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Idaho Department of Labor requests $7.33 million in dedicated fund spending authority for unemployment operations
Summary
Department of Labor director told the Joint Finance committee that declining federal grant funding after pandemic-era peaks requires more dedicated‑fund authority to preserve core unemployment insurance operations and staffing readiness for future downturns; lawmakers asked for staffing numbers and more detail on fund balances.
The Idaho Department of Labor asked the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee for $7,330,000 in additional dedicated‑fund spending authority to maintain unemployment insurance operations as federal pandemic grants decline.
Director Janie Rivera explained the request as a response to falling federal administrative grants that previously covered a portion of the department’s operating costs. Rivera said the department is not seeking general fund support; instead it wants authority to shift spending to dedicated funds so it can preserve staff and services while federal funding remains uncertain.
“How do we have a permanent grant that keeps going forever and gets rolled into the base? That's my question,” a committee member asked. Rivera described the funding mechanics and the reason for the request: the federal grant used during and immediately after the pandemic has been declining and the department needs dedicated‑fund spending authority to keep core operations running and stay prepared to scale up if unemployment rises.
Rivera and Legislative Services staff described several related budget items, including a requested cash transfer of $4,868,600 from the Unemployment Penalty and Interest Fund to the Employment Security Fund to correct an accounting overtransfer and an item to provide 70 laptops and docking stations recommended by the Office of Information Technology Services. An analyst pointed to a roughly $47 million projected ending fund balance for FY26 in an illustrative scenario without the transfer; the transfer would reduce the ending balance by about $4 million.
Rivera summarized how Idaho manages unemployment finance and program duration. The department oversees a continuously appropriated trust fund used to pay benefits; it runs projections and sets tax rates to maintain solvency. “Mister chairman, so we have about a billion dollar trust fund,” Rivera said, describing the fund as sufficiently solvent now and noting the state can borrow from the federal government or issue bonds if it exhausts the fund as happened in some states during prior downturns.
Rivera also explained how benefit durations are set in state law and vary with the unemployment rate: Idaho’s indexing produces durations that range from as low as 10 weeks to as many as 26 weeks depending on unemployment; at the time of testimony the committee was told the effective duration was 21 weeks under current conditions. She offered to provide a fact sheet and to supply more detailed staffing and spending figures for the committee.
Lawmakers pressed for more data. Several members asked for the department’s staffing baseline, how many positions were added during the pandemic (the director said roughly 100), and how staffing needs increase during spikes in claims. Rivera said she would follow up with precise figures on baseline staffing, pandemic hires and the department’s plan for scaling staff up or down.
What’s next: The department agreed to provide the committee a follow‑up package with staffing counts, detail on how salary savings are used, and a clearer breakdown of recent federal grant levels and how the requested dedicated‑fund authority would be applied.
