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JFAC staff introduce SharePoint, new LSO impact team and hearing schedule to aid budget work
Summary
At its Jan. 8 meeting, the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee received a demonstration of a new SharePoint workflow for committee documents, heard introductions of Legislative Services Office staff and an LSO impact review team, and reviewed the committees hearing and work-group schedule for the 2025 session.
The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee on Jan. 8 demonstrated a new document workflow built on SharePoint, introduced Legislative Services Office analysts and an LSO impact review team, and reviewed the committees hearing schedule and work-group process for the 2025 session.
Committee members were shown how to access and save the legislative budget book and agency presentations from a central JFAC SharePoint repository and from the public "session record" on legislature.idaho.gov. Keith Bybee, division manager for the LSO Budget and Policy Analysis Team, told members the SharePoint structure mirrors the OneDrive system used elsewhere in the legislature and is intended to reduce duplicate downloads and make documents easier to annotate. "Think of SharePoint as that same mechanism," Bybee said during the demonstration.
The nut of the presentation was procedural: members must download files from SharePoint to edit them, a new naming convention groups analyst and agency materials together, and a facing-page layout in the budget book highlights added front-end reports, including a new sales-tax collections and distribution table. Bybee urged members to save files to their devices and use the repository before meetings so they arrive prepared.
LSO staff introduced at the meeting included Jared Tetreault (deputy manager, Budget & Policy Analysis), Shane Winslow (data systems coordinator), Janet Jessup (principal analyst, natural resources), Frances Lippitt (capital budgets and CEC assignment), Alex Williamson (health and welfare analyst), Brooke Dupree (transportation, commerce, labor), Tamara Figueredo (office coordinator) and several newer analysts assigned to specific portfolio areas (Kevin Campbell, Noah Peterson, Kellen McGurkin and Chris Lahoset). The committee also heard from Paul Headley of LSO, who introduced an LSO "impact review" team intended to provide targeted research support and short evidence reviews for legislators. Headley described the team as able to produce one- to two-page briefs or deeper research and said the group would focus on evidence for proposed programs: "As I've looked at performance measures, performance budgeting, recently and over the years, there's 1 word or 1 theme that kinda continues to rise to the top and that's evidence," he said.
Committee co-chairs and staff also walked members through the committee calendar and how JFAC work groups will operate. The committee will meet roughly 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. daily, followed by work-group meetings. Bybee said the first week is an orientation and the governor's budget presentation, with program maintenance budgets planned for week two and institution and transportation budgets in later weeks. He advised members to coordinate with the analyst assigned to their work group and to take advantage of one-on-one help from LSO staff on SharePoint setup.
No formal votes were taken on Jan. 8. Staff told the committee they will provide individualized assistance for members who need help connecting to SharePoint or saving files and that printed copies of the budget book remain available on request.
The committee recessed to individual assistance and will resume briefing and agency hearings in the coming days.
