This bill rewrites Idaho Code Section 36-115 to consolidate and clarify how the state manages two depredation accounts (a nonexpendable principal and an expendable operating fund), how interest and annual transfers fund claim payments, and how approved depredation claims are paid out. It creates a structured payment sequence that allows the director of the Department of Fish and Game to make partial immediate payments while accumulating remaining liabilities for proportional distribution when the expendable appropriation is insufficient.
Why it matters: the bill changes the timing and size of payments that private landowners, livestock owners, and pass-through entities can expect after wildlife damage, introduces explicit aggregate limits and deductibles, and shifts budgeting consequences onto interest earnings, annual transfers, and any surplus management. That affects agency cash-flow planning, claimant recovery timelines, and risk exposure for large operations.
At a Glance
What It Does
Establishes a permanent nonexpendable principal fund whose investment interest funds an expendable depredation account; requires an annual transfer from the fish and game account into the expendable fund; and prescribes a multi-step payment process for approved depredation claims that can include immediate partial payments and proportional distribution of remaining liability.
Who It Affects
Private landowners and lessees who submit depredation claims, livestock owners and caretakers, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (director and staff handling claims), the state controller (for transfers, reporting and encumbrances) and anyone operating pass-through entities receiving claim proceeds.
Why It Matters
It ties claim-paying capacity to investment earnings and a set annual transfer rather than to ad hoc appropriations, imposes per-person and per-claim limitations that can materially reduce recoveries for large losses, and centralizes discretion with the Fish and Game director to balance payments within available appropriations.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The amended Section 36-115 creates and preserves two linked pots: a nonexpendable principal that must remain intact and an expendable operating fund that is the source for actual payments. The statute requires investment of the principal and routes interest to the expendable fund; it also directs an annual transfer from the fish and game account into the expendable fund.
The statute declares that the expendable fund is the operational pool from which statutory depredation payments are drawn.
For claims, the bill makes the director’s role the pivot for timing and proportionality. On approval, the director may authorize an immediate partial payment but otherwise accumulates unpaid approved liabilities until the end of the fiscal year.
When appropriated monies are insufficient, the director reduces payments proportionally rather than paying some claims in full while short-changing others. The director must encumber amounts sufficient to cover approved claims or the appropriation, whichever is less.The bill layers eligibility rules: claimants must submit a statement of damages and accept the certified approved amount as payment in full under the statute’s conditions.
It also preserves statutory deductibles and creates specific limits and prioritization between categories of claims (general damage, livestock, forage). Finally, the amended law requires annual reporting by the state controller and an automatic transfer of surpluses above a threshold into a dedicated set-aside for targeted depredation control programs, which redirects excess funds toward predator and big-game control efforts for pronghorn, elk and deer.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill moves $2,250,000 into a nonexpendable big game depredation fund (principal cannot be appropriated) and directs that interest on that principal be paid to the expendable fund for claims.
The state controller must transfer $200,000 annually from the fish and game account into the expendable big game depredation fund.
If unexpended balances in the expendable fund exceed $2,500,000 at fiscal year-end, the excess is transferred to a set-aside earmarked for pronghorn, elk and deer depredation and predator control.
For claims under section 36-1108(b) the total payments to any person in a fiscal year (including pass-through entities and household members) cannot exceed $125,000; for claims under section 36-1109 the annual aggregate payment to a person cannot exceed 10% of that year’s original expendable fund appropriation.
Each claim is subject to a $750 deductible (with limited waivers for repeat crop or livestock occurrences) and forage claims paid under section 36-1110 are capped at 50% of the fund’s interest earnings in any one fiscal year.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Nonexpendable principal and interest flow
Subsection (a) establishes a nonexpendable big game depredation fund whose principal must remain intact and be invested under the state's investment rules; only interest on that principal is available to the expendable fund. Practically, this creates a durable revenue stream that depends on investment returns rather than periodic appropriations, and it limits the legislature’s ability to draw down the principal in lean years.
Renaming and annual transfers to the expendable fund
This provision designates the former 'big game secondary depredation account' as the expendable big game depredation fund and directs an annual transfer of $200,000 from the fish and game account into it. The subsection also repeats the requirement to invest idle moneys and places the expendable fund under the state controller’s administrative direction, which centralizes cash management and requires the controller to track and move money into the operating pool each fiscal year.
