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Idaho Department of Labor seeks $7.33 million in dedicated spending authority for UI operations; explains trust‑fund posture
Summary
Director Janie Rivera told lawmakers the Department of Labor needs $7.33 million in dedicated‑fund authority to maintain unemployment insurance operations as federal pandemic grants decline and described the state’s unemployment trust‑fund reserves and borrowing options.
BOISE — The Idaho Department of Labor asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee on Feb. 21 for $7.33 million in dedicated spending authority to sustain unemployment insurance (UI) operations as federal pandemic funds decline, and it explained the state’s UI trust‑fund posture and options should benefit payouts exceed reserves.
Department Director Janie Rivera told the committee the agency expanded staffing during the pandemic to handle a surge of claims and has since reduced staff through attrition, but federal grants that helped pay those costs are now declining. "During the pandemic, the department got a significant increase in federal grants. … As these federal dollars are declining, we need to keep all of those operations going," Rivera said.
Why it matters
The request is for dedicated (not general) funds and aims to preserve staff and operations — including determinations, appeals and employer compliance — so the department can respond quickly if unemployment spikes again. Rivera said the department prefers to avoid over‑relying on temporary federal grants and needs flexible state spending authority while federal funding levels remain uncertain.
Details and background
Brooke Dupree, the legislative analyst, explained the department’s consolidated fund analysis and described a proposed cash transfer of $4,868,600 from the Unemployment Penalty and Interest Fund back to the Employment Security Fund to correct prior accounting transfers. The department also requested $161,000 for Office of Information Technology Services (OITS) hardware (70 laptops and docking stations and 70 desktops).
Rivera described Idaho’s UI trust fund as robust: state code sets tax rates and benefit formulas and the trust fund is designed to cover severe downturns by looking back over historical claim years. "We know right now that we have enough money to make it through a Great Recession incident," Rivera said, adding that if the fund were exhausted the state could borrow from the federal government or use bonds as it has in past recessions.
Staffing and budget mechanics
The department said it typically maintains an overhang of funded FTP (full‑time positions) to allow rapid hiring in a downturn; the agency’s filled FTP percentage was presented at about 73 percent historically. Rivera and analysts agreed to provide the committee a more detailed breakdown of current baseline staffing, pandemic hires, and how much salary savings have been used or reverted versus spent in other categories.
Next steps
Committee members asked for follow‑up materials showing staff counts by function, historic staffing fluctuations during downturns, and more detail on how the requested $7.33 million will be allocated across claims determinations, appeals and compliance. Rivera said the department would provide those figures to the committee.
