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Courses › Local Government 101: Budgets, Levies and Bonds

Lesson 9 of 9 · about 17 minutes

Following the Money and Testifying on a Budget

You'll be able to

  • Use the notice, agenda and executive session rules in Idaho's open meetings law
  • Request the budget records that matter, with the right response deadlines in mind
  • Know which hearings give residents a legal right to be heard
  • Recognize what makes three minutes of budget testimony effective: specific numbers and one clear request

The tools for following local money already belong to you. Idaho law opens the meetings and the documents, and the budget statutes let you stand up at the hearing and speak. Most people never use any of it, which is why the few who do get listened to.

Meetings: where decisions have to happen

Idaho Code 74-203 says all meetings of a governing body are open to the public, and no decision may be made by secret ballot. Idaho Code 74-204 sets the notice rules:

Meeting typeMeeting noticeAgenda notice
Regular5 calendar days (or a yearly schedule, for boards that meet at least monthly)48 hours
Special24 hours24 hours
Executive session only24 hours, stating the reason and the statute24 hours
EmergencyAs practical, with the emergency stated at the startSame

Notices go in a prominent place at the agency's office, and online if the agency has a website or social media presence. Agenda items that need a vote must be marked as action items. Routine items can be bundled into a consent agenda, but 74-204(4) keeps ordinances, fee resolutions and anything needing more than a simple majority off it. Any member can pull an item from the consent agenda.

Executive sessions are the exception, and Idaho Code 74-206 keeps them narrow. The motion must cite the specific subsection, take a two-thirds roll call vote, and stay on that subject. Allowed reasons include hiring, discipline, buying real property, records exempt from disclosure, talking with counsel about pending or likely litigation, and labor contract matters. And 74-206(3) is blunt: "No executive session may be held for the purpose of taking any final action or making any final decision."

Jeff's Idaho Open-Meetings Compliance Tracker is built for logging meetings against these rules. The Journalism Basics module covers the law in more depth in its open meetings lesson.

Records: the documents behind the numbers

Idaho Code 74-102 says "every person" has a right to examine and copy public records, with a presumption that records are open unless a statute says otherwise. Under 74-103, the agency must grant or deny a resident's request within three working days. If it needs more time to find the records, it must say so in writing and provide them within ten working days. Requests from nonresidents get 21 and 35 days. The request must clearly say it is a public records request and go to the agency's designated custodian.

The Idaho FOIA / Public Records Letter Generator drafts these requests. The public records lesson in Journalism Basics covers exemptions and follow-up.

A budget records checklist

Checklist

  • Department budget requests and the budget officer's suggested budget (spring)
  • Tentative budget, the published hearing notice and the adopted appropriation (summer)
  • The L-2 certification to the county, and any forgone reserve or recovery resolutions (September)
  • The Tax Commission's maximum budget and forgone worksheet for the district (its Reports and Statistics page)
  • The last three audits and management letters
  • The debt schedule: every bond, its rate, payment and final year
  • Utility rate studies and the annual impact fee report
  • The check or warrant register for the year, and credit card statements
  • Contracts over a set amount, and any change orders on big projects
  • For urban renewal: the agency's annual report and the value in each revenue allocation area

Where you have a right to be heard

The open meetings law guarantees your right to attend. Your right to speak comes from specific hearing statutes, and from each board's own rules for general public comment.

HearingWho may speakStatute
City budget hearing"Any interested person may appear and show cause" why the budget should or should not be adopted50-1002
County budget hearingAny taxpayer "may appear and be heard upon any part or parts" of the tentative budget31-1604
School district budget hearingPublic hearing required before adoption33-801
Fee increase over 5 percent or new feePublic comment hearing after notice63-1311A
Forgone reserve or recoveryPublic hearing after notice63-802(1)(e), (f)
Impact fee capital improvements plan and ordinanceAnyone affected may appear and present evidence67-8206

Timing is most of it

WhenWhat you can still change
Spring workshopsPriorities: which programs, positions and projects get money
Before the notice is publishedThe property tax request ceiling
Budget hearingCuts to the advertised total; whether forgone is reserved or recovered
After adoptionMostly nothing until next year, except mid-year amendments
Board of equalization (by fourth Monday of June)Your own property's value, not anyone's budget

What testimony that works looks like

Boards hear a lot of general anger about taxes. They act on specific, documented requests. Good testimony fits in three minutes, which is roughly 400 spoken words. It says who the speaker is, names the number in question, asks for a change and gives the reason.

