Appropriations committee advances military, transportation, school and year‑end transfers; arts enhancement denied

The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee (JFAC) on a series of votes advanced supplemental funding requests, trailer appropriations tied to recently passed policy bills, and several year‑end fund transfers that will move millions of dollars between state accounts.

Most prominently, the committee approved a $200,000 one‑time supplemental from the General Fund to the Military Division to support commissioning events and crew scholarships tied to the new USS Idaho, a Virginia‑class fast attack submarine. Frances Lippitt, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the money would be “used as a customary contribution of the naming state, in order to promote Idaho and also to provide a scholarship to its crew members.” The motion passed with a due‑pass recommendation.

JFAC also approved a $20 million ongoing increase to the Transportation Expansion and Congestion Mitigation Fund for the Idaho Transportation Department, moved as a trailer to House Bill 25. A separate trailer tied to literacy (Senate Bill 1069) cleared $5 million from the General Fund for literacy intervention coaching in K‑3 classrooms targeted to schools in the bottom 25% on the fall Idaho Reading Indicator.

On education finance, the committee approved several technical steps tied to property‑tax and school funding bills. It moved a $330 million one‑time cash transfer from the General Fund into the Public School Income Fund to align accounting for funds earmarked for public schools, and it approved actions related to the school district…