Department of Lands defends fire budget as governor backs large transfers to suppression fund; timber protective associations and Good Neighbor Authority draw $

The Idaho Department of Lands told the Joint Finance/Appropriations Committee that wildfire response and preparedness remain the department’s top budget priorities and described how recent legislation and federal partnerships affect its funding. The governor’s budget recommended substantial transfers to bolster the state’s fire suppression deficiency fund and included firefighter bonuses for department employees; Timber Protective Associations (TPAs) and other partners asked for parity for their employees.

Legislative analyst Janet Jessup framed the Department of Lands budget and noted the agency operates several dedicated funds, including a continuously appropriated Fire Suppression Deficiency Warrant Fund that the legislature has prefunded in recent years. Jessup said the fund historically receives transfers and that in 2015 the legislature began pre‑funding the account in anticipation of suppression costs.

Director Dustin Miller described the department’s fire workload, recovery and reimbursement dynamics with federal partners, and detailed the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) program that allows Idaho to conduct timber sales on federal lands to accelerate restoration. Miller said the GNA program has generated about $40 million to date and that roughly $18 million of GNA timber‑sale revenue has been used to cover department costs, with roughly $5 million for personnel, about $1 million for operating costs, about $1 million to the U.S. Forest Service, and about $6 million for restoration contracts and NEPA work.

On budget specifics, Jessup summarized the governor’s recommendations: a $40 million transfer from the general fund to the fire suppression deficiency fund and a $60 million supplemental transfer for the current fiscal year (fiscal year ’25) to the same fund. The governor also recommended $1 million in firefighter bonuses for Department of Lands employees. The TPAs asked separately for $250,000 in bonuses so TPA firefighters—who are not state employees—would receive comparable payments.

Committee members discussed the volatility of suppression costs and the timing of reimbursements with federal partners. Miller said reimbursement and cost accounting are complex and can take years to settle after a large incident. He told the committee the suppression account balance was about $35.8 million at the time of the hearing and projected, without the governor’s recommended transfers, the balance could fall to about $13 million in FY2026 once outstanding cost shares and invoices are paid.

The committee also covered staffing and programmatic enhancements requested by the department. Among the personnel requests were a fire emergency support program manager, a fire aviation section manager, a statewide forest assessment program manager, an assistant fire warden for the Ponderosa area, a fiscal/financial specialist, and a forest program specialist. The department described these positions as part of a multi‑year effort to modernize the agency’s fire program, improve coordination with local municipal fire departments and federal partners, build aviation capacity, and improve timberland assessments to capture required fire assessments.

Timber Protective Associations operate as quasi‑state entities that provide fire protection on private forestlands. Jessup explained that TPAs receive a portion of timberland assessments collected by the Department of Lands; these are private‑land assessments and not general fund dollars. The governor’s recommended CEC (cost of employee compensation) placeholder for state employees did not automatically apply to TPA employees, so the department requested a line‑item CEC for the TPAs to provide similar personnel parity.

On abandoned mines, Director Miller said the department prioritizes nearly 9,000 abandoned mines statewide and that the abandoned‑mines funding stream has not kept pace with the work required to close and secure those sites. Miller said the abandoned mine fund receives a small portion of the mine license tax and that additional funding and industry partnership would be needed to speed closures.

No committee votes were taken during this portion of the hearing. Committee members asked for additional data on historic suppression costs and the department said it would follow up with the committee on multi‑year cost history and the timing of federal reimbursements.

Ending: committee thanked Department of Lands staff and its partners, and the hearing moved on to other agenda items.