The big news: Idaho Gov. Brad Little delivered his annual State of the State address on Monday in Boise, promising fiscal accountability during what is shaping up to be a budget crisis — but vowing that public schools won’t feel the brunt.
• Little painted public schools as “the heart and soul of our communities.”
Yes, but: Little’s commitment to protecting the public education budget is laudable and very necessary thanks to the actions taken during the 2025 legislative session.
• The state passed another round of significant tax cuts, funded a $50 million private school voucher program, and again punted on shoring up the ever-widening special education funding gap.
• The Idaho Legislature must figure out how to balance the budget — as mandated by the state constitution — while facing a revenue shortfall. At the beginning of the week, estimates stood around $40 million for fiscal year 2026, with the shortfall ballooning to between $600 million and $1 billion in fiscal year 2027. Lawmakers will be working with higher estimated revenue projections, as was reported in the Idaho Capital Sun on Thursday.
• Gov. Little insisted that the tax cuts in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which states may choose to implement, will be coming to Idaho, saying the cuts will provide “real relief.”
How Idaho Education Association members reacted: IEA President Layne McInelly issued a statement following Gov. Little’s address.
• “Forcing cuts on already underfunded public schools would significantly harm students, families and communities,” McInelly said.
• “The massive tax cuts passed last winter and the $50 million voucher scheme have made it far harder to address real issues — like the special education funding gap — that educators see every day,” he continued.
What’s next: In one word: Acrimony. Rep. Josh Tanner (R-Eagle), who replaces former Rep. Wendy Horman on the incredibly powerful Joint Finance Appropriations Committee that sets the state’s budget, issued a press release after the State of the State.
• “The governor’s budget does not balance,” he said in the release. “It relies on one-time gimmicks, spends more than the state takes in on an ongoing basis, and leaves Idaho with the lowest-ending fund balances in nearly a decade.”
