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Idaho Department of Labor seeks $7.33 million in dedicated spending authority, explains unemployment trust fund posture
Summary
Department officials told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee they are requesting $7,330,000 in dedicated fund spending authority for ongoing unemployment‑insurance operations and explained how the state’s unemployment trust fund and federal grants affect staffing and reserves.
The Idaho Department of Labor asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee for additional dedicated‑fund spending authority to maintain unemployment‑insurance (UI) operations as federal grant support declines and to authorize a cash transfer between agency funds to correct prior accounting transfers.
Analyst Brooke Dupree walked the committee through the Department’s consolidated fund analysis and described a requested cash transfer of $4,868,600 from the Unemployment Penalty and Interest Fund back to the Employment Security Fund; Dupree said the transfer would reduce the agency’s projected ending balance by roughly $4 million. Dupree also presented an ongoing enhancement request of $7,330,000 for unemployment insurance operations in the department’s dedicated fund, noting no additional FTP were requested because existing positions are available to be filled.
Director Janie Rivera told the committee the request responds to volatility in federal grant funding used to administer UI. “During the pandemic, the department got a significant increase in federal grants,” Rivera said. As federal grant amounts fall with lower unemployment, she said, the department needs dedicated‑fund authority to continue core adjudication, payments, appeals and compliance work and to hold staffing capacity that can be ramped up if a recession increases claims.
Rivera explained the department’s unemployment trust fund is continuously appropriated and has historically ranged from tens of millions to more than $200 million during COVID‑era spikes. She said Idaho’s trust fund is currently “very healthy,” and that if the state ever exhausted trust fund resources the department could borrow from the federal government or issue bonds; she said the department would not come to the Legislature seeking general‑fund support for UI benefit payouts.
Committee members asked for additional detail on staffing and expenditure patterns. Senators requested the department provide actual staffing counts, the department’s baseline permanent staff level, and how staffing has fluctuated during prior economic events. Rivera said she would provide the committee with more precise figures showing baseline staff counts, the positions added during the COVID surge (about 100 additional staff at that time) and how the department adjusts staff during economic cycles.
Other items discussed included: the department’s practice of maintaining an excess of FTP to allow rapid hiring in a downturn; the trustee and benefit payments the agency pays from a continuously appropriated fund (Dupree referenced prior years’ trustee payments that ranged up to about $200 million during COVID); and a one‑time hardware request for OITS‑recommended equipment (laptops/desktops) included in the agency package. The governor recommended the Department’s enhancement requests.
No formal motions or committee votes were taken during the presentation. The committee asked the department to provide follow‑up materials, including (1) a breakdown of how salary savings or unspent federal dollars have been used in recent years; (2) a clear staffing table showing baseline and surge hiring levels; and (3) details explaining federal grant calculation and the department’s estimates for future federal funding.