Reporting and surplus transfer to set-aside
The state controller must annually report interest earnings and the expendable fund’s availability to the legislature, financial management, and the agriculture and fish and game directors. Importantly, any year-end expendable balance above $2.5 million is automatically shifted to a set-aside account earmarked for pronghorn, elk and deer depredation and related predator control, directing surpluses to specific control programs rather than leaving them for general claim-paying purposes.
Payment mechanics and limits for section 36-1108(b) claims
For claims under section 36-1108(b), the director may authorize up to one-half of an approved claim to be paid immediately if that payment fits within the year's estimated liability. The subsection requires a $750 deductible per claim, certifies that the claimant must accept the approved amount as full payment under the bill’s terms, caps the total annual payments to any person (and related pass-throughs or household members) at $125,000, and directs that any unpaid approved amounts be accumulated and either paid in full if funds allow or paid out proportionally if funds are insufficient. The director must encumber the appropriation or amounts sufficient to cover approved claims, whichever is less.
Payment mechanics and limits for section 36-1109 (livestock) claims
Livestock or caretaker claims follow a parallel framework: up to half of an approved claim may be paid immediately at the director’s discretion; a $750 deductible applies (with a waiver for multiple occurrences within a fiscal year), and unpaid approved claims are accumulated to the fiscal year end and paid in full if possible or proportionally if not. The subsection sets an explicit aggregate limit: a person’s approved claims in a fiscal year cannot exceed 10% of the original expendable fund appropriation, which links individual recoveries to that year’s funding baseline.
Forage claims and interest‑based cap
For forage damage claims, the statute allows similar partial immediate payment authority and accumulation of unpaid approved claims, but it adds two constraints: each claim carries the $750 deductible, and total forage payments from the expendable fund in any fiscal year cannot exceed 50% of the fund’s interest earnings for that year. That ties forage payouts directly to investment performance and can sharply limit payments in low-interest periods.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Department of Fish and Game — gains clearer statutory authority to sequence payments, encumber funds and manage claim liabilities within an annual budgeting construct, improving predictability of cash flow and legal cover for proportionate payments when funds are insufficient.
- Landowners and livestock owners with smaller or routine losses — benefit from a predictable, structured claims process and the possibility of an immediate partial payment to cover urgent losses.
- Programs targeting pronghorn, elk and deer depredation and predator control — benefit when expendable fund balances exceed the $2.5 million threshold because surplus money is automatically earmarked for those set‑aside control efforts.
- State treasury managers — benefit from a nonexpendable principal that stabilizes the fund over time and produces an investable revenue stream to support depredation payments.
Who Bears the Cost
- Large claimants and commercial operations — face hard caps (such as the $125,000 cap and the 10% appropriation cap) and proportional reductions that can leave significant uncompensated losses for high-value operations.
- Claimants who already operate through pass-through entities or household structures — may find their recoveries constrained by the statute’s aggregation language that treats payments to related entities and household members as a single cap tally.
- Department of Fish and Game staff and the state controller — bear increased administrative duties to estimate liabilities, encumber appropriations, make proportional calculations, manage partial payments and produce required reporting.
- The fish and game account — absorbs the recurring $200,000 annual transfer, which could crowd other priorities in tight budget years or change operating assumptions for other agency programs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The core tension is between protecting a state-funded safety net across multiple years (by preserving principal, using interest, and imposing caps and proportional payments) and the goal of making injured landowners whole promptly after depredation; measures that limit fiscal exposure also risk denying adequate relief to those with large or repeated losses, and the statute gives administrators discretion that must be bounded by clear operational rules to avoid uneven application.
The bill walks a narrow line between fiscal discipline and claimant relief. By protecting principal and relying on investment interest plus a fixed annual transfer, the statute stabilizes funding but also disconnects claim capacity from real-time damage spikes.
When large or clustered depredations exceed interest and the annual transfer, claimants face proportional reductions and numeric caps that may leave commercial operators undercompensated.
Several operational ambiguities will matter in practice. The director’s discretion to pay up to half of an approved claim ‘if in the judgment’ it fits within estimated liability creates a single-person gating decision that can produce inconsistent outcomes absent clear agency guidance.
The aggregation rule that counts pass-through entities and household members toward the same cap invites factual disputes over ownership and income flow that will require administrative guidance or formal rules. The forage-payments cap tied to 50% of interest earnings means payouts will swing with market returns, potentially leaving forage losses uncompensated in low-yield years even if the expendable fund principal remains substantial.
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