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Legislative Notebook: As tax cuts sail through Legislature, budget committee sets revenue forecast • Idaho Capital Sun [1]
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Date: 2025-03-08
In an effort to help Idahoans follow major bills, resolutions and memorials through the legislative process, the Idaho Capital Sun will produce a “legislative notebook” at the end of each week to gather information in one place that concerns major happenings in the Legislature and other news relating to state government. To receive the full extent of our reporting in your inbox each day, sign up for our free email newsletter, The Sunrise, on our website at idahocapitalsun.com/subscribe/.
Here is our quick rundown of the major happenings during the ninth week of the Idaho Legislature’s 2025 session.
Idaho Legislature’s budget committee sets revenue projections for fiscal year 2026
Less than 24 hours after the Idaho Senate passed a major income tax cut bill that reduces state revenue by $253 million and weeks after the Idaho Legislature’s budget committee passed the maintenance budgets for all state agencies, the committee ultimately decided how much money the state has to work with to fund departments and public services for fiscal year 2026.
A projection for the state’s revenue forecast was set Wednesday – the 59th legislative day of the 2025 session – by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC.
The budget committee voted 16-2 to set the revenue projection for fiscal year 2026 at $6.4 billion, a 6.8% increase above the level in the current fiscal year 2025 budget.
That’s the same $6.4 billion revenue projection that the Idaho Legislature’s Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee recommended in a Jan. 9 letter to JFAC members.
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But during the second week of the 2025 legislative session, JFAC members discussed and then voted down two proposed revenue projections on Jan. 16. Since then, JFAC set and passed bare bones maintenance of operations budgets that combine all state agencies and departments into about 10 bills. JFAC went on to consider dozens of other budget enhancements for state agencies, and Republican legislative leaders proposed tax cuts that, when combined, would reduce state revenue by more than $400 million.
But until Wednesday morning, there was no revenue projection in place to show how much money the Idaho Legislature has to build its 2026 budget around.
The budget committee’s cochairs, Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said the senators and the representatives on the committee needed time to work through disagreements on the projections.
“As you know, we try to work things out – not just here on the floor – but try to get folks to agree to things,” Grow said during Wednesday’s JFAC meeting. “And we haven’t had any success getting that agreement so we figured we just better go ahead (today) and try to give it our best shot and try to go for it.”
A few minutes later, Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking and Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, cast the only two votes against the revenue projection on Wednesday.
“This is the wrong way to do our budgets,” Ward-Engeking said. “We’ve done a lot of actions in this committee. We’ve sent our maintenance budgets out. We’ve looked at tax reduction, or tax cuts and revenue reduction, before we set our revenue projection and I don’t believe that’s the right way to do budgets. I believe this revenue projection should have been set at the beginning of the session, and then we work towards that number in everything that we do and the spending and in the tax reductions or the tax cuts.”
Legislators have set a target adjournment date for March 21, just two weeks from now.
Little signs bill that takes away local control on mask mandates
Sponsored by Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, and Rep. Robert Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend, and signed into law by Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Tuesday, House Bill 32 prohibits local governments, health districts and school districts from mandating that an individual must wear a mask or face covering to prevent the spread of an infectious disease.
The government mask mandate ban law has a few exceptions, allowing face mask requirements in certain job settings where masks are required and are needed “to perform required job duties,” such as in health care, work with hazardous materials, or industrial settings “where respiratory protection is vocationally required.”
Little advocated for local control of mask mandates throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and never instituted a statewide mask mandate to combat the coronavirus.
The bill takes effect immediately through an emergency clause.
Legislation of interest during the ninth week of the 2025 session
House Bill 345 : Co-sponsored by Rep. Jordan Redman and the chairmen of the Legislature’s Health and Welfare committees, the bill would require the state to seek work requirements for able-bodied Idahoans on Medicaid, and to give Idahoans eligible for Medicaid expansion access to tax credits to buy insurance on Idaho’s health care exchange. The Idaho House voted 61-9 along on party lines Thursday to pass the bill. It now heads to the Senate State Affairs Committee and may be taken up in the coming days of the session.
House Bill 243 : Co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, the bill would repeal age-based child-to-staff ratios for child care facilities in Idaho law. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee advanced the bill on Wednesday to the full Senate for consideration with a recommendation that it pass. It is on the Senate’s third reading calendar and may be taken up in the coming days of the session.
Senate Bill 1101 : Sponsored by Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, the bill would clarify and add guidance to Idaho coroners’ roles in death investigations. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee advanced the bill on Thursday to the full Senate for consideration with a recommendation that it pass. It is on the Senate’s third reading calendar and may be taken up in the coming days of the session.
