Workforce Development Council urges consolidation of STEM Action Center, shifts funds to expand LAUNCH grants

The Idaho Workforce Development Council asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee to approve a policy change to transfer the STEM Action Center's responsibilities into the council and to reallocate existing In‑Demand Careers Fund dollars to expand LAUNCH grants for eligible students.

In testimony, Brooke Dupree, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, said the In‑Demand Careers Fund was created by House Bill 1 (2022 extraordinary session) and is supported by an $80,000,000 sales‑tax distribution. Dupree told the committee the council is requesting an expenditure‑category transfer totaling $1,150,000 that would, she said, "allow for up to 143 more students annually to get grants of up to $8,000." Dupree also summarized that the council has 14 authorized FTEs and noted reappropriation authority has driven differences between appropriated amounts and actual expenditures.

Wendy Seacrest, executive director of the Workforce Development Council, told lawmakers the policy bill would remove the STEM Action Center from statute and transfer roughly $3,023,400 in general‑fund support into the council while reducing the STEM Action Center's general‑fund line by about $3,362,400, yielding an anticipated $339,000 net savings to the general fund. "If there are any dollars left in that, they will be transferred into the workforce development training fund," Seacrest said of the STEM dedicated fund.

Committee members pressed agency officials on the $10,000,000 cash‑transfer language the committee approved earlier and whether that move could reduce awards for the Class of 2026. Seacrest explained the $10,000,000 transfer to the general fund reflected reversion of unspent personnel and operating dollars from prior years and warned that a full pull of the transfer after Dec. 31 could force the agency to cancel awards it had already processed. To avoid that outcome she recommended legislative language allowing "up to $10,000,000" to be transferred so the council can complete award processing and then return any unspent dollars.

Lawmakers also asked about compliance and repayment. Seacrest cited November JFAC figures showing roughly 360–400 students (about 6% of those fully awarded) were under repayment status and that the agency was owed about $582,000, with $111,000 already repaid. She said the Tax Commission's collection services have been discussed but that limited staff capacity and collection economics complicate pursuing the full debt.

Seacrest framed LAUNCH and related workforce investments as early‑stage but promising: she cited a State Board of Education report that found a 5% increase in the Class of 2024 going on to postsecondary education and a 12% decrease in students leaving Idaho for college. The council also reported training roughly 20,000 Idahoans collectively through multiple programs and that adult LAUNCH participants saw an average 39% wage increase one year after training, figures Seacrest said are part of the agency's performance measures.

Seacrest told the committee ARPA‑funded grants (about $80,000,000 total, split into $30,000,000 childcare and $50,000,000 workforce training grants) were awarded as one‑time investments and must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026. She said the agency received limited‑term positions to administer those grants and that FY28 budgets will look different once ARPA reappropriations end.

The committee did not take a final vote on the policy bill during the hearing; members requested additional detail on the draft legislation, fund accounting and repayment amounts and signaled interest in limiting transfer language to preserve award processing.

The hearing moved on to other agency presentations; the committee adjourned with an invitation to view artifacts from the Idaho State Historical Society.