Rating: –1

Bill Summary:
Senate Bill 1220 (2025) reallocates funding for the Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR) without increasing the agency’s overall budget. It appropriates $48,300 in new personnel funding—$37,000 from the Indirect Cost Recovery Fund and $11,300 from the Miscellaneous Revenue Fund. Simultaneously, it reduces appropriations by the same amount—$30,400 from the Renewable Energy Resources Fund and $17,900 from the Petroleum Price Violation Fund. The bill includes an emergency clause and takes effect July 1, 2025.

Reason for Rating:
Although this bill does not raise total spending, it continues to fund an agency that lies outside the core constitutional functions of state government. The Idaho Republican Party Platform (Article I, Sections 1D–F) emphasizes that agencies not expressly required by the Constitution should be defunded or eliminated. Rather than winding down or consolidating the Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, this bill maintains its size by shifting funding sources—keeping alive a bureaucracy often tied to energy policy activism and federal climate-oriented grant programs. Even as a zero-sum transfer, S1220 sustains unnecessary state functions that should be left to the private sector or energy producers themselves, warranting a negative rating.