JFAC approves Idaho Transportation budgets, OKs $275 million general-fund transfer for highways

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved a suite of budget motions for the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), including targeted maintenance funding, supplemental federal reimbursements for local transit, program reappropriations and a $275 million general-fund transfer to dedicated highway accounts.

The committee voted to approve separate motions covering: reappropriations and capital facilities funding for the Transportation Services Division; replacement and IT hardware funding for the Division of Motor Vehicles; supplemental federal reimbursements for local public transit and metropolitan planning organizations; multiple FY2026 enhancements and replacement-item requests for the Division of Highway Operations; and several large contract-construction and right-of-way appropriations. The committee also approved transferring $275,000,000 from the general fund to dedicated highway funds for safety, capacity and maintenance projects.

Why it matters: the approvals move hundreds of millions in state and federal dollars toward road construction, maintenance and local transit reimbursements and give ITD reappropriation authority for large projects. Several actions change how federal reimbursements will be administered to local jurisdictions and authorize reappropriations that allow ITD to carry funding into future fiscal years.

Brooke Dupree, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, summarized ITD’s packet and told the committee the request included “targeted CEC, deferred maintenance projects, funding to relocate the district 4 headquarters … new equipment, replacement equipment, and IT equipment,” and that the governor’s office recommended a $10,000,000 initiative for grants…