Following impassioned debate, Idaho Senate kills budget with health and welfare cuts

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — An impassioned debate from one of Idaho’s most experienced state legislators brought the Idaho Senate to a standstill Thursday and set the stage for the chamber to kill a budget that would impose budget cuts on health and human services programs. 

Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, called the new across-the-board budget cuts “a defining moment” in the Idaho Legislature and challenged legislators to do better. Guthrie debated specifically against Senate Bill 1375, the fiscal year 2027 health and human services maintenance of operations budget. 

But he made it clear he had concerns about several of the budgets and the process that produced the additional across-the-board budget cuts. 

“I’ve been here for 16 years, and every so often we experience a defining moment as we serve in the Legislature, moments that signal the path we choose for the state as we pass legislation, and that define us as legislators,” Guthrie said during his debate. 

Guthrie was first elected to the Idaho House in 2010 and has served in the Idaho Senate since 2012. He told senators that he began his legislative career during the Great Recession, which was the most recent time the Idaho Legislature had to impose deep, across-the-board budget cuts. Guthrie is one of the only legislators who has served since the Great Recession-era cuts who is still serving in the Idaho Legislature today. 

Republican Idaho senator calls ‘today’s financial pain’ largely ‘self-inflicted’

Guthrie told senators that the Great Recession-era budget cuts are totally different from the current cuts up for debate. From 2009 to 2011, Guthrie said, everybody understood the need to sacrifice and cut due to a deep, national recession. 

“The Great Recession was a testament to that resilient Idaho spirit,” Guthrie said. “But today’s challenge is not that; couldn’t be further from that. Today’s financial pain, in my opinion, is in large part self-inflicted.”

Guthrie blamed the budget crunch on tax cuts and spending decisions approved during so-called good years when Idaho was posting state budget surpluses.

“In bad years, you toughen up (and) make the hard decisions to survive, much like we did during the Great Recession,” Guthrie said. “During the good years, it can be tempting to overspend like there’s going to be no end to it, and you set yourself up for problems. So in a strong economy, last year, we spent and we gave over $450 million of tax relief along with other spending decisions, all before setting the revenue number, which was never realistic, because by May, we were in trouble. And by July, the 3% and 4% holdbacks for Medicaid were put in place.”

Guthrie said legislators also knew conforming to the federal tax changes President Donald Trump endorsed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was going to cause a financial hit to the state this year. Guthrie said legislators could have called a special legislative session to delay the implementation of state income tax cuts until the budget picture improved. But legislators didn’t do that and instead hoped a strong economy would bail them out, Guthrie said.

Guthrie also called out legislators for not cutting their own pay and benefits as they cut programs that will impact working Idaho families. 

“You know, we talked about tightening our belts, but that is not the case,” Guthrie said. “We’re not tightening our belts at all. We’re not taking a pay cut, we’re not compromising our benefits. We are tightening the belts of Idaho citizens, and the feedback from my constituents is that they are not happy about it.”

Other senators praised Guthrie’s debate on Idaho health care cuts

In a moment unlike any that has happened this year or in recent years, senators from both political parties stood up while voting after Guthrie’s six-minute debate to acknowledge the power of Guthrie’s words.

“That was the true speech of statesmanship, and I hope it’s recognized as such, and I hope the audience recognizes what it just heard,” Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, said. 

“If there was a time when I wanted to stand up and give a standing ovation to a testimony that was given on this floor, it was just a moment ago by the good senator from (District) 28,” Sen. Treg Bernt, R-Meridian, said, referring to Guthrie. “I hope you all paid attention, because he was spot on.”

Not only did Guthrie’s speech represent a rare moment of a Republican publicly breaking ranks with the majority party. The speech may have actually changed people’s minds. At one point during his debate, Guthrie seemed ready to admit defeat and admit the budget bill was going to pass.

“I could go on and on, but senators, I know what the vote count will be,” Guthrie said. “Wish it would be different. We are potentially doing real harm this year. As we find ourselves in this defining moment, we can do better, although it appears we’re not going to.”

But after Guthrie ended his debate, no other senator stood to debate against him. 

And when the vote count was called, 19 Republicans joined the six Senate Democrats in voting against the health and human services maintenance budget. 

That was enough for the budget to fail on a 10-25 vote.

The death of Senate Bill 1375 will almost certainly extend the length of the 2026 Idaho legislative session because the budget will need to be reconsidered and rewritten.

Ironically, the Idaho Legislature’s budget committee, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, had announced it had nearly finished its work on setting the state budgets less than two hours before Guthrie’s debate. The death of Senate Bill 1375 ensures that JFAC must get back to work setting a new budget.