JFAC approves technical corrections and dozens of program-maintenance budgets, sending bills with due‑pass recommendations

The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a package of technical corrections and then set program‑maintenance budgets across most state government functions during its Jan. 17 meeting in Boise.

Budget staff told the committee the day’s technical corrections were mainly bookkeeping to place previously appropriated dollars in the proper fund or program for transparency and tracking. After those fixes, the committee voted through program maintenance appropriation motions for agencies ranging from the Legislative Branch and Judiciary to Public Schools and Health and Human Services. Most motions passed unanimously by roll call; a handful of items drew a single dissenting vote.

Why it matters: These votes set the baseline ongoing appropriations the legislature will use to build the 2026 budget. The motions primarily confirmed the prior session’s funding levels (minus one‑time items) plus small statewide adjustments (contract inflation and statewide cost allocation) and incorporated organizational realignments the Department of Health and Welfare requested.

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services Office, explained the first technical corrections. She told the committee that a reappropriation intended for the state broadband office was recorded under the Department of Commerce’s program last year, and the committee needed to move $291,737,000 in reappropriated funds out of the Commerce program and into the Broadband Office for transparency and tracking. The committee approved two motions to remove and then re‑add the same amount into the broadband fund; both motions passed on roll call with 20 ayes, 0 nays.

Other technical corrections approved early in the hearing included a $2,000,000 transfer from the general fund into the Department of Environmental Quality’s general fund appropriation to correct an earlier entry, and two expenditure‑category corrections inside the Department of Health and Welfare (moves between trustee/benefit payments and operating expenditures for two programs totaling $400,000). Those motions also carried unanimously.

After the corrections, analysts and agency staff walked the committee through program‑maintenance packages (the ongoing base plus statewide adjustments) for major state functions. Highlights: - Legislative Branch: The committee approved a program maintenance…