Secretary of State asks for steady funding for voter guide, IT subscriptions and a deputy business director

The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee reviewed the Secretary of State’s budget, which includes a mix of ongoing and one‑time requests to support elections, business services and IT systems.

Analyst Christopher Lahoset told the committee the office currently has 35.5 authorized full‑time positions and noted the legislature provided a one‑time $10 million appropriation in FY24 for an elections system upgrade; roughly $2.5 million of that has been spent and the remainder was reappropriated into FY25.

The office’s enhancement requests for FY26 include a $400,000 ongoing appropriation to fund a mailed voter guide to Idaho households (Lahoset detailed a $300,000 mailing cost and $100,000 printing cost in the budget book), $287,100 for ongoing software subscription costs (campaign finance and lobbyist software), $26,000 one‑time to cover a federal DMV system upgrade fee, and $20,000 ongoing for IT training. The office also seeks one‑time funding to double‑fill its deputy business director during a planned retirement so the incoming manager can be trained.

Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the panel the voter guide is his “number one policy initiative” and said voters and multiple public polls asked for a mailed guide with candidate information for both primary and general elections. He described the office’s recent IT investments — including a new campaign finance system, a lobbyist reporting system and the Vote Idaho website — as work the $10 million investment enabled: “We’ve already rolled out 3 major IT projects,” McGrane said.

Committee members asked about the recurring costs of subscriptions, why the DMV access fee is one‑time, and whether the voter guide should be funded every year; McGrane explained the timing of primary and general elections relative to fiscal years and said the guide would be an annual program because the state’s two election cycles fall in alternating fiscal years. He also described the department’s business‑services workload, saying staff handled large volumes of filings and tens of thousands of phone requests and that maintaining staff expertise is important for revenue‑generating services the office provides.

Why this matters: the Secretary of State’s office administers elections, business filings and public records that affect voters and businesses statewide. The committee pressed for clarification on recurring costs and the specifics of one‑time requests; Secretary McGrane said an RFP process is underway for the core elections management system and that bids are being evaluated.