Idaho Democratic legislative leaders say the Republican supermajority Legislature cut some state services to the bone to fix a self-inflicted budget issue.
Democrats told reporters at a press conference Friday that the 2026 legislative session, which ended Thursday, was characterized by deep budget cuts to fix problems they said were created by the preceding years of tax cuts.
“Because when you cut revenues year after year, eventually the bill comes due, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing now,” Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat, said.
Typically members of the majority Republican leadership also hold a post-session press conference with reporters. However, House Majority Caucus Chair Rep. Jaron Crane, of Nampa, told reporters Friday morning in a text message that Majority Leader Jason Monks was traveling, and there would be no press conference.
Democrats said Friday that many vital services will suffer after many budgets were cut across-the-board to address a projected budget shortfall.
House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said she attempted to bring back a program that was cut to a program for parents of children with severe disabilities this year.
“I was told the state is now broke and can’t afford to fund it, no matter how desperately needed these services were,” Rubel said. “Rinse and repeat this story across virtually every vital service that our state is supposed to provide.”
The minority party leaders pointed to decisions, such as last year’s approval of a $253 million income tax cut as well as a $50 million tax credit that may go to private education tuition.
This year, Rubel said, the issue was exacerbated by lawmakers immediately bringing a bill to retroactively adopt the same tax cuts from the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a move that’s expected to cost the state $155 million in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and around $175 million next fiscal year.
Gov. Brad Little in his budget request for the year had proposed waiting until the next fiscal year to adopt the changes to avoid uncertainty midway through the fiscal year. However, Little signed the bill on Feb. 10 to conform to all the changes and apply them to 2025 taxes.
Rubel said that Democrats made proposals that were never allowed to be introduced that they think could’ve prevented long-term “structural damage” to the budget.
She argued that bills on cultural issues, such as which flags governments may fly — a direct attack on Boise’s Pride flag — or which bathrooms transgender individuals may use, were meant to “distract from the big dumpster fire of a budget they had set by setting dozens of social issue dumpster fires.”
The Legislature adjourned for the year Thursday night, and will likely not return until January 2027.
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