BOISE — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador warned against cuts headed for his office on Wednesday as the state’s budget rescission legislation remains pending.

Labrador said he had no plans to testify prior to the Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee’s vote earlier this month to enact cuts of 4 percent for this fiscal year and 5 percent for the next for most state agencies. With the Office of the Attorney General now poised to face furloughs or layoffs after previously being exempted, Labrador ended up testifying before the body, urging its members to relent on their prior decision.

“When the governor did not recommend a 3 percent holdback for our office, I did not expect our office would have a 3 percent holdback,” Labrador said. “However, when this committee took action on maintenance budgets, our office was hit with $1.6 million of an ongoing reduction for FY27. This was equal to the governor’s 3 percent ongoing reduction plus the additional 2 percent.”

While being able to absorb “minor reductions,” Labrador said the proposed cuts would leave his office “devastated” as 89 percent of the office’s budget goes toward personnel costs.

Labrador said the $1.3 million reduction for this fiscal year would require the office’s employees to take 11 furlough days between now and the end of the fiscal year whereas the $1.6 million reduction for next fiscal year would require 14 furlough days impacting 227 employees. This would result in a nearly 5 percent reduction in their salary and likely result in staff leaving the office, Labrador said.

In an effort to guard against this, he requested $980,000 in funds be restored to the office’s budget.

To emphasize the need for his office’s personnel remaining whole, Labrador touted the success of the office’s Consumer Protection Division, which, over the last three years, settled or recovered $242 million for Idaho taxpayers against a range of businesses for unfair or deceptive business practices.

He also highlighted the improvements within the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, which has increased its arrests from 19 to 68 in the three years he has held the position. At the same time, a backlog in ICAC CyberTips to the office for child exploitation has been reduced from nearly 2,000 in 2023 to zero since January 2024 as the office shifted to address each tip within 24 hours, Labrador said.

Jeff Nye, chief of the criminal division for the office, said there has been a nationwide increase in crimes targeting children primarily due to the increasing ease of access in obtaining these illicit materials. At the same time access is increasing, however, law enforcement is becoming more successful and finding the individuals creating and distributing these materials in Idaho, bringing a “dramatic increase” in arrests.