Dominated by a series of tax cuts, Idaho Legislature adjourns 2025 legislative session

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — As expected, the Idaho Legislature wrapped up its business Friday and adjourned the 2025 legislative session after 89 days at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. 

The 2025 session was dominated by a series of tax cuts that also reduce the amount of state revenue that is available to pay for the state budget. 

• House Bill 40 lowers both the individual and corporate income tax from 5.695% to 5.3% and reduces state revenue by $253 million.
• House Bill 304 shifts money to a state property tax reduction fund and a fund to pay for school facilities. To pay for the shifts, the new law reduces state revenue by $100 million.
• House Bill 231 increases the grocery tax credit that is designed to offset the sales tax Idahoans pay for food to $155 per year for everyone. To pay for the increased grocery tax credit, House Bill 231 reduces state revenue by $50 million.

Another new law, House Bill 93, provides a refundable tax credit for education expenses for families, including tuition and private, religious schools. To pay for the tax credits, House Bill 93 reduces state revenue by $50 million. 

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said the tax cuts were among the biggest, most enduring accomplishments of the year.

“We have over $400 million in tax relief this year,” Moyle said Friday afternoon.

“We touched income tax, we touched property tax, we touched sales tax and we did a good job of adjusting all of those in a downward trend, which is good for the state of Idaho,” Moyle said.

Each of the laws reduces the taxes Idahoans pay, help pay down school bonds and levies that are paid for by property taxes or provides a tax credit. But to do so, those four laws reduce state revenue by a combined $453 million.

Democrats say walking away from funding hurts Idaho

Democratic legislative leaders had a different perspective on the tax cuts, saying that they worry the Idaho Legislature cut too much revenue and could stretch the state thin in the event of an economic downturn.

House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, also said that to make room for tax cuts, Republican legislators walked away from grant programs and zeroed out a series of initiatives from Gov. Brad Little. Rubel said legislators walked away from $15 million from the affordable housing fund, $22 million for road and bridge repair, almost $25 million in home energy rebates that will now go to other states, cut a requested expansion of a rural physician loan repayment program, cut workforce training programs at Idaho colleges and more. 

“These are debts that are going to be left for our children and grandchildren to pay with a shrunken pot of revenue to cover it,” Rubel said Friday. “This is the textbook opposite of fiscal conservatism, folks.”

In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, Little congratulated legislators on what he called “a productive 2025 legislative session.”

“America wants what Idaho has – safe communities, bustling economic activity, increasing incomes, tax relief, fewer regulations, fiscal responsibility, and common sense values,” Little wrote. “I thank my partners in the Idaho Legislature for working so hard for the people of Idaho. I am especially proud of the record tax relief, support for law enforcement, ongoing money for water infrastructure, additional support for rural school facilities and literacy, full funding for Launch, and the billions in additional capacity for roads. The list of successes is long, and there is still more we can and should do for Idahoans.”

Idaho legislators united beyond anti-SLAPP law and created new media shield law

While there is no doubt the 2025 legislative session was contentious and divisive, legislators from both parties did come together at times.

On March 5, the Idaho House voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 1001, a new law designed to protect free speech and combat frivolous strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP, lawsuits. Little signed the anti-SLAPP bill into law March 10. 

The Idaho House and Idaho Senate also voted unanimously to pass House Bill 158, a new media shield law that protects sources who provide confidential information or documents to journalists. Little signed the shield protections into law on March 27.

The Idaho Legislature also passed House Bill 445, the 2026 Idaho Department of Water Resources budget that includes $30 million in funding for water infrastructure projects. Following a 2024 water curtailment order that sent shockwaves through Idaho’s agricultural community, some legislators called House Bill 445 the most important bill of the 2025 session

Idaho legislative session ran two weeks past nonbinding adjournment target

This year’s legislative session was marked by a sharp increase in the volume of legislation that was prepared. According to data compiled by the nonpartisan Idaho Legislative Services Office, as of Friday staffers prepared 1,036 pieces of legislation this year – by far the most pieces of legislation in the past six years. For comparison, over the same time period in 2023, staffers had only prepared 861 pieces of legislation. 

Idaho legislators missed the Republican leadership team’s original adjournment target date of March 21 because the 2026 budget was unfinished and because of ongoing disagreements between leaders of the Idaho House and Idaho Senate.

Legislators nearly wrapped up their business for the year Thursday, when they passed key unfinished elements of the 2026 budget. But Senate leaders said they were short-staffed and the procedures required to wrap up the session would have kept them too late last night. 

Friday was the 89th day of the 2025 legislative session, which began Jan. 6.

The 2024 legislative session adjourned sine die on April 10, after 94 days in session.

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