Sauter provides update on 2026 Legislature at local town halls

Topics include state budget, health care funding and access, lake management

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, met with constituents throughout District 1 at a series of legislative town halls Jan. 31, including in Bonners Ferry, Priest River and Sandpoint. 

Fellow Dist. 1 Rep. Cornel Rasor, R-Sagle, attended the Bonners Ferry event, but “something came up,” Sauter said, and his colleague was unable to take part in the other gatherings. Dist. 1 Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, was unavailable due to a family emergency, in which his 26-year-old son suffered a serious work injury and is undergoing treatment in Seattle.

That left Sauter “carrying the show,” as he put it, providing about 100 attendees at the Sandpoint Community Hall with a summary of the 2026 legislative session so far and fielding questions about policy priorities.

Leading off the presentation — which took place as about 500 demonstrators lined First Avenue outside the Community Hall in an “ICE Out” protest over immigration enforcement — Sauter said the Legislature underwent a leadership “shakeup” in the fall of 2025, as several committee chairs were replaced following vacancies.

In the 2026 session, which gaveled into session on Jan. 12, lawmakers are facing a headline-grabbing projected budget shortfall, which has resulted in wide-ranging proposed budget cuts — even as revenue figures remain in flux and the impact of federal tax conformity remains to be seen.

“There’s been a lot of different changes in the past few months,” Sauter said, noting that some have been “good,” while others need more analysis. Meanwhile, arriving at a balanced budget is the overarching goal — “after all, that’s the No. 1 priority for the Legislature,” he added.

While much of the commentary and reporting on the projected state budget deficit over the past several months has been about imbalances between spending and revenue, Sauter said the other question is whether Idaho has “a cash flow issue” — specifically related to the new tax provisions contained in the federal One Big, Beautiful Bill Act passed in July 2025, which statewide businesses began applying before lawmakers approved legislation on how (or whether) to conform to it.

As of Jan. 31, Sauter said that may result in $155 million in revenue that the state won’t collect.

“We’re getting the best information that we can, and we’ll continue to try and make the best decisions that we can, but it’s a moving target between new people, new leadership and a lot of different facts that are flying around the room,” Sauter said.

He addressed a number of budget holdbacks, including $22 million from behavioral health programs, which have been opposed by law enforcement officials around the state — including Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler — who fear that cutting back those programs will result in undue burdens on hospitals and jails, while also threatening public safety.

“It may very well turn out that we end up costing our communities $100 million to $150 million dollars,” with those reduced behavioral health services, Sauter said.

“Everybody’s concerned, because if we don’t take care of our behavioral health issues, we fill up hospital beds — it’s expensive. It takes up space, fills up jail cells,” he added. “There are problems that come with behavioral health issues, so we don’t want that from a public safety perspective. So, we’re trying to take care of that issue, but it’s a work in progress.”

Meanwhile, following Gov. Brad Little’s directive that state agencies reduce their budgets by 3% in Fiscal Years 2026 and ’27, Sauter said the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee have also called for 1% to 2% cuts, including to health and welfare and K-12 education.

However, Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield, Secretary of State Phil McGrane and Attorney General Raúl Labrador have all “stood pat” and indicated they will not make those cuts, Sauter said. Whether those officials are compelled by JFAC to make the cuts before their budgets are approved is unclear, and Sauter said it will be “a battle that we’ll have to just watch play out.”

Less than a month into the session, Sauter said there were as many as 100 bills working their way through the Statehouse. However, the legislation that he and Woodward crafted in the 2025 session to include a health-of-the-mother exception in Idaho’s strict abortion statute is “stuck.”

“So far, [House State Affairs Chair Brent Crane] will not hear it, so that’s the power of the chairs,” Sauter said, adding, “Now I’ve taken that whole issue and literally plopped it on the speaker of the house’s chair … I don’t think that’s a good choice for our area.”

At the same time, though Sauter said he has met with state transportation officials about U.S. 95 improvements — including a bypass at McArthur Lake — funding at the Statehouse has been essentially stopped for any projects that weren’t already poised to start. 

Likewise, the picture for funding rural health care is murky. One portion of the Big, Beautiful Bill includes about $900 million for rural health care, but Sauter said, “it’s to be determined how that’s all going to work out.”

Sauter also gave an update on the Lake Pend Oreille economic impact report, which he and Woodward helped shepherd to fruition over the past year, and told town hall attendees that the final analysis shows that, “If the lake was managed differently, it appears that our community would be more in the black by like $20 million to $25 million a year.”

Convincing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other regulators to change their policies will be a heavier lift than completing the study, but Sauter said having solid numbers to back up arguments about keeping higher lake levels will help make the case.

Also related to management on Lake Pend Oreille, Sauter reported that so far the Lakes Commission is safe from the Idaho DOGE effort, which has placed a number of agencies and programs on the block to reduce expenditures, and he will “go to every meeting I can to save that.”

“There’s lots of sobering things to work on,” he said.

Listen to a recording of the full town hall event at krfy.org/podcast.