BOISE, ID – The Idaho Senate voted 28-7 on Tuesday to pass the first of 10 new budgets that include 5% budget cuts for most state agencies and departments next year.

The Idaho House of Representatives and the Idaho Senate already voted last week to approve 4% budget cuts for most state agencies in the current fiscal year 2026 budget.

The Idaho Legislature is cutting budgets in fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027 to make room for federal tax cuts that President Donald Trump championed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and to ensure the state passes a balanced budget in the face of ongoing revenue uncertainty.

There are nine other fiscal year 2027 maintenance of operations budgets. The Idaho House passed two others late Tuesday afternoon, while the Idaho Senate passed one additional maintenance budget late Tuesday. Six other fiscal year maintenance of operations budgets have yet to be taken up by the Idaho Senate or Idaho House as of this article’s publication deadline.

Fiscal year 2026 ends June 30, and fiscal year 2027 begins July 1.

“This is actually just tightening our belt – getting through the next year, maybe two,” said Senate Bill 1363’s sponsor, Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls, on Tuesday. ”But this is a very responsible maintenance budget.”

Idaho Senate Democrats push back on state budget cuts

Senate Democrats opposed the natural resources budget cuts, which they said will deeply hurt programs and services that a fast-growing state like Idaho should instead be investing in.

Democrats said their Republican counterparts who control a supermajority in the Idaho Legislature created the budget crunch by passing five years worth of income tax cuts that reduced state revenues by a total of $4 billion.

“If we had managed our revenue a little bit better last year, or the last four to five years and not cut it so hard, we might not be in the situation we’re in today,” Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said.

Democrats said the new natural resources maintenance budget cuts are too deep and will cause the state to cut back on upkeep of state parks, reduce wildfire prevention work, cut back on water quality testing for harmful algal blooms that can sicken people and kill pets, and make it harder for the Idaho Department of Water Resources to administer water rights.

“These maintenance budgets, again, (are) hardly maintaining anything but ongoing deep cuts that will affect services that we depend on and need in our state, in particular fire and water,” Wintrow said.

The natural resources budget provides funding for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Idaho Department of Lands, the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation and the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

“We live in a country where when things come up like this and we have to tighten our belt, we step up,” said Sen. Christy Zito, R-Mountain Home, who supported the cuts.

The fiscal year 2027 natural resources maintenance of operations budget heads next to the Idaho House of Representatives for consideration.

Idaho House also passes two maintenance budgets

A few hours after the Idaho Senate passed the first maintenance budget, the Idaho House quickly passed two other budgets without any debate Tuesday afternoon.

House Bill 847 reduces general fund spending for the Idaho Judicial Branch by $3 million in fiscal year 2027. The bill includes funding for court operations, the Guardian ad Litem program and the Judicial Council.

House Bill 848 reduces general fund spending for the legislative branch of government by $359,100.

It took less than 10 minutes for members of the Idaho House to pass both budgets without debate.

Finally, the Idaho Senate returned to work late Tuesday afternoon and passed another fiscal year 2027 maintenance of operations budget. Senate Bill 1361, reduces the general fund portion of the state budget by $3.3 million for fiscal year 2027 for public safety. The budget includes funding for Idaho State Police, the Idaho Department of Correction and the Idaho Department of Juvenile Correction.

After a short debate, the Idaho Senate voted 24-11 to pass the fiscal year 2027 public safety budget.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.