Elected leader wants Legislature’s help to make DOGE-like cuts in Ada County
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Commissioner Davidson urged the Legislature to reduce county service mandates.
- Ada County officials cited DOGE principles but noted limited budget flexibility.
- Rising costs and expiring federal aid could force tough choices on staffing budgets.
Ada County Commissioner Ryan Davidson hinted at finding ways to bring DOGE, aka the Department of Government Efficiency, to the budget this year.
Davidson in February urged department heads to be “wary of Elon’s example,” even as he said the county’s budget was efficient. He said the government could possibly find a different way to do things.
But those words are bumping up against the reality that the Idaho Legislature requires the county to provide many services. Now, Davidson said he wants lawmakers to remove some of those mandates and look at privatizing some functions that counties handle.
“This is as much going to be a testimony to the Legislature,” Davidson said during budget hearings in mid-June. “Just exactly how many of our duties and responsibilities are chosen for us, not by us, but by the state Legislature.”
On a federal level, Elon Musk’s efforts leading President Donald Trump’s DOGE proved to be divisive, tanking revenue at his company Tesla. Several lawsuits against his cost-slashing actions are working their way through courts. At a rally in March in Boise, the audience booed Musk’s name, and a speaker said he was concerned about the firing of forest management employees. Idaho veterans have also protested against Veterans Affairs cuts.
But Idaho lawmakers this year invoked DOGE when it came to cutting state budgets and ultimately formed a DOGE task force to cut jobs, minimize employee travel and merge agencies.
The trio of Ada County commissioners asked each county department head to explain what percentage of their budgets are for services required by statute. In most cases, the answers were more than 90%.
“It puts the legislators on notice,” Davidson said by phone. “Just not a lot of meat on that bone.”
One cost Davidson says could be cut are legal notices. In past years, Davidson has pushed to allow counties to stop paying to publish the notices in local newspapers. A bill in the Legislature to do that died this year but will probably come back next year, he said.
Counties could also save money by allowing private attorneys to serve legal papers, rather than requiring sheriff’s deputies to, he said.
Commission Chair Rod Beck said the county posted a 47-page document online, listing every statute outlining Ada County’s required services. Ada County’s legislators were invited to attend or watch the county’s mid-June budget hearings, though none were there in-person.
“The more the Idaho Legislature understands our challenges, the better we can work together to come up with solutions that benefit all Ada County taxpayers,” Beck said on June 9 during the hearings.
Part of the idea of listing Ada County’s requirements is to show people who want cuts that they may not be possible, Commissioner Tom Dayley told the Idaho Statesman by phone. He said he appreciated the federal government’s focus on efficiency, but Ada County has operated on the DOGE ethos for years.
There’s still room in the budget for services that aren’t necessarily required, Dayley said. For example, Ada County operates more than just the one required Department of Motor Vehicles office per county, so people don’t have to spend hours waiting in line for key licensing and driver services.
“If we feel we need to cut (the budget), we will,” Dayley said. “With inflation and the increase in the growth and increase in needs, cutting just for cutting’s sake is probably not prudent.”
This year, with American Rescue Plan Act funds gone and a growing population, there isn’t enough money in the budget to fulfill every request, Davidson said. The debate will likely come down to a choice between giving existing employees raises or hiring new employees to ease overworked staff, he said.
“This is the tightest budget year since I got elected in 2020,” Davidson said. “There’s some tense negotiations going on now.”
