Governor’s executive budget emphasizes education, reserves, transportation and wildfire funding

BOISE — Laurie Wolf, administrator of the Division of Financial Management, told the Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee on Jan. 8 that the governor’s executive budget is a “keeping promises” budget that balances conservative revenue estimates with targeted investments in education, infrastructure and emergency response.

The budget summary Wolf presented projects $5.9 billion in general fund revenue in fiscal 2025 and about $6.2 billion in fiscal 2026, and recommends leaving a combined ending balance after proposed spending and transfers of roughly $383 million in FY 2025 and $227 million in FY 2026. Wolf said the proposal also transfers money to reserve accounts, including a recommended $59 million transfer to the budget stabilization fund and $50 million to the public education stabilization fund for FY 2026.

Wolf said the administration used conservative revenue forecasting when assembling the proposal and deliberately left “healthy ending balances” to hedge against potential revenue volatility. “This is his keeping promises budget,” Wolf said, referring to Governor Brad Little, and added the plan pairs those commitments with higher reserves.

The governor’s top priority in the executive request is education. The budget proposes…