Idaho Labor asks for $7.33 million in dedicated authority to sustain unemployment operations

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee heard a budget presentation from the Idaho Department of Labor, which requested $7,330,000 in dedicated‑fund spending authority for unemployment insurance operations and a cash transfer to correct an accounting imbalance.

Director Janie Rivera told the committee the request is intended to pay for existing operations as federal pandemic-era grant funding declines and to preserve staffing capacity that the department would need to expand quickly if unemployment spikes. The department emphasized it is not seeking general fund support for unemployment benefits.

Why it matters: the Department of Labor administers UI benefits, appeals and employer tax collection. Changes in grant levels or fund balances affect how the department staffs determinations, adjudication and employer compliance work; lawmakers sought data on staffing levels, how dedicated funds have been used and what borrowing options exist if trust-fund balances fall.

Key details • Request and purpose: the department requested $7,330,000 in spending authority from dedicated funds to support ongoing unemployment insurance operations now that federal pandemic grants have declined. Director Rivera said the funding would be used to cover existing staff costs that had previously been paid by federal grants.

• Cash-transfer request: the department proposed transferring $4,868,600 from the Unemployment Penalty and Interest Fund back to the Employment Security Fund to correct prior accounting transfers that exceeded statutory targets; analysts said the transfer would lower the ending fund balance by roughly $4 million.

• Unemployment trust fund and contingency options: Rivera said Idaho’s unemployment trust fund remains strong — "we have about a billion dollar trust fund" — and explained that, if the trust fund were exhausted during a severe downturn, the state could either borrow from the federal government or issue bonds. The department noted its tax-rate statute is backward‑looking and designed to smooth revenue across cycles.

• Staffing and operations: the department said filled FTEs have varied historically and that the agency maintains an excess of authorized positions so it can hire rapidly in a downturn. Legislators asked for follow-up with concrete staffing numbers, the share of salary savings spent versus reverted, and how the department apportions vacancy and overtime savings.

• Benefits rules explained: Director Rivera summarized how Idaho sets benefit duration and amounts in statute; duration varies with the unemployment rate (currently 21 weeks at a 3.7% unemployment rate) and weekly benefit amounts are capped in statute.

Follow-up and next steps Analysts and the department agreed to provide the committee additional detail on how salary and federal grant reductions have been handled, a breakdown of staff counts (baseline and pandemic peak), and a clearer outline of how the requested dedicated funds would be spent. No formal committee action or vote occurred during the hearing.