directors on our own time or by meeting with them personally will not be in the public record, so that is a concern for me.”

Ward-Engelking also told reporters that previously, JFAC members could work on any budgets they preferred. This year, Ward-Engelking said JFAC members will be assigned to working groups that work on specific budgets. JFAC members would need to find time on their own outside of the working groups to work on other budgets they aren’t assigned to, Ward-Engelking said.

On Tuesday, JFAC didn’t yet break into the smaller, private working groups that will meet behind closed doors each day once the public portion of JFAC’s meetings conclude. But the working groups may meet Thursday, based on JFAC’s posted online schedule. 

Idaho House Democrats reassign their representative to JFAC

During Tuesday’s Idaho House of Representatives floor session, officials announced another change for JFAC. Rep. Colin Nash, D-Boise, is leaving JFAC and being replaced on the committee by Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise. Green previously served on JFAC, but Nash stepped in for Green in 2023 while Green cared for her newborn son. 

House Democrats only have one seat on JFAC because House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, took away one of the Democrats’ seats on JFAC last year after Moyle said he felt Democrats were overrepresented on the committee. There are now nine House Republicans serving on JFAC and one House Democrat. There are also eight Senate Republicans on JFAC and two Senate Democrats, leaving the overall balance of power on JFAC at 17 Republicans to three Democrats.

Tuesdays was the second day of the 2024 Idaho legislative session

JFAC members did not set any budgets or take any votes Tuesday. The committee will continue meeting at 8 a.m. each weekday during the legislative session. 

• On Wednesday, JFAC members will receive a briefing on the fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025 budgets and review Idaho laws governing the budget process. 
• On Thursday, JFAC members will study audits conducted by the Legislative Services Office, with Grow telling legislators the committee will apply close scrutiny to any uncorrected audit findings. 
• On Friday, JFAC members will close out the week by reviewing what JFAC co-chairs are calling “maintenance of operations” budgets. Grow described maintenance budgets as bare bones budgets necessary to keep the lights on. JFAC will essentially consider last year’s budgets without any new funding requests as part of the maintenance budgets first, and then consider new funding requests, spending increases and proposed line items in separate budgets later in the session, Grow said.