Idaho’s History of Rejecting Federal Funding
The Idaho state legislature has a long history of refusing federal money offered to the State. In many cases, the money offered did not require any additional funds from the state. In other words, no strings attached free money.
Legislators have cited the reasons for rejecting the money to reduce government overreach, trimming our state budget or simply philosophical disagreement with the programs.
However, this capricious and arbitrary refusal of funding hurts Idahoans that need it the most and removes millions of program dollars that would go into local economies.
Here are just a few examples of federal funding that total over $150M that the Idaho legislature has rejected that have cost the state millions of dollars. This money could have benefitted many thousands of Idahoans.