State lawmakers are constitutionally required each year to set a balanced budget where expenses do not exceed revenues. Following a new process in recent legislative sessions, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has created basic “maintenance” budgets that extend existing spending into the next fiscal year. A follow-up “enhancement” budget then covers any new spending requested by the agencies.
The Idaho Legislature missed its target adjournment date of March 21, 2025, in the face of budget-writing delays as well as disagreements about voting procedures between the two sides of the joint committee.
After the committee members set the details, it takes staff time to assemble those elements into a bill.
“As we are voting on some of these budgets now, and getting them sent out to the House and Senate, they’re not progressing as fast as we’d like,” Senate Finance vice chair Sen. Jim Woodward told Idaho Reports. “There’s some hold up in the Legislative Services Office drafting. Not a fault of their own, but just due to the sheer volume [of bills]. If you’ve seen the numbers this year, we’re way over our average.”
The Senate has one more maintenance budget to approve. JFAC has redrafted the enhancement budgets that were voted down in one chamber or the other, and co-chair Rep. Wendy Horman told Idaho Reports they plan to pass an enhancement bill for every agency even if it ultimately contains no new spending.
Idaho Reports will update this tracker daily through the end of the 2025 session as lawmakers introduce new budgets and vote on existing bills.
This dashboard is best viewed on desktop.
Editor’s disclosure note: Idaho Public Television is a public agency of the State of Idaho.
Logan Finney | Associate Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.
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