House Republicans typically take questions from reporters after the legislative session wraps up — but not this year.
House GOP leadership didn’t show up for a post-session news conference Friday, after originally indicating they would hold a question-and-answer session.
But Democratic leaders were there, and had a lot to say about Republicans’ decisions this year, from budget cuts necessitated by 2025’s historic tax cuts, to a late-session “turducken of procedural mayhem,” as House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel put it.
“We are in an unbelievable mess that they created out of whole cloth,” said Rubel, D-Boise. “I wouldn’t want to be standing up here answering questions on what they did this session.”
House GOP leadership includes:
- Speaker Mike Moyle of Star
- Majority Leader Jason Monks of Meridian
- Assistant Majority Leader Douglas Pickett of Oakley
- Majority Caucus Chair Jaron Crane of Nampa
Senate leadership typically doesn’t hold news conferences after legislative sessions, nor does Gov. Brad Little until weeks after adjournment.
The session ended Thursday, after 81 days marked by debates over budgets and high-stakes policies that touched on teachers’ unions, virtual education, health care and immigration, among other topics.
On Thursday, Little’s office published a news release headlined “Gov. Little’s ‘Enduring Idaho’ plan clears Legislature.”
“For months, the Idaho Legislature and I worked closely to balance the budget and rightsize spending in line with taxpayers’ means,” Little said in the release. “Some of the budget decisions were not easy, but I am pleased the Legislature stuck to my Enduring Idaho plan — a forward-looking, responsible budget that keeps our state on a strong trajectory.”
The session started with a roughly $555 million hole in the budget, after last year’s $453 million in tax cuts and credits took effect and as tax collections missed projections for much of the fiscal year. While the Legislature adopted most of the governor’s budget recommendations — including keeping K-12 public school spending flat — lawmakers diverged on some key decisions.
For one, Statehouse Republicans made cuts to most state agencies, excluding public schools, beyond the 3% that Little enacted — an additional 1% this fiscal year and 2% next fiscal year. Little ultimately signed the deeper cuts into law, after his office warned they could cause long-term damage.
GOP lawmakers also implemented federal tax cuts in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” this fiscal year, an estimated $155 million hit on the budget, after adopting a revenue target $153 million higher than the governor’s office projections. Little proposed waiting until next fiscal year to implement the federal tax cuts, which are expected to cost the state $175 million in FY 2027.
And on the education front, the Legislature passed:
- A $10 million 2027 cut to Idaho Launch, Little’s prized higher education scholarship program
- Cuts to the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, which were $3.5 million higher than Little recommended
- Cuts to virtual public schools, which were $20 million lower than Little recommended
Democrats Friday took aim at both the governor and Republican lawmakers, highlighting the tax cuts that drained state coffers and led to this year’s “fight over scraps.” Lawmakers were “forced to choose” this session “between meeting basic needs and protecting the next round of talking-point tax cuts,” said Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow.
“Idaho is something you shouldn’t have to endure, right?” said Wintrow, D-Boise, putting a twist on Little’s “Enduring Idaho” slogan. “Idahoans have endured a lot this session: broken promises, bad budgeting, culture war distractions and poor governing dressed up as leadership.”
Democrats also slammed this week’s late-session “radiator-capping” schemes — when a bill on the House or Senate floors is replaced with another bill that didn’t go through the normal committee process. The Senate used this method to pass a bill restricting teachers’ union activities, which is now on the governor’s desk. The House did it on an immigration-enforcement bill, which the Senate later rejected.
Democrats had “very grave concerns” about the substance of these bills, but “even bigger concerns” about the process, Rubel said. Radiator-capping bypasses the public’s opportunity to lobby their government, she said, and committee hearings are where lawmakers find out about problems in a bill.
“It erodes any possibility of public confidence in government when we do business this way,” Rubel said. “There is nothing so urgent that it is worth short-changing the public and their opportunity to speak to their government on that kind of level.”
