The Legislature’s budget-writing committee met for the first time since the November election, and took a cursory look at education budgets.
Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee members had few questions about the education budgets — state superintendent Debbie Critchfield’s request for K-12, and the State Board of Education’s higher education proposals.
The questions will come in January — after Gov. Brad Little puts his stamp on the budget requests, and JFAC begins its daily morning budget hearings.
The joint committee will take on a new look before the session begins.
Four of its 20 members lost in this year’s elections, so some turnover is guaranteed. And while JFAC is the most powerful committee in the Statehouse, some lawmakers will occasionally move off to chair another committee or take a leadership spot. For example, JFAC co-chair Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, has said he is interested in the vacant spot as president pro tem, the Senate’s highest-ranking spot.
The leadership spots and the committee assignments will be parceled out during the Legislature’s organizational session in early December.
Come January, the budget committee will be able to work with a cushion. On June 30, the state should end the current spending year with a $142.2 million budget balance. That is down from the $189.2 million balance predicted at the end of the 2024 session, and that reflects some supplemental spending for this year, mostly in health and welfare programs, said Keith Bybee, budget and policy analysis division manager for the Legislative Services Office.
The state is also well-positioned to weather a recession, Bybee said. Idaho should end the current budget year with more than $1.4 billion in surpluses and reserves, including $244 million in a savings account for K-12. In 2009, Idaho entered the throes of the Great Recession with $641 million, including $112 on the K-12 reserve fund.
The specter of a downturn also came up Tuesday morning, as JFAC heard a report on how Idaho spends its sales tax receipts.
Sales tax collections have almost doubled over the past seven years, and the sales tax has long been a staple of the state’s budget. But lawmakers have siphoned off an increasing share of the sales tax — including $125 million this year for the massive 2024 school facilities law and $83.8 million to help school districts pay down property tax bonds and levies. In September 2022, the Legislature dedicated $330 million for K-12 and the $80 million that covers Idaho Launch.
If the economy slows, and sales tax revenues drop, these earmarks will leave lawmakers with “some critical decisions,” said JFAC co-chair Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls.
Grow noted that many of these dedicated dollars go to schools. “This demonstrates how much we’re giving to education.”
Critchfield is seeking more than $2.7 billion in state general fund dollars for public schools, a 2.6% increase. She wants to put more than $432 million into a weighted funding formula that would put added dollars into serving special education students, English language learners, gifted and talented students and other student groups.
Idaho’s four-year schools are seeking $377.9 million from the general fund, a 3.5% increase. The community colleges are requesting $65.7 million next year, a 2.8% increase.
The four-year schools’ request includes nearly $3.4 million designed to bridge pay gaps and help the schools recruit and retain staff.
Little will unveil his budget recommendations on Jan. 6, the first day of the legislative session.
JFAC is meeting in the Treasure Valley through Thursday for presentations and tours. On Thursday, lawmakers will tour the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine in Meridian. As Idaho Education News first reported last week, Idaho State University is studying the feasibility of buying ICOM, although the private college is not for sale.