House Bill 290 : Sponsored by Rep. Dori Healey, R-Boise, the bill would transfer decision-making authority about vaccination requirements for children attending day cares and schools from the Department of Health and Welfare to the Idaho Legislature. The Idaho House passed the bill 49-21 on Wednesday. It now heads to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, where it may be heard in the coming days of the session.
House Concurrent Resolution 16 : Sponsored by Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, the resolution would create a legislative committee to study Idaho’s property insurance market. The resolution, introduced in the House Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday, is in response to Idaho’s destructive wildfire seasons and dozens of insurance companies pulling out of the state. It may come before the committee for a full public hearing in the coming days of the session.
House Bill 231 : Sponsored by House Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, the bill would increase the tax credit Idahoans receive on groceries from $120 to $155. The Idaho Senate voted 30-3 on Wednesday to pass the bill. It now heads to the governor for final consideration.
Senate Bill 1001 : Sponsored by Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, the anti-SLAPP (which stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation) bill aims to protect free speech and curtail frivolous lawsuits. The Idaho House voted 70-0 to pass the bill on Wednesday. It now heads to the governor for final consideration.
House Bill 362 : Sponsored by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, the bill would prevent elected officials in state or federal positions from simultaneously serving in elected city, school or highway district positions, with some exceptions for rural areas. The House State Affairs Committee advanced the bill Friday with a recommendation that it pass. It may be taken up by the full House in the coming days of the session.
What to expect next week
Senate State Affairs Committee
House Joint Resolution 4: Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, the resolution seeks voter approval to amend the state constitution to give the Legislature exclusive authority to legalize and regulate marijuana and other drugs. The House voted 58-10 to pass the resolution on Wednesday. It now heads to the committee, where it is on the agenda for Monday for a full public hearing.
Senate Bill 1141: Sponsored by Sen Codi Galloway, R-Boise, the bill bans unauthorized public camping or sleeping on public property in Idaho and prohibits political subdivisions from allowing it. It provides exceptions for designated recreational areas and certain state lands. It was introduced by the committee on March 3, and it is on the agenda for Monday to be back before the committee for a full public hearing.
Quote of the week
“Idaho families and businesses need and deserve to keep more of their hard earned money. It is the right thing to do. Idaho’s continued strength comes from our focus on good government and the Idaho taxpayer. I appreciate my partners in the Legislature for sharing our goal of prioritizing tax relief while taking care of the needs of a growing state. As we continue to deliver historic tax relief, we must ensure our budget balances as the Idaho Constitution requires.” – Idaho Gov. Brad Little, on signing the largest income tax reduction in state history into law through House Bill 40
Social media post of the week
It’s been a busy week in the Idaho Legislature: Governor signed mask mandate bill, House passed Medicaid work requirements, and firing squad bill heads to the governor. I joined @boisestatepublicradio.org’s Idaho Matters to break it down! #idleg #idpol (here’s a nerdy thread about Medicaid policy) [image or embed] — Kyle Pfannenstiel (@pfannyyy.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Photo of the week
How to follow the Idaho Legislature and Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s work during the session Here are a few tools we use to track the Legislature’s business and how to let your voice be heard in the issues that matter most to you. How to find your legislators: To determine which legislative district you live in, and to find contact information for your legislators within that district, go to the Legislative Services Office’s website and put in your home address and ZIP code. Once you’ve entered that information, the three legislators – two House members and one senator – who represent your district will appear, and you can click on their headshots to find their email address and phone number. How to find committee agendas: Go to the Idaho Legislature’s website, legislature.idaho.gov, and click on the “all available Senate committee agendas” link and the “all available House committee agendas” link on the right side of the website. How to watch the legislative action in committees and on the House and Senate floors: Idaho Public Television works in conjunction with the Legislative Services Office and the Idaho Department of Administration through a program called “Idaho in Session” to provide live streaming for all legislative committees and for the House and Senate floors. To watch the action, go to
https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/idahoinsession/Legislature/ and select the stream you’d like to watch. How to testify remotely at public hearings before a committee: To sign up to testify remotely for a specific committee, navigate to that committee’s webpage, and click on the “testimony registration (remote and in person)” tab at the top. How to find state budget documents: Go to Legislative Services Office Budget and Policy Analysis Division’s website
https://legislature.idaho.gov/lso/bpa/budgetinformation/. How to track which bills have made it to Gov. Little’s desk and any action he took on them (including vetoes): Go to the governor’s website
https://gov.idaho.gov/legislative-sessions/2025-session/. You can scroll down to the bottom of the site and enter your email address to get alerts sent straight to your inbox when the page has been updated.
Reporting from Idaho Capital Sun journalists Clark Corbin, Mia Maldonado and Kyle Pfannenstiel contributed to this legislative notebook.
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