Joint committee approves Fish and Game FY2026 enhancements totaling $18.18 million

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Wednesday voted to give a due-pass recommendation to Fiscal Year 2026 enhancements for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that total $18,184,900, the committee chair announced.

The allotment includes $10,217,400 from dedicated state funds and $7,967,500 from federal funds. Committee staff and the department characterized roughly $16,000,000 of the agency’s requested enhancements as one-time expenditures that would reduce FY2027 base costs.

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the department operates five budget programs — administration, enforcement, fisheries, wildlife and communications — and manages 19 state-run fish hatcheries. Jessup said the requested enhancements covered a mix of equipment, contracts, remote connectivity and construction or renovation projects across the state, and that staff placed a list and a map of hatcheries on members’ desks.

Representative Manmuring moved the committee’s maintenance-budget motion. The motion included line items the mover summarized on the floor: $239,000 for license-system contract increases; $2,160,000 one-time for the Albany Falls project; $273,700 for recreational access lease costs; $550,000 one-time for an agency website overhaul phase; funding for seasonal habitat-restoration employees; one-time hatchery trailer tanks; $3,626,700 one-time for Region 7 renovations; operational cost increases for regional offices; and multiple one-time and ongoing IT and equipment items. The mover stated the department receives no general fund appropriations for these items.

Committee staff noted two pieces of reappropriation language accompanying the motion. One allows the agency to reappropriate funds for specific projects that may extend into the next fiscal year; the second covers depredation funds that the agency disburses and may carry over between fiscal years. Both language items required roll-call votes and were separately adopted by the committee.

The committee recorded the motion as carrying a due-pass recommendation. The committee tally reported a combined total of 16 ayes, 3 nays and 1 absent/excused; the chair announced the motion would go forward with a due-pass recommendation.

The committee did not appropriate any new general fund dollars for the department in this motion; the funding sources were dedicated and federal accounts as noted in the motion and accompanying language.