JFAC partially restores funding to judicial branch

BOISE — The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted to partially restore funding for certain divisions within Idaho’s Judicial Branch on Thursday. 

The pair of funding votes for Idaho’s Judicial Branch arrive after Idaho Courts were previously exempted from Gov. Brad Little’s 3% holdbacks before the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted in February to adopt 5% ongoing cuts for most state agencies in fiscal year 2027, including the Idaho Judicial Branch. 

One of the requests from the Judicial Branch sought authorization for a series of fund transfers, the first being a one-time appropriation of $800,700 from dedicated funds for the Senior Magistrate Judge Fund, which provides for costs associated with magistrate judge retirement benefits.

To make up for reductions to the branch approved by JFAC, the court also requested reducing its general fund expenditures by shifting several expenses to dedicated funds, which are earmarked funds with restrictions on how they can be used. That contrasts with general funds, which don’t have the same strict spending requirements.

The series of dedicated fund drawdowns includes $700,000 for the Drug Court, Mental Health Court, and Family Court Services Fund; $ 400,000 for the Substance Abuse Treatment Fund; and $2 million for the court’s technology fund.

With little comment from the committee, the motion to fund these programs passed handily, 17-1.

Though supportive of the court’s requests, Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, voiced concern about the fate of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s peer support programs, which have been integrated into the aforementioned treatment courts to direct individuals away from incarceration through mentorship by individuals who have experienced mental illness or recovered from substance abuse. 

In his annual state of the judiciary address in January, Idaho Supreme Court Justice G. Richard Bevan cautioned the Legislature about the loss of this program after the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare ended funding for it and other behavioral health programs as part of a series of behavioral health program cuts in the state. 

Though Bevan said in his address that the state’s judicial branch has allocated resources to sustain peer support services through the end of the fiscal year, it lacks a funding source beyond June 30. 

“We did not restore that money,” Wintrow said. "I wish we could find some way to do that and I would hope that we would think about how we could do that in another budget.”

JFAC also moved to restore funding for the Idaho Judicial Branch’s Guardian Ad Litem Division, which provides court-appointed volunteers to advocate on behalf of abused, neglected or abandoned children. 

The committee voted to allocate $77,900 on an ongoing basis for the Second Judicial District’s Court-Appointed Special Advocate program to hire a trainer or recruiter position to assist with their child advocacy efforts and provide funding for the various operating expenditures for the program.

An additional $87,400 (or 3% of JFAC’s 5% reduction) was restored for the Guardian Ad Litem Division on a one-time basis for the next fiscal year, leaving the full 5% reduction in place for the division’s subsequent budgets.

Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, brought forward the motion to fund the division and urged the committee to vote in the best interests of the children who are the beneficiaries of the court's services.  

Manwaring highlighted that these advocates serve children under 12 in particular and work with the child's teachers, attorneys, or social workers to advocate for the child's best interests.

The committee voted 14-4 to add and partially restore funding to the Guardian Ad Litem division.