Industrial Commission seeks staff, IRIS maintenance and vehicle replacements in 2026 budget request

Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst for the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance Preparation Committee on Jan. 23 that the Industrial Commission’s budget request and supporting slide deck are available in the legislative budget book and on SharePoint. "This is the budget review for the Industrial Commission," Peterson said, and he summarized the agency’s 3 programs, fund sources and recent expenditure history.

The Industrial Commission, represented to the committee by Director George Gutierrez, asked for a mix of ongoing and one-time enhancements funded from the agency’s dedicated funds rather than the state general fund. The commission oversees three budget programs: compensation, rehabilitation and the crime victims compensation program. The agency has 130.25 total full-time positions authorized, with 12 vacancies as of the August snapshot cited in the presentation.

Why it matters: the commission administers workers’ compensation and victim assistance programs that rely on dedicated fees and fines rather than general fund dollars. Funding choices affect turnaround times for payments, the speed of adjudication and field services across the state.

Key budget items and explanations

- Staffing: The agency proposes using vacant FTPs to fund multiple positions, including a senior financial technician in fiscal (ongoing $66,500), a rehabilitation field consultant for Twin Falls/Burley ($32,300 ongoing), a referee (ongoing $111,600) to help adjudicate workers’ compensation and crime victims’ appeals, reclassifications for five adjudication associates ($25,500 ongoing), and a technical records specialist ($62,300 ongoing). Peterson said the requests require no additional FTPs because they would fill existing vacant slots.

- IRIS maintenance: The Industrial Commission’s IRIS (Industrial Commission Redesign Information System) modernization project received significant one-time development funds in prior years and now requires contracted maintenance. Peterson told the committee the request includes a $288,000 one-time contract to provide technical support for IRIS because the Office of Information Technology Services (OITS) cannot yet provide that support. "This was essentially ongoing support that originally the agency believed was going to be coming from OITS, but they've indicated that they're not able to do that," Peterson said.

- Crime victims and other dedicated funds: Peterson explained the commission is a dedicated-fund agency; major funds include the Industrial Administration Fund, the Peace Officer Temporary Disability Fund (financed by $3 fines on specified convictions), the Crime Victims Compensation Fund (fines of $37 for misdemeanors, $75 for felonies and $300 for certain other offenses as described in the presentation) and a miscellaneous revenue fund. He noted the commission reverted several million dollars last year, with about $3 million of that in trustee and benefit payments.

- Vehicle replacements and IT hardware: The commission requested four small SUVs (three for the rehabilitation program, one for compensation) to replace vehicles with 82,000–98,000 miles and model years spanning roughly 2006–2011. Director George Gutierrez said field staff need reliable vehicles to reach remote areas and that some existing vehicles have recurring mechanical failures. The agency also requested $104,200 in IT replacement items (laptops, docking stations and monitors) and a $30,000 one-time contingency for IRIS.

Committee questions and agency responses

Committee members pressed the agency on why IRIS has increased staffing needs rather than reduced them. Director George Gutierrez explained that while IRIS reduced paper handling and created an electronic record, it shifted responsibilities: "Some of those responsibilities that they were doing before in terms of gathering documentation and just passing it on fell to our...referees to work on. So now we're shifting some of that responsibility back to our legal associates...to determine whether or not certain pieces of information that were received electronically are meeting the statutory requirements." He also said IRIS increased the volume and variety of employer data the agency can ingest, producing more compliance cases for enforcement.

Representative Petzke and others asked whether reverted funds could be used to fill ongoing needs; Gutierrez explained that most reversion dollars were trustee and benefit payments and that the commission lacks unilateral authority to reallocate those monies without legislative or other approvals.

Director Gutierrez described delays that resulted from vacancies and workload: the average time for referees to issue decisions rose from about 90 days to 110 days after a referee retired in 2020, and the fiscal unit faced a backlog of roughly 800 outstanding crime-victim payments at one point. He told the committee the agency had shifted staff temporarily to eliminate that backlog and now seeks staffing to sustain timely payments.

Nut graf: The Industrial Commission’s 2026 request centers on operational staffing to close service gaps created by growing caseloads and a major IT modernization, plus one-time maintenance for the IRIS system and fleet and IT equipment replacements. The money would come from the commission’s dedicated funds; several proposals will require either statutory authorization (a commissioner pay change) or legislative approval to reassign funds.

What’s next: The governor’s recommendation included a 5% commissioner pay increase and did not recommend the IRIS contingency fund. The committee asked the agency for more detail on IRIS costs and contracted maintenance and for a fleet inventory and exact vehicle histories; the agency agreed to provide those breakdowns in writing.

Ending: Director Gutierrez closed by thanking the committee for past support of the commission’s strategic initiatives and asked for support of the 2026 budget requests to sustain performance measures and timely services for injured workers and victims of crime.