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Committee reviews Department of Finance budget request, agency seeks cybersecurity-focused examiners
Summary
The Joint Finance Appropriations Committee heard the Department of Finance’s base budget review and a six‑position enhancement request focused on IT and investigative capacity. Director Patty Perkins and analysts described growing cyber‑fraud targeting older Idahoans; the governor recommended most but not all requested positions.
The Joint Finance Appropriations Committee on Jan. 21 reviewed the Department of Finance base budget and a fiscal‑year 2026 enhancement request that would add six full‑time positions, mostly focused on IT and investigative work, agency and legislative analysts told the committee.
Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst with the legislative services office, told the committee the Department of Finance requested six new full‑time positions and $816,600 from the state regulatory fund for fiscal year 2026, including IT examiners and investigator positions, and one‑time capital outlay for field equipment and laptops. Peterson said the governor recommended all of the items except two financial investigator positions for the Consumer Finance Bureau.
The request would create an IT examiner for the Financial Institutions Bureau, two financial investigator‑3 positions focused on IT for mortgage and consumer services, an IT‑focused securities examiner specializing in cybersecurity, and a forensic accounting examiner for the securities bureau. Salary levels cited in the request ranged from $82,500 to $121,300 depending on class and grade; one‑time hardware costs recommended by the Office of Information Technology Services were shown at about $52,600.
Director Patty Perkins, Department of Finance, told the committee the agency has seen “a huge increase in cybercrime” and said elderly Idahoans are a frequent target of fraud. Perkins said the department currently partners with the Idaho State Police and other law enforcement, and that some investigations—particularly those involving cryptocurrency—require specialized tools and expertise. “ISP has been kind enough to purchase those systems and allow us access to them for their cases, so that we can help them identify who is perpetrating the fraud against Elder,” Perkins said.
Senators on the committee pressed for data to justify hiring. Senator Cook asked for measurable baselines to evaluate return on investment, saying the agency’s outcomes were “very wormy and squishy.” Senator Wintrow said staff had done “amazing” work on elder fraud and asked the director to provide case counts, workload metrics and other supporting information; Perkins said the department would provide a more detailed briefing to the committee.
Peterson’s presentation also described the Department of Finance’s three dedicated funds—the state regulatory fund (operations), the mortgage recovery fund (statutorily limited to up to $50,000 use annually for administration) and the securities investigation/training fund (also statutorily limited to $50,000 for investor education). The agency reported it spends above 90% of its appropriation on average and that personnel account for roughly 78% of total expenditures.
No formal action or vote was taken during the presentation. Committee members asked the Department of Finance to supply additional workload and outcome data to support the enhancement requests before the committee makes budget decisions.
The Department of Finance presentation and the committee’s requests make the immediate next steps clear: the agency will submit the requested supporting data, and the committee will consider the governor’s partial recommendation alongside that evidence during subsequent budget deliberations.
