BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is in the midst of significant budget cuts, and some lawmakers want those cuts to reach the state’s new $50 million school choice tax credit program.
Sen. Kevin Cook (R) of Twin Falls faced some pushback Tuesday during a Senate Education Committee meeting after he proposed cutting the program by 4% in 2026 and 5% in 2027.
WATCH | Hear from lawmakers about the proposal
“Usually you don’t get a lot of hard questions in a print hearing but I got some pretty good hard questions there,” Cook said.
Sen. Cindy Carlson (R) questioned the move, noting that the program has yet to fully launch.
“This is the first year of implementation of this legislation we haven’t even seen it get off the ground yet and we’re already cutting from it,” Carlson said.
Gov. Brad Little recently approved a 3% budget holdback for all agencies. Last week, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted for an additional 1% holdback for 2026 and 2% for 2027.
Cook argued applying the same cuts to the new program would be fair.
“Everybody gets the same haircut and instead of trying to say — well I’m going to really nail it to you, this program — let’s just do it fair,” Cook said.
Sen. Tammy Nichols (R), opposed the reduction arguing the brand new program has a lot of interest from Idahoans.
“We have families that have been planning to participate in this and I don’t want to cut them short,” Nichols said. “And with this new program, I’d rather just keep it whole for right now.”
Cook maintained their need to make cuts to help balance the budget.
“Well if it’s the first year, why not take some of that money back because nobody’s getting anything yet, so let’s take back the 4% and the 5% for next year. They didn’t like that, but I thought that was still a good idea. Nobody’s used to it, nobody’s getting hurt — it’s just taking some of that money back,” Cook added.
The initial proposal passed 6-3 and will now be assigned a bill number before being scheduled for another committee hearing.
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