Department of Lands seeks new fire positions and steady Good Neighbor Authority funding as governor trims some requests

The Idaho Department of Lands told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Monday that it is seeking additional personnel for its fire program, steady funding for Good Neighbor Authority projects on federal lands and parity for Timber Protective Association firefighters, while the governor's recommendation included large transfers to the fire suppression deficiency fund but did not approve all of the agency's one-time requests.

Janet Jessup of the Legislative Services Office explained the department's budgeting framework and noted the department receives revenue from many dedicated funds. She told the committee the fire suppression deficiency fund is a continuously appropriated account the agency may draw from when suppression costs exceed appropriated levels and that the legislature has increasingly pre-funded the account in recent years.

Director Dustin Miller, who appeared with senior agency staff, described several proposed FY2026 personnel additions tied to fire-management modernization. "These recommendations' for positions such as a fire emergency support program manager, a fire aviation section manager and a statewide forest assessment program manager 'are in alignment with our long term planning efforts for the fire program," Miller said, adding the positions would improve coordination, aviation oversight and timberland assessment work.

Jessup and Miller discussed the Timber Protective Associations (TPAs), which are quasi-state entities that provide fire protection on privately owned forest lands and receive assessments and other funds through the Department of Lands. Jessup clarified that TPA employees are not state employees and therefore did not receive the 5% cost-of-living/compensation enhancement (CEC) that the legislature awarded to state employees; the department requested a line-item equivalent. "Those TPA employees are not state employees, so this holds them with a degree of parity to our state employees that are firefighters," Jessup said.

The governor recommended bonuses and transfers tied to suppression costs. Jessup described the governor's package as including a $1,000,000 firefighter bonus that applies to Department of Lands employees (but not initially to TPA employees), and she said TPAs later requested an additional $250,000 to cover bonuses for their employees. The governor also recommended transfers into the fire suppression deficiency fund: Jessup said the proposal included a $60,000,000 supplemental transfer for the current year and an additional $40,000,000 transfer from the general fund, intended to prefund the deficiency account.

Miller warned the committee that without additional general-fund transfers the suppression account balance could fall sharply. "That account could drop down to about 13,000,000 is what we're projecting, 13,000,000 for FY 26," Miller said, explaining the department still faces invoices and cost-sharing obligations that will be billed after fires are extinguished.

Good Neighbor Authority (GNA), a program that allows the state to perform work on federal forest lands, has produced receipts the department uses to fund staff, contracts and restoration. Miller told the committee "About $40,000,000 is what's been generated to date" through GNA activity and provided a breakdown the department uses to cover personnel, operating and restoration contracts, including several million dollars for restoration service contracts.

Committee members asked about abandoned mine remediation funding. Miller said the department faces a large backlog: "we have a huge task on our hands to close and secure nearly 9,000 abandoned mines across the state," and that the abandoned-mines fund has not kept pace with the work.

No formal committee vote was taken at the hearing. Committee members asked the department for follow-up information on historical fire-suppression expenditures and reimbursement timing from federal partners.

Why it matters: Department of Lands budget choices and transfers to the fire suppression deficiency fund affect the state's readiness to pay for large wildfires and funding for both public and private land firefighting partners, and policy decisions this year will shape the availability of preparedness and suppression resources going into fire seasons.