Senate approves House Bill 4-26 to bring Luma-related costs onto controller budget

House Bill 4-26 passed the Idaho Senate on March 28, 2025, providing fiscal-year 2026 enhancements for the Office of the State Controller to bring remaining Luma project (enterprise financial/H.R./payroll system) activities onto the appropriated budget. Sponsor Senator Bierke opened by saying the appropriation brings costs formerly borne by a continuously appropriated Business Information Infrastructure Fund onto the general appropriation to increase transparency and accountability.

The sponsor said the recommended FY2026 original appropriation is $40,470,000, which is less than the office’s FY2024 total expenditures that included continuously appropriated funds; she described the request as completing the Luma onboarding. Questions on the floor focused on a proposed communications manager position (line-item question) and on agency vacancies; Bierke said the communications-manager position is necessary to support rollout and that, as of a few days earlier, nine vacancies existed but some had recently been filled and a few opened in the interim.

Floor debate included objections about the size of the increase (a senator described a 60.4% increase for the add-on budget in one exchange) and discussion about whether existing vacant FTPs could be reutilized rather than creating new positions. Supporters argued the Luma implementation required sustained communications and change management and described Idaho as the first state to go live with all five Luma modules in a multi-tenant cloud solution.

Under the motion to limit debate, senators each had 90 seconds for floor debate; the roll-call vote on final consideration recorded 23 in favor and 12 opposed, and the bill passed. The sponsor cited third-party comparisons to other states and a supporting email from the deputy state controller describing Idaho’s rollout success. The bill passed the Senate and will be returned to the House of Representatives.