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Secretary of State seeks ongoing funding for voter guide and continued IT subscriptions after election system upgrades
Summary
Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the committee the office requests ongoing funding for a voter guide, recurring software subscriptions, IT training and periodic publication costs tied to elections and business services; the office highlighted $10 million previously budgeted for system upgrades.
Christopher Lahoset, Legislative Services Office analyst, presented the Secretary of State’s budget and said fiscal year 2024 included a one‑time $10 million appropriation for an elections system upgrade; about $2.5 million of that has been spent and the remainder was reappropriated into FY2025.
Phil McGrane, Secretary of State, said producing a voter guide is his “number 1 policy initiative” and that polls show voters want candidate information in a mailed guide for both primary and general elections. He explained the office is asking for $400,000 ongoing—about $300,000 for mailing and $100,000 for printing—so the guide can become a regular resource; Lahoset clarified one slide typo in the budget book concerning the guide cost breakdown.
Other requests included ongoing software subscription funding ($287,100 for campaign finance and lobbyist software plus related site plugins and cloud storage), $20,000 ongoing for IT training, periodic funding for the Idaho Blue Book and the state Constitution publications (postage is the main cost driver), and one‑time funding to replace IT equipment. McGrane said the office has rolled out three major IT projects from the $10 million: a new campaign finance system, a lobbyist reporting system and VoteIdaho, and that an RFP for the core election management system is in evaluation with bids ranging roughly between $5.6 million and $9.4 million.
Committee members asked about specifics: a one‑time $26,000 fee for an upgrade to a DMV driver‑license data access feed was described as a federal upgrade fee that is one‑time (the office will continue a smaller ongoing subscription). Members also discussed the proposed double‑fill deputy business director position (one‑time funding to hire and train a successor), and the Secretary of State noted the office generates revenue from business filings (over 800,000 filings last year) and returns more to the general fund than it takes in operating costs.
