BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — A bill slashing 4% across most state budgets, including funding for career technical education and limiting the construction management major at Boise State University, is headed to Gov. Brad Little’s desk. The legislation would cut $131 million from the general fund for fiscal year 2026.
That’s 3% from holdbacks Little ordered in August amid a revenue shortfall, plus a 1% cut that the Legislature’s powerful budget committee voted to include. However, the committee exempted some big spenders from the extra cut, including the Idaho State Police, Medicaid and public schools.
“It’s a crappy bill that we have to vote on. But it’s a necessary bill,” House Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, said on the House floor Friday.
Idaho lawmakers are trying to balance the budget this year after cutting over $450 million in revenue in 2025. Since 2005, per-capita state spending has remained flat, adjusted for inflation.
Proponents of the cuts said the state’s budget committee would backfill any important programs during the remainder of the session. But opponents said the cuts were harmful, and that there was no guarantee key funding would be restored.
“Frankly, we’ve cut too much,” said Rep. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome. “I didn’t come to Boise to burn a lot of these things down.”
The bill squeaked through the Senate on Monday by just one vote, but passed the House by more than 20 votes. Little can sign the bill, veto the bill, veto specific line items in the bill, or let it go into law without his signature. The governor hasn’t publicly committed to what he’ll do.
Little’s team has said he doesn’t support the cuts, and his budget director, Lori Wolff, has raised the alarm on how they will affect the state. But Little has been known in the past to sign bills he has issues with, occasionally attaching a note to express his concern that, for example, something is unconstitutional.
The extra cut, if passed, would take effect for the remaining three months of the 2026 fiscal year. The budget committee also voted to cut an additional 2% from the fiscal 2027 budgets. Those cuts are now baked into the base budgets for agencies, and lawmakers will vote on them in the coming weeks.
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