BOISE, ID – Idaho legislative leaders said Friday they expect a short 2026 legislative session that centers around budget cuts and tax cuts.

During the Idaho Legislature’s Legislative Council meeting Friday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, legislative leaders said they will convene the 2026 legislative session Jan. 12 and hope to adjourn for the year March 27, though there is no official deadline to end the session.

If they hit the nonbinding adjournment target, the legislative session would run 74 for days, which would be the shortest session since 2014.

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said he expects the session to be short because of budget cuts and the 2026 election, where all 105 seats in the Idaho Legislature will be up for election.

“Generally, when we have years like this where the budgets are tight we’ll get things done faster because we don’t fight amongst ourselves as much,” Moyle said. “There’s nothing to fight over. So hopefully we can move that date up. This is an election year, and I assume that everybody around this table is going to be a target of somebody.”

High-stakes party primary elections take place in May, and legislators generally look to wrap up legislative sessions early in election years so they can return to their districts and campaign.

Revenues are lagging behind projections in the state budget

State budget and revenues are also likely to be a major issue during Idaho’s 2026 legislative session.

Through the first two months of the current fiscal year 2026, state revenues have come in $22.6 million, or 2.8%, below the state’s revised forecast.

The revenue shortfall is occurring after the Idaho Legislature cut state revenues by more than $450 million during the 2025 legislative session to pay for tax cuts and a new education tax credit that reimburses families for eligible expenses including tuition at private, religious schools.

In simple terms, revenue is the amount of money state officials have to spend in the state budget, and the Idaho Constitution prohibits expenses exceeding revenues.

Taxes are the largest source of state revenue in Idaho.

Idaho state revenues continue to lag behind budget projections

To prevent a budget deficit, Gov. Brad Little announced that all state agencies – other than public schools – must cut 3% from their budgets in the current fiscal year. Little then made the 3% budget cuts permanent moving forward.

Aside from the revenue shortfall and budget holdbacks, there are still other unresolved budget questions.

There are about $109 million in general fund supplemental funding requests for the state of Idaho’s current fiscal year 2026 budget, said Keith Bybee, division manager for the Idaho Legislative Services Office’s budget and policy division.

The Idaho Legislature gets the final say on supplemental budget requests, which will be discussed during next year’s session.

Additionally, Idaho’s latest revenue and budget projections do not take into account the cost of conforming to the tax changes made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law this summer.

“This is going to be an interesting year, because we’re going to be in a year where we’re going to be reducing budgets, and probably will be reducing taxes too because of some of the federal implications with the Big, Beautiful Bill,” Moyle said.

The nonprofit Tax Foundation estimated it could cost Idaho $167 million to conform to tax changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Those tax changes include no tax on workers’ tips and no tax on workers’ overtime.

Because of the cost of revenue shortfalls, the supplemental funding requests and the cost of implementing the federal tax changes, House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, has said the state could be facing a potential budget deficit of $200 million or more.

“This is not a disaster on the horizon; this is a disaster right now,” Rubel told the Idaho Capital Sun earlier this month.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.