Republicans broke the budget. Now they’ll come after vital programs | Opinion

There’s no sugarcoating it: Idaho is in a deep fiscal hole.

Halfway through the fiscal year, we are now $85 million below revenue projections and are facing a $555 million shortfall for even the bare-bones budget to keep agencies afloat next year. This has forced profound reductions to basic services, already causing real problems that are about to get much worse.

Sheriffs have warned of threats to public safety because of dangerous cutbacks to mental health services for the severely mentally ill. Nursing agencies warn of imminent closures because the state has cut payments to the point where they cannot operate. Funding for new roads and bridges will likely evaporate. Disabled kids are being left without caregiving services. Firefighting, law enforcement and prisons are all facing cuts from already inadequate budgets, jeopardizing our security.

Every critical service is facing cuts, and it’ll get worse when the legislature comes back in January. We hear plans to end Medicaid expansion, a critical lifeline for nearly 100,000 Idahoans, and to terminate the LAUNCH job training program that has multiplied earnings for tens of thousands of Idaho high school graduates. But even these painful cuts will not be enough to cover a shortfall of the magnitude we are facing.

We do not have a spending problem — our budgets are lean to a fault, with only essential personnel on the payroll. Idaho actually had a 19% turnover rate among state employees last year because state salaries are so low. What we have is a revenue problem, created entirely by GOP legislators who gutted our treasury with voucher schemes and tax cuts for the wealthy that left us unable to fund basic needs.

Last session alone, Republican politicians cut $450 million in annual revenue, despite warnings galore that we could not afford to do so. This came on the heels of almost $4 billion in revenue cuts since 2020. We are now in a position where we cannot afford to lose one more dime of revenue if we want to keep the lights on, and if anything, we need to recoup some income if we are to get out of this predicament.

The First Law of Holes is: when you’re in one, stop digging.

Maybe it’s too much to hope that the politicians who created this mess will admit their mistakes and reverse course, but at least they could stop actively making it worse. Yet all indications are that the GOP supermajority plans to keep digging the hole deeper at full tilt.

Republican lawmakers are pushing to change Idaho’s tax code to conform to Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which is expected to cause Idaho to lose an additional $300 million from our annual revenue — with some estimates closer to $500 million. On top of the $555 million shortfall we are already confronting, this would put us around $1 billion in the hole.

This financial gut punch would end any hope of adequately funding education, public safety, infrastructure and healthcare needs. Plus, there are other proposals floating to cut Idaho’s income tax still further, and to put more public dollars toward private school tuition subsidies.

Most Idahoans consider themselves fiscally conservative and think they’re getting conservative governance from our supermajority GOP legislature. Think again.

“Conservative” is defined as “careful, cautious, inclined to preserve traditional structures and institutions” — it does not mean reckless revenue cuts that empty our coffers and leave us unable to fund basic, necessary services.

Please reach out to your elected leaders and ask them to be truly conservative by preserving what little state revenue we have left in the 2026 session — to safeguard vital state functions rather than doubling down on policies that will financially destabilize Idaho for years to come. We Democrats will be pressing for genuine fiscal responsibility, but we need help from our colleagues across the aisle to get out of this budget hole.

Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, is the Idaho House minority leader. Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, is Senate assistant minority leader.

This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 4:00 AM.