Idaho’s DOGE efficiency pursuits continue with recommendations for elimination, consolidation | State

The Idaho Legislature’s DOGE task force considered 10 proposals Wednesday as part of the committee’s efforts to better allocate resources across the various agencies and departments of state government. 

Idaho’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), taking after the federal government’s initiative of the same name, has been holding regular meetings to identify efficiency targets since the task force was initiated this summer. The committee of state legislators heard 10 recommendations to achieve this end by consolidating or eliminating several state entities.

Of these proposals, six were recommended for legislative action:

Moving Idaho’s Bingo-Raffle Advisory Board under the Lottery CommissionIntegrating the Idaho Soil & Water Conservation Commission with the Idaho Department of Water ResourcesMoving the STEM Action Center under the Idaho Workforce Development CouncilEliminating the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Early Intervention Regional Committees Eliminating the Idaho State Agriculture Department’s Honey Commission Integrating the Sheep & Goat Board with the Department of Agriculture

Wendi Secrist, executive director of the Idaho Workforce Development Council, spoke to the proposed integration with the STEM Action Center on Wednesday.

As an example of existing collaboration, she said the two bodies had already been working together since 2019 on a externship program that provides teachers and college career advisers with workplace training over the summer to better teach in-demand skills and provide perspective on the various career opportunities available.

In addition, Secrist said several of the STEM Action Center’s programs were already geared toward engaging private and public individuals inside and outside of school, a broad scope that would fit under the Workforce Development Council’s purview. 

Secrist said she expects the merger as proposed to save over $300,000 per year, and, as part of the proposed integration, two action center positions would be eliminated while six others would transition to working under the Workforce Council.

Though supportive of the merger proposal and the associated cost savings, Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, said he hoped to see metrics in the future to more accurately measure how the STEM Action Center drives positive career outcomes for Idaho students.

Committee members also considered, but ultimately held off on, integrating the Idaho State Brand Board into the Idaho Department of Agriculture. The board currently functions as a branch of the Idaho State Police and is tasked with preventing cattle theft in the state.

Deputy Director of the Idaho State Agriculture Department Lloyd Knight said there was existing clientele crossover between the two, but the department’s focus is on animal health regulation, in contrast with the ownership concerns of the Brand Board. Given these differing missions, Knight said there is that was “a lot of study that needs to be done” before consolidation is recommended to the legislature.

Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, indicated openness to shifting away from the board’s self-governing status to bring direct control of the body to the Legislature. Where he saw issues arise was the law enforcement role of the board, that is distinct from operations under the agriculture department. 

Spencer Black, immediate past president of the Idaho Cattle Association, urged that any integration between the two bodies come before the cattle industry and said that, due to the variety of livestock stakeholders involved, it could be a multi-year process before a stakeholder group was assembled and a collective decision was made to change the present operations.

Committee members voted in favor of reviewing the integration proposal further before recommending legislative action.

Beyond the difficulty of altering industry-specific operations, the meeting also provided insight into some of the challenges arising from eliminating certain commissions, even those that have gone underutilized in recent decades. The proposal to eliminate the state’s Dormitory Housing Commissions (DHC) served as an example of this Wednesday.

Jennifer White, executive director of the Idaho State Board of Education, provided perspective on the commissions, but said they are independent from the education board and instead function as independent bodies associated with the general operation of community colleges. 

When these commissions were created in 1957, White said they were meant to provide community colleges with a way to finance residential and other student facilities.

This mechanism has fallen out of favor in recent decades as the community college funding models have shifted towards philanthropic contributions, internal reserves, state appropriations and other alternatives to bonding, she said, adding that the College of Western Idaho, College of Eastern Idaho and College of Southern Idaho are each examples of community colleges that do not use DHCs.

Coeur d’Alene’s North Idaho College (NIC) still uses the funding mechanism, however, and currently has a $7.2 million DHC-owned bond for its recreation center, White said. This complicates a full repeal of the DHC statute as it could harm the state’s bond market credibility if a carve-out was not made for the college to protect their existing bond, she said.

Due to the market dynamics of the area, North Idaho College students continue to face significant difficulties securing housing, which has brought a “substantial and persistent” waitlist for campus residences and, in turn, a continued reliance of this commission, White said.

“I would say that NIC is very emphatic that this works well for them given their model,” White said, “and I think we would need to speak to them directly about whether other alternatives have been explored with their commission.” 

Heeding these concerns, the committee motioned to take more time to review the future of the DHCs before providing recommendations to the legislature.

The DOGE Task Force intends to hold one more meeting in December to finalize its legislative recommendations. While this will be the last meeting before the start of the legislative session, Rep. Jeff Ehlers, R-Meridian, underscored that the state’s cost-cutting and consolidation pursuits are intended to be a “multi-year project.”

The legislators on Idaho’s DOGE Task Force are Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa; Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene; Sen. Camille Blaylock, R-Caldwell; Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, D-Boise; Rep. Jeff Ehlers, R-Meridian; Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard; Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello and Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle.