‘Small but mighty:’ Will DOGE try to kill this minority-focused Idaho agency?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- DOGE task force considers merging or eliminating Idaho Hispanic Affairs office.
- Commission operates with three staff members and a roughly $500,000 annual budget.
- Lawmakers split: Some push cuts; others defend small, efficient agency ahead of 2026.
State lawmakers could try to eliminate the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, an office which boasts three employees and a half-million dollar yearly budget.
The Legislature created the commission in 1987 to address issues for Idaho’s Latino population and form a bridge between the government and the community. Just under $260,000 came from donations and cigarette tax funds.
But while the state’s Latino population is growing and changing, the office is running into potential headwinds from lawmakers. Hispanic Idahoans make up 13% of the state’s population, and 83% are U.S. citizens, according to the commission.
The Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, served as a rallying cry for conservative lawmakers in the state. At the Capitol, one group of legislators calling themselves the “Gang of 8” voted against dozens of budgets in the 2025 legislative session, arguing for no new employees, no federal money and limited spending. The Legislature also approved $450 million in tax cuts.
A bill to create a DOGE committee failed to advance during the 2025 session, but lawmakers created a task force to consider cuts before the 2026 session.
During a Nov. 5 budget committee meeting, DOGE task force leaders presented a list of ideas that included merging or eliminating the Hispanic Affairs Commission, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. In an informal survey, committee members expressed a desire to look into the commission, according to committee co-chair Rep. Jeff Ehlers, R-Meridian. But opinions vary among lawmakers.
“There’s not a lot of money there,” said DOGE member Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, in a phone interview. Tanner said he doesn’t want to get rid of the commission but he doesn’t want the state to fund it. “They can go out and raise their own money.”
On the other hand, Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, is one of the most prominent voices against the commission. Lenney, who represents a city where a quarter of the residents are Hispanic, has posted multiple times on X about eliminating the office.
Lawmaker: ‘We don’t need commissions sorting people by ethnicity’
“There’s one race: the human race,” Lenney wrote in October. “We don’t need half-million-dollar commissions sorting people by ethnicity and teaching division.”
Slightly more than half the agency’s $546,000 budget for the year that started July 1 comes from state general-fund tax dollars. The rest, just under $260,000, comes from donations and tobacco-related funds, according to the commission.
In an email, Lenney wrote that the state was in a “time of fiscal constraint, and race-based commissions like this should be first on the chopping block when we’re looking at where to cut spending.”
Idaho legislators, facing a projected budget deficit, are working on finding efficiencies in state administration. But Tanner told the Statesman that saving money is not related to the potential deficit.
Annette Tipton, the director of the commission, declined to comment. Gov. Brad Little, who appointed Tipton in May, did not return a request for comment sent via a spokesperson. Tipton previously served in the Idaho State Controller’s Office and worked for major financial institutions, according to Little’s office.
Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, D-Boise, said she hadn’t been involved in any conversations about merging or eliminating the commission.
“I know that there are legislators who have raised the issue but I also know in terms of government efficiency, the Hispanic commission really is a shining star,” Semmelroth said. “It has a very modest, modest budget and only half of that budget comes from dedicated funds. That budget supports a very small but mighty staff.”
The DOGE task force members vote on recommendations, and it’s up to the legislature to act on them. The task force plans to meet once more this year, in December. But even if the Hispanic commission doesn’t come up then, Ehlers, the co-chair, stressed that this fall’s final meeting isn’t the end of DOGE.
“This is a multiyear project,” Ehlers said, during a task force meeting on Nov. 19, urging lawmakers to get their ideas in before the next meeting. “Otherwise, we’d have to wait until next interim to get it into another legislative session under DOGE.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