  • The speaker gives a name and where they live in the district. Boards weigh their own residents.
  • It cites the line. "Fund 10, police, vehicles, $186,000" beats "too much spending."
  • It makes one request the board can vote on.
  • A written copy goes to the clerk with a request that it go in the record.
  • It skips insults. They make a point easy to dismiss.

Example: testimony at Larkspur's budget hearing

Before the August hearing, a resident named Dana Ruiz (invented) pulled the city's L-2 from last year, the Tax Commission's forgone worksheet and the published notice. She found that Larkspur's maximum allowed budget was $4,424,962, the notice advertised $4,300,000, and the city planned a resolution to reserve the $124,962 difference as forgone. Her three minutes:

Good evening. I'm Dana Ruiz, 412 Alder Street. I'm here about the forgone resolution on tonight's agenda.

The notice asks $4,300,000 in property tax, which is under the city's maximum of about $4.42 million. Thank you for that. But the resolution would reserve the $124,962 difference so the city can collect it in later years. Forgone balances never expire under Idaho law, so this decision adds to what future councils can levy without a vote.

The city already carries a forgone balance from earlier years. I asked for it and have not received a total. I request that the council table the reserve resolution until the clerk publishes the city's full forgone balance and the purpose it is meant for, so residents know what is being banked.

I've left a written copy with the clerk with the figures and my sources. Thank you.

She used about 140 words. That left time for a council member to ask a question. She named one vote the council could take. And her numbers came from the city's own documents, so nobody could wave them away.

Common mix-ups

  • Claim: Boards can decide anything behind closed doors if they call it an executive session. What the evidence shows: Only listed topics are allowed, the motion must cite the subsection, and no final decision may be made in the closed session.
  • Claim: Public records requests take months. What the evidence shows: For Idaho residents the law sets three working days, or ten with written notice. Electronic conversions can take longer by agreement.
  • Claim: Testifying is pointless because the budget is already decided. What the evidence shows: It is mostly decided by the hearing. That is why early testimony at workshops, and specific requests at hearings, have the best record.

Reporting angle

  • Cover workshops, not just hearings. Write down the options discussed and dropped.
  • Record every executive session: date, subsection cited, length, and whether a vote followed in open session.
  • File the same budget records request with every district on your list in May, then again in September, and compare.
  • Count how many residents testified at each budget hearing over five years. Low turnout is a story about civic health, and it tells readers how few voices it takes to be heard.
  • Quote testimony with names and addresses only as they appear in the public record.

Research angle

Check yourself

1. Under Idaho Code 74-204, how much notice must a governing body give of a regular meeting's agenda?

2. Which of these may never happen in an Idaho executive session?

3. An Idaho resident files a public records request with a city. How long does the city have to grant or deny it, before any extension?

4. Can an Idaho city put a fee resolution on its consent agenda?

5. A resident wants to persuade the council to move money from a new vehicle purchase into library hours. When is her testimony most likely to work?

Terms in this lesson

Action item
An agenda item marked to show the board may vote on it. Idaho law requires items needing a vote to be labeled this way.
A group of routine items approved with one vote. Any board member can pull an item off it for separate discussion.
Executive session
A closed part of a public meeting, allowed only for reasons listed in Idaho Code 74-206 and never for a final decision.
Custodian
The person or office designated to receive public records requests for an agency.
Testimony
Comments given at a public hearing, spoken or written, that become part of the official record.

Full glossary

Sources