The 'wrap' on the 2023 legislative session

The 2023 legislative session ended on April 6. As a freshman, I don’t have the experience to know if the session was what it should have been. I do know the Legislature did what they are required to do, namely a balanced budget was developed and approved.

Many of the budget issues for the state get passed without garnering much attention. The transportation, administrative, and law enforcement budgets typically pass without much debate. This year the Attorney General and Secretary of State budgets attracted many more comments and concerns.

Both AG and SoS budgets carried increases from previous years. However, these increases should come without too much surprise. Both offices are now led by different elected leaders taking over operations that had been led by the same person for many years. Both new leaders have new ideas, interests, and issues to address.

The Education budgets are predictably the subject of considerable debate. This year was no exception. Improving our education system through increased funding and program expansion is part of the governor’s priority this year. All K-12 budgets (teacher and classified pay, operations, school administration, etc.) were increased.

The Empowering Parents project was again approved; however, this time with state general funds. This program funds educational supplies and tutoring for Idaho students through a menu system. It offers $1,000 per student and $3,000 per family per year.

The college and university operational and capital budgets were also increased.

Idaho businesses have many skilled job openings. Industry representatives have opined the state needs approximately 60% of high school students to "go on" to a Career Technical Education or college-level program. Currently, less than 40% of our students are on this path. To address this disparity, new CTE programs were started in the education budget to address the needs of students and Idaho businesses.

CTE programs are aimed at high school and college-age students. Some of the funds will be used for facility improvements, other funds will be used as grants for high school graduates. The funding for state tuition programs for traditional college and university-level education continues as well.

State Medicaid programs were also contested on the floor of the House. This funding helps Idahoans and is a revenue source for our medical service providers. This year there was considerable debate about cutting back the Medicaid budget as many people are getting back to work after the pandemic. The accounting for these cuts was difficult as the billing for these services is often six to nine months behind. An argument can be made that cutting the budget is the easy part, but the truth is, the funds have already been spent. We cut $150 million from the Medicaid budget this session. If the spending exceeds the budget, a supplemental budget will have to be approved next January.

Only a small number of legislators work on the budget-making process. The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC) does the actual number crunching. The JFAC group is made up of 10 representatives and 10 senators and lead by a co-chair from the House and the Senate. All budgets are approved through the JFAC process. Each session the JFAC members oversee billions of dollars of State spending.

With the JFAC process in mind, most of the other members of the Legislature read all they can, ask questions, and listen to the JFAC members present the individual budgets for approval, then vote aye or nay. The only option, if a budget fails, is to send it back to JFAC for re-tooling since line item changes are not possible on the floor.

A few budgets were sent back to JFAC. Most were returned to the floor reduced. However, the liquor budget increased when it returned to the surprise of some !! A minority of Legislative members of each body vote against many, if not most, of the budgets. The majority passed the final budgets of the session to comply with our State Constitutional duty.

It’s been a humbling and rewarding experience being your State representative this session. I look forward to seeing you around the District over the next 8 months. Thank you for your support.

Mark Sauter represents Bonner and Boundary counties in the Idaho Legislature in District 1A. He can be reached at msauter@house.idaho.gov.