Idaho administration budget review highlights governor's housing stipend, insurance valuation gaps

Frances Lippett, a budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the Department of Administration’s budget is funded largely by dedicated funds and that only about 10% comes from the general fund.

The department oversees public works, purchasing, group insurance and other centralized services for state agencies. Lippitt said the department’s dedicated fund balances—including investments—have ranged substantially over recent years and that the office manages continuously appropriated accounts such as the group insurance fund.

Why it matters: the committee heard two items flagged as potential near-term problems. First, the governor’s housing fund lacks a steady revenue stream and will be exhausted without additional appropriations. Second, the state’s risk-management program has found inconsistent or inaccurate property valuations across agencies that have led to some buildings being over-insured.

Lippitt said the governor’s housing committee established a monthly housing stipend currently set at $4,551. The transcript contains two different figures for the department’s current general-fund request: she said earlier that the department requested $60,600 for fiscal 2026 after the legislature did not fund a $30,000 request for fiscal 2025, and later the department’s presentation referenced $660,600. The transcript therefore records inconsistent requested amounts for fiscal 2026; the committee asked staff to provide the committee with the committee’s most recent report and statutory history of the governor’s housing program.

Director Steve Bailey (Director, Department of Administration) told the committee the Governor’s Housing Committee meets annually and that recent meetings discussed potentially revisiting a governor’s mansion but that the committee had not advanced construction plans. He confirmed there is property set aside (described in the transcript as a revocable easement with the City of Boise) but that no construction decision has been finalized.

On insurance and risk management, Faith Knowlton (administrator for the department’s insurance programs) told the committee that the office currently has one analyst responsible for a very large portfolio—"over $11,000,000,000 in property" and more than 8,500 vehicles—and that the division has found instances of buildings listed in the state system that were demolished years earlier. Knowlton said the division has begun a four-year appraisal program to catch errors sooner and is requesting an additional property-value analyst to manage agency submissions centrally. She said when the division has removed demolished buildings from the inventory it could only seek refunds "for the within the current year." She added that an initial set of appraisals removed roughly $500 million in over-insured property values, which the office estimated saved the state about $120,000 in the first year of correction.

Committee members pressed for more detailed fund accounting and ongoing reporting. Representative Tanner asked for a breakout of continuously appropriated expenditures for the retained-risk account; Lippitt agreed to provide the committee with more detail. Senator Bjerke and others asked staff to provide lists of projects or funds that have not advanced within committee-imposed time limits (the committee asked for reports on projects that have not had a “shovel in the ground” within four years).

Ending: committee members asked the Department of Administration and legislative staff to return with more precise documentation: (1) a clear identification of the statute(s) and the historical report the governor’s housing committee maintains; (2) a reconciliation of the differing stipend-request figures in the transcript; and (3) a roll-up of continuously appropriated line items and retained-risk accounting detail to allow the committee to track true ending fund balances.