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: (-1)
Bill Description: House Bill 427 is a trailer appropriation for House Bill 206, moving funding in accordance with the relocation of emergency medical services from the Department of Health and Welfare to the Military Division.
Does this budget incur any wasteful spending among discretionary funds, including new line items? Conversely, does this budget contain any provisions that serve to reduce spending where possible (i.e. base reductions, debt reconciliation, etc.)?
House Bill 206 — enacted into law on March 18, 2025 — moved the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services from the Division of Public Health in the Department of Health and Welfare to the Military Division. According to the fiscal note, this transition would have resulted in a net reduction of 2.00 FTPs and a cost of $123,600 in transfers from one department to another. This would not have increased state spending.
The fiscal note was correct in some ways, but incorrect where the Military Division misrepresented what it needed to fulfill its duties for the EMS bureau. The transfer resulted in a net increase of $203,000, $79,400 more than the cost estimated in the fiscal note. Where there were inconsistencies, the Military Division originally approved adding 30.8 FTP to facilitate the move. But after JFAC already approved the original motion, the division asked for an additional 3.00 FTP. This resulted in a net increase of 1.00 FTP to facilitate the transfer.
The transition increased the state workforce by one position causing a net increase in costs for the taxpayers that wasn’t disclosed to the Legislature when the bill passed, warranting a negative rating.
(-1)
