BOISE, ID – The Idaho House of Representatives passed the first five budget bills of the 2025 legislative session Thursday afternoon.

The budgets the Idaho House approved are called “maintenance of operations budgets” under the new budget procedures the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, unveiled last year.

JFAC is a powerful committee that meets daily during the legislative session and sets every budget for every state agency and department.

Under the new budget procedures, JFAC’s co-chairs describe the maintenance budgets as bare-bones versions of the previous year’s budget with all of the one-time funding and new spending requests stripped away. The maintenance budgets are designed simply to keep the lights on for state agencies. Meanwhile, new spending requests are considered “budget enhancements,” which are voted on separately at a later date.

The five maintenance budgets approved Thursday lump many state agencies together under one heading. The five budgets include budgets for the legislative branch of government, statewide elected officials called constitutional officers, natural resources, the Idaho State Board of Education and public schools.

Each passed Thursday with near-unanimous bipartisan support.

“I was silently cheering from my seat on the floor,” JFAC Co-chair Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said in an interview. “I am really excited our (legislative) body has recognized this is a healthy process. We didn’t see any debate against it.”

Each of the five maintenance budgets the Idaho House approved will be sent next to the Idaho Senate for consideration.

Despite approving spending plans, JFAC has yet to set a revenue projection

Although the Idaho House voted to approve five budgets Thursday, legislators still don’t know exactly how much money they have available to spend this year. That’s because JFAC has not set an official revenue projection for fiscal year 2026.

JFAC discussed setting a revenue projection during the second week of the legislative session on Jan. 16. But that day, JFAC members voted down two different revenue proposals and opted to set the revenue figure at a later date. As of Thursday, the Idaho Legislature still doesn’t have a revenue projection for fiscal year 2026.

Rep. Rod Furniss, a Republican from Rigby who is a member of JFAC, said he thinks JFAC needs to set a revenue figure.

“It sets a limit on the amount that we can spend, and so just like in your household, you wouldn’t go out and spend a bunch of money and then set your income limit (afterwards),” Furniss said in an interview. “That’s really the same concept that we have in the state, and we just need to set that so we know where it’s at.”

Horman said she hopes JFAC sets the revenue target “sooner rather than later.”

Horman said she has spoken with the House members who serve on JFAC and says they are comfortable with the recommendation issues by the Idaho Legislature’s Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee.

“The House is ready to move, the Senate is not and that’s why there is a holdup,” Horman said.

“We are waiting for the Senate to get comfortable with a number,” Horman added.

JFAC has a full agenda scheduled for Friday, including action on 26 different fiscal year 2026 budgets.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.