Idaho Gov. Brad Little vetoes five bills after 2026 legislative session adjourns

by Clark Corbin, Idaho Capital Sun
Original Posted April 9, 2026

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little vetoed five bills Wednesday after the Idaho Legislature left town for the year, ensuring that state legislators will have no power to override his veto. 

Little vetoed the bills late Wednesday, and his office announced the vetoes just before noon on Thursday. 

Two of the bills were late-session budget bills. One involved transferring cash and interest payments around to prop up the state budget, and the other involved the cap limiting the amount of money that can be deposited in the state’s main rainy day savings account – the Budget Stabilization Fund. 

Whether it was intended this way or not, there may be an element of payback to Little’s veto of the two budget-related bills. Throughout the 2026 legislative session, new budget committee co-chairman Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, publicly criticized Little, alleging the governor’s budget recommendations were full of irresponsible gimmicks. Then, at the end of the legislative session, Tanner and the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee called for transferring cash and interest payments around between different accounts and funding sources after Tanner called Little irresponsible for recommending cash and interest transfers earlier in the same year. 

In one of his veto letters written Wednesday, Little wrote that transferring money away from a payroll fund set to be used in fiscal year 2028 to avoid budget hardships today would create an even bigger hardship down the road.

“The Twenty-Seventh Payroll Fund was specifically established in statute to prepare for years in which that state incurs an additional payroll cycle,” Little wrote. “Idaho will face such a year in fiscal year 2028. Redirecting these funds now undermines their intended purpose and would place the state in a difficult position when those obligations come due. Preserving these funds today avoids more disruptive or costly decisions in the next budget cycle.”

Technically, Little vetoed four bills and utilized a line-item veto twice on a fifth bill. The vetoes include:

• House Bill 674, which related to the discontinuation of telephone service and the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. 
• House Bill 758, which related to day care supervision requirements and would have made an exception for children that could be counted in attendance at a day care.
• House Bill 975, which would have allowed the Idaho Legislature to ignore the 15% cap in state law on the balance of the Budget Stabilization Fund and prevent excess funding from being transferred out of that savings account into the state general fund. Little’s veto ensures that any additional money above the cap will be transferred to the state general fund, rather than sitting in a state reserve fund. 
• House Bill 968, which was intended to transfer cash and interest payments around to prop up the general fund portion of the state budget, guard against a potential budget deficit and ensure that the state ends the next fiscal year with a budget surplus of $150 million. Little issued two line-item vetoes, which prevented the Idaho Legislature from moving around state funding that is intended to pay for an additional 27th payroll period in 2028 and prevented the Idaho Legislature from transferring money from the permanent building fund into the legislative account. Aside from the elements of the bill he line-item vetoed, Little signed the rest of House Bill 968 into law. 
• Senate Bill 1359, which related to virtual currency kiosks. The bill, according to its statement of purpose, “requires kiosk operators to register with the state, provide clear fee and exchange rate disclosures, post fraud warnings, maintain transaction records, and implement reasonable transaction limits and basic fraud-prevention safeguards.” The governor said in a press release that the bill “contains critical drafting deficiencies that would undermine its own purpose.”

Wednesday’s vetoes were the first that Little has issued in all of 2026. The five vetoes were also the most that Little has issued in any year. Little is now in his eighth year as governor. 

Normally, the Idaho Legislature would have the ability to override any bills vetoed by the governor. 

However, Idaho legislators chose to adjourn the legislative session for the year on April 2 rather than going at recess to see if Little vetoed any bills. If legislators had taken action to go into a recess rather than adjourn for the year, they could have returned to Boise and attempted to override the vetoes with a two-thirds supermajority vote of each legislative chamber. 

Even though he vetoed five bills Wednesday, Little has not yet acted on all of the late-session bills passed by the Idaho Legislature. State records show Little has until 5 p.m. Tuesday to act on the remaining bills. 

Efforts to reach Tanner and House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, were not immediately successful Thursday afternoon.

Although the Idaho Legislature cannot override Little’s vetoes, the Idaho Legislature does have the power to call itself back into session to create a new, special legislative session. In 2022, Idaho voters approved an amendment to the Idaho Constitution that allows the Idaho Legislature to call itself back into session within 15 days of a written request of 60% of the members from both the Idaho House of Representatives and the Idaho Senate.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.