BOISE — In the 2023 session, there’s a significant change being discussed for the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.
House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, is pushing for the House and Senate members of the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee to vote separately, meaning that instead of a simple majority from the entire group, it would require a majority from the House side and majority from the Senate side to pass a budget.
“We should’ve always been doing it that way,” Moyle said.
He is working with Senate leadership to make the change official. In the meantime, the committee is putting off any votes until a decision is made, said JFAC co-chairperson Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls.
On Friday, the committee heard from the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee, after which it normally would have voted on a revenue forecast, but the vote didn’t happen.
Moyle is confident the change will go through. He said because the rule establishing JFAC creates two distinct committees, a Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee, then the two committees should have been voting separately anyway.
Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, said the Senate leadership is open to looking into this interpretation of the rules, although they did not have a concern before being approached with how the committee has been operating.
Anthon said that in the past he has served on other joint committees such as the Change in Employee Compensation and Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment committees, and those groups did not vote separately.
“We’ve had a number of instances in the history of the Idaho Legislature where voting together has taken place,” Anthon said.
However, he also said Moyle’s interpretation is “a fair question and it creates a fair dialogue.”
Anthon called JFAC a “bright spot” in Idaho’s government and something the Senate leadership wants to keep intact, and to do that they have to work with House leadership.
“At the end of the day, it takes both of us to operate, so we may very well have to make changes in order to keep a JFAC working,” he said.
Moyle said he thinks the change will also help budgets pass the House and Senate floors. He said the current system can create an imbalance, where budgets can pass out of committee with minimal support from members in one chamber or the other. This can create the perception that one chamber doesn’t support it, he said.
When the full House or Senate rejects a budget, it goes back to the committee to rework. The Legislature can’t end the session until the state has a balanced budget.
Horman agreed that the change could help the process.
“It will mean when a budget comes to either the House or the Senate floor, a majority of that chamber’s committee must have voted for that budget,” Horman said.
“I think also it will encourage collaboration among members of both committees because we’ll know in advance if we can’t get a majority of both the finance and appropriations committees to support a motion, we’re going to have to start over anyway.”
Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, who has served on the committee for five years, said she does not see this change as a positive.
“This should not be confrontational right now because we’ve done good work,” Ward-Engelking said. “It’s worked for the state. We are in a better position than any other state in the nation and it’s because of the budget priorities we’ve set forth, and it’s been a joint effort.”
She said that last year, it may have looked as if fewer House members supported the budgets coming out, but that is because former Reps. Priscilla Giddings and Ron Nate had a policy of voting against almost every budget that included federal money, which was nearly all of them.
“It doesn’t take much to have more senators than House members on a vote when that’s the case,” she said.
Moyle said he doesn’t see the change as being a big problem. He said implementation might have some “hiccups,” but he’s been working with Senate leadership to address their concerns.
“It’s not a big change,” he said. “It’s just doing it the way it probably should’ve been done all along.”
Assistant House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said the Legislature has already had a difficult time passing budgets off the floor, and this could add another potential hurdle. She said it would mean members who are opposed would need fewer votes to block a budget.
“That’s a much lower threshold for obstructionism, if you will,” Rubel said.
She serves as co-chairperson of another joint committee, the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, and its members vote together, she said. She also serves on Legislative Council, and its members vote together.
Horman said the committee isn’t scheduled to make any votes on supplementals and budgets for some time, so the pause on votes shouldn’t hold up the committee’s work much.
“In the next two or three weeks I think we’ll have a decision, and we’ll get moving,” she said.
JFAC co-chairperson Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said he’s not in a position to comment either way until the decision is made, but did not express concern.
“Whatever leadership does, we’ll just make it work here,” Grow said.
Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.
