The Idaho Spending Index serves to provide a fiscally conservative perspective on state budgeting while providing an unbiased measurement of how Idaho lawmakers apply these values to their voting behavior on appropriations bills. Each bill is analyzed within the context of the metrics below. They receive one (+1) point for each metric that is satisfied by freedom-focused policymaking and lose one (-1) point for each instance in which the inverse is true. The sum of these points composes the score for the bill.
Rating: 0
Bill Description: House Bill 251 appropriates $3,275,748,300 to maintain current operations in the Public Schools budget group for fiscal year 2026.
Each year, the Legislature considers funding for maintenance budgets separately from any budget enhancements or other adjustments. A maintenance budget excludes one-time expenditures, nondiscretionary spending, and replacement items. The annual change in employee compensation is often included in these budgets. Changes to the base, enhancement requests, nondiscretionary spending, and discretionary spending will come in the form of line item adjustments in stand-alone budget bills later in the session.
The various state departments are funded in 10 appropriations bills, with each bill covering two or more departments that carry out a similar or related core government function. The Idaho Freedom Foundation is neutral on these requests, given the need to fund certain services and functions. We may score maintenance budgets more critically should more egregious examples present themselves in the future.
The Division of Children’s Programs is of particular concern in this bill.
Analyst Note: This legislation does not appropriate any full-time positions for public schools. This is because public school staff, teachers, and administrators are employees of the individual school districts, not the state.
