Representative Steve Miller
2026 Legislative Update
For Week 1 Ending January 17, 2026
Current
The legislative session did not start until January 12. That is the latest time of the month for session to begin. The late date gave another week to prepare for the many details that come before us.
The first day of session is filled with pomp and circumstance. The House is called to order at
noon. After taking care of a few details, a 3-member committee is formed to invite the Senate to a Joint Session in the House chamber. Committees are then sent to the Governor, all other state officers and the Supreme Court. In turn, the Senate sends a 3-member committee to report that the Senate is in session and that they accept the invitation for a Joint Session. The Senate members come to the House chamber, followed by the state officers, the Supreme Court Appellate judges and finally the Governor who then presents the State of the State message.
State of the State
Governor Little presented the State of the State at 1:00pm on Monday. The Governor
stated an estimated 14% reduction in revenue from last fiscal year. Comments included
review of the 3% holdback of all budgets except education, which is 61.7% of the total
general fund budget. He listed a number of transfers from existing fund sources to
augment revenue that would result in a $25 million cash carry over. That is only 0.0045% margin for error! This year’s carryover was $316 million and will be consumed by increased costs of Medicaid, corrections and conformity to tax reductions of the Big Beautiful Bill (see more under JFAC below). That said, it will be very difficult to establish a budget with a reasonable cash carryover without a small reduction of the education budget.
Former Governors Otter, Risch and Kempthorne and their wives attended the State of the State.
Economic Outlook Committee
The official name is “Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee” (which usually abbreviates to Economic Outlook Committee or EORAC) met Wednesday and Thursday. The purpose of this committee is to recommend a revenue number to JFAC (Joint Finance- Appropriations Committee) for the purpose of setting a revenue number. We heard reports ranging from economists to business leaders to association representatives regarding their outlook for this and the next fiscal year. The members each submit an estimate of the next fiscal year’s revenue. I won the 2025 competition with the estimate closest to and below the actual revenue number!!
Bills may be viewed at: Bill List
The Week
House Committees
I serve as Vice Chair on JFAC (Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee), Resources and Conservation and Agricultural Affairs committees. JFAC always begins on the 2 nd day of the session and continues until our work is done. Ag got organized this week and Resources will meet next week.
Budget Holdback
The budget holdback causes some anxiety so there are more agency requests for meetings and constituent concerns. I think once a revenue number is set there may be less politics and more attention to effective budget setting. A tighter budget will reduce the number of policy bills requesting additional appropriations.
I attended the Idaho Forestry luncheon, IASCD (Idaho Association of Conservation Districts) reception and Bayer luncheon that operates the phosphate mining and processing near and in Soda Springs.
Idaho is blessed with a myriad of rare earth minerals, cobalt, antimony, silver, gold and a host of other strategic minerals. The development of mining and processing of these minerals will create 
wealth for Idahoans and contribute to strategic security for our nation. I am working on streamlining Idaho’s regulatory process for mines approved by or near approval by the Federal government.
Protesters gathered Saturday at the capital and protested just about everything!
House Session & Votes
Bills are just beginning to come through committee. We’ll start seeing them next week.
A full list of bills may be found at: Bill List.
The House Session may be viewed live at: House Session
Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC)
The major discussions are revenue forecast, supplementals (additional population driven expenses that must be paid) and tax conformity.
Idaho’s tax revenue dropped below forecast during September and October. Individual and sales tax were ok but there was a downturn of corporate tax revenue (the corporate tax category includes subchapter S, LLC, LLP, general partnership etc.). The lowest cumulative downturn was $103 million in October. November and December revenues have brought it back to a positive $102 million. I believe this was caused by BBB (the Big Beautiful Bill) effecting corporate federal taxes for deductions/credits for buildings and equipment as well as research and development. It appears that receipts may return to forecast levels, which is good news for the budget process!
There are 2 supplementals caused by population increases. Medicaid use was $73.4 million and Corrections $18.5 million above budget estimates.
The larger and more complicated concern is conformity to the BBB. Typically, Idaho conforms to federal tax code changes. The problem is that no one knows exactly how much these changes will reduce Idaho tax revenue. There are estimates from $115 to $435 million depending on which deductions are accepted. Part of the problem is that the IRS doesn’t even have rules defining how some of this is going to be done. That is a huge unknown to budget! I think the best path is to conform to the deductions we can reasonably identify and defer the others to next year.
JFAC has begun hearing budget presentations and will begin setting budgets in a
couple of weeks.
Budget hearing and setting schedules may be viewed at: Budget Schedules
JFAC agendas may be viewed at: JFAC Agendas
The JFAC meetings may be viewed live at: View JFAC
To look further into Idaho’s fiscal transparency, Idahoans can now quickly click to view historic and current statewide budget appropriations and agency expenditures for the fiscal year at Budget Information and Fiscal Dashboards.
Agricultural Affairs Committee
The committee met and organized on Thursday.
Ag Committee meetings may be viewed live on even numbered days at 1:30pm at: View Ag
Resources and Conservation Committee
The committee will have it’s first meeting and 3 RSs on Monday.
Resources meetings may be viewed live on odd numbered days at 1:30pm at: View Resources
Bill Highlights
Bill # Topic Vote
You may view the full list of bills at and the bill status at: Bill List
It is an honor to serve as your Representative in the Idaho House of Representatives. Please forward this update to anyone you feel would be interested in receiving it.
Please put the name of your town on the subject line if you email me. I often get over 100 emails a day!
Representative Steven Miller
District 24B
Camas, Gooding, and Rural Twin Falls Counties
Vice Chair Joint Finance & Appropriations Committee
Resources & Conservation Committee
Agricultural Affairs Committee
Idaho State Capitol
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0038
208-332-1061
SMiller@house.idaho.gov
Common Sense Solutions 