From the Executive Director – Week of January 15, 2024

With the first week of the 2024 Legislative Session in the books, expect bill introductions to pick up over the next couple of weeks. While significant legislation impacting counties has yet to be introduced, bills regarding investigations of county officials (H0390), limiting public health district authority (H0392), and limitations on vacating public roads providing access to state or federal lands (S1217) have been introduced. Please be sure to check the IAC Bill Tracker to stay up to date on the latest bill introductions.

Perhaps the biggest change to the session has been the process the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC) has set for establishing state agency budgets. As was reported in the Idaho Capital Sun, JFAC has implemented a new process for reviewing and approving state agency budget requests. Under the new framework, JFAC will approve “maintenance” budgets for state agencies based on 2024 operating budgets. Subsequent agency budgets will be developed and approved or rejected for new spending requests. Previously, ongoing and new spending requests were rolled up into the same budget.  

In another significant change, JFAC is now publishing more state agency budget information on a new portal on the Legislature’s website. The portal includes historical budget information as well as a basic breakdown of expense categories and funding sources (general fund vs dedicated funds).