Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Professional Regulation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee sends State Bar fee increase bill to amending order after Bar director and sponsor explain modest, self-funded hike
Summary
Senate Bill 10-30 would raise attorney license fees to fund State Bar operations. The committee voted to send the bill to the fourteenth order for amendment to include a missing senior-member category and a 2026 adjustment.
The Senate Judiciary & Rules Committee voted to send Senate Bill 10-30 to the fourteenth order for possible amendment after a presentation by Sen. Todd Lakey and testimony from Maureen Braley, executive director of the Idaho State Bar.
Sen. Lakey, sponsor of the bill, described the measure as a modest, long-overdue increase to annual license fees paid by Idaho lawyers to fund the State Bar’s operations. “The State Bar is self-funded,” Lakey said. “The State General Fund does not fund the State Bar.” He outlined increases ranging from $10 to $45 for 2025, and larger increases in 2026 of up to $60 depending on attorney status; the last fee adjustment occurred in 2011.
Maureen Braley, the State Bar’s executive director, told senators that Idaho lawyers voted in the fall of 2024 to approve the increase by 63% and that the revenues would sustain current operations rather than create new programs. She asked the committee to send the bill to the fourteenth order to add a missing category of senior members and to correct an omission for 2026 fees.
Senators moved the bill to amending order to permit the technical fixes the Bar requested; the motion was made by Senator Foreman and seconded by Senator Ricks and carried by voice vote.
