Legislative News, WEEK FOUR, January 28-February 1, 2013

As we complete week four, the pace in the Statehouse is accelerating. In the continuing debate over the future of education in Idaho, 7 bills were introduced in the Senate (4 bills) and House (3 bills) Education Committees to limit teachers' collective bargaining rights, some echoing elements from Proposition 1 that voters rejected last November. The bills were introduced by the Idaho School Boards Association but do not enjoy the unanimous support of all members. In fact, the move has divided the ISBA. Today, the Joint Education Committees held "Listening Hearings" where public testimony was given for nearly three hours. But if the Legislature votes to reinstate portions of these widely rejected laws without stakeholder consensus, we communicate to voters that we don't value their message to us; that we are not in fact listening.
 
A state-run health insurance exchange bill is being debated in the Senate Commerce & Human Resources Committee. With the Supreme Court affirming the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Idaho decided to tackle how to comply with the law's provisions through a non-profit, state exchange, instead of ceding control to a federal exchange. An exchange is a transparent marketplace for the purchase of insurance by individuals and small businesses. Aside from giving the state more autonomy, adopting a state-based exchange will keep insurance plans more affordable in Idaho. The details of this non-profit, state-based plan will be what we can negotiate. I commend the Governor for his efforts to provide this service to Idaho's citizens.

Around this time each year, legislators are visited by the Idaho Association of Cities, followed by the Idaho Association of Counties, to share ideas and express concerns between state and local governments. Not surprisingly, the giant topic on everyone's lips is the push by some legislators and large companies to repeal the business personal property tax.
 
The governor has placed a priority on eliminating this tax on equipment used by businesses which would reduce the state's tax receipts by $141 million. Without a replacement funding source, schools, infrastructure and programs supporting everything from indigent care to emergency services will suffer. This is a public health and safety issue and we must balance this legitimate concern, and the overall well-being of our local communities, against any benefits derived from a tax repeal.

The level of dependency of counties on personal property tax revenues varies greatly (from 1% to 50%), making the impact of an across-the-board repeal inequitable. Local option taxes won't work in communities with a small population base and shifting yet another tax burden to homeowners is not the answer. HB599, passed in 2008 but not yet triggered, exempts the first $100,000 in personal property tax which effectively repeals the tax for 85% of all Idaho businesses. The 2008 law also earmarked $21 million from the General Fund to replace lost revenues to counties.

Why rush into this? Idaho has the second best personal property tax rate in the nation. According to the Idaho Director of Commerce, Jeff Sayer, Idaho has moved from 30th to 15th in the nation since 2010 for business friendliness. The biggest concern among Idaho businesses is a skilled, educated workforce, not personal property tax.

Remember to join me and Representatives Donna Pence and Steve Miller at the District 26 Legislative Town Hall Forums this weekend. We will share what is happening at the Statehouse and listen to your questions and concerns and we encourage you to attend. Here is the complete schedule:

Friday, February 1st
5:30 p.m.            Ketchum       Whiskey Jacques (upstairs)

Saturday, February 2nd
8:00 a.m.            Bellevue        Oak Street Take-Out Deli

10:00 a.m.          Shoshone      Community Center

12:00 p.m.          Gooding         Zeppies Pizza

2:00 p.m.            Wendell          City Hall

4:00 p.m.            Hagerman      City Hall

Please email me at mstennett@senate.idaho.gov or call my office at 208-332-1353 with any questions or concerns.

Legislative News, WEEK THREE, January 21-25, 2013

Week three at the Idaho Capitol and a lot of the focus was on "Education Week" in the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee where budget requests covering kindergarten through higher ed were presented. All eyes were on Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna as he returned to the Legislature with his first budget request since the overwhelming defeat of his "Students Come First" proposals in the November election.
 
His 2013-14 budget represents a 3% increase over last year and includes $10.4 million for classroom technology and the restoration of 1.67% to teacher base pay out of monies previously allocated to SCF. He would grant $33.9 million in spending authority to the just-impaneled education reform task force which consists of Superintendent Luna and 30 other education stakeholders. The main concerns I have at this early stage in reviewing the budget is the extent to which Superintendent Luna deviates from statutory requirements (as opposed to Governor Otter's 2% recommended increase based solely on existing code) and what appears to be a lack of values-based funding priorities. There will be a Joint Education Committee hearing for public testimony on February 1st from 8:00-10:30 a.m. in the Capitol Auditorium which will be available for live video streaming on the Legislature's website.

Speaking of referenda, State Affairs saw a  bill introduced this week that would make it more difficult to get initiatives and referenda on the ballot. Brought by the Idaho Farm Bureau and sponsored by Chairman Curt McKenzie, the bill resembles legislation passed in 1997 which was subsequently ruled unconstitutional in U.S. District Court. I encourage you to read this well-written editorial  on the subject. Idaho voters after the November elections sent a very clear message that lawmakers need to take concerns raised by citizens more seriously, not less, as indicated by this ill-conceived legislation.

Idaho Democrats have been listening and as we went door-to-door prior to the November elections, we heard many complaints about the elections process. As a result, the Democratic Caucus has crafted a slate of five bills designed to protect and enhance our fundamental right to vote. The Democratic Legislators are holding a joint press conference this Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to unveil our Voting Opportunity and Trustworthy Elections [VOTE] Initiative. You can listen to the audio by selecting Room WW-17 from the streaming options on the Legislature's website.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) brought new rules before Resources & Environment which set standards for the construction and use of Class II injection wells. Last year, during the big debate over new oil & gas rules with respect to fracking, we approved rules covering the development of injection wells which held the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) to a fairly high standard for protecting groundwater and aquifers. Yet the rules crafted by IDWR do not meet the same standards and their wells can be used for spent fluid from the Oil & Gas Industry with no guidelines on the sorts of fluids (i.e. cancer-causing chemicals) injected for permanent storage. In short, IDL's rules are more protective than IDWR's rules despite the fact that they regulate the same fluids for the same type of wells and could have the same impact on groundwater and aquifers-our drinking water! A failed well or one which lacks mechanical integrity could continue to operate at the discretion of the IDWR Director. Finally, IDWR controls permitting and siting of these injections wells. Besides public comment, there is no local control by cities or counties. I voted to reject the rules, but lost 2-7.

Representatives Donna Pence and Steve Miller will join me at the District 26 Legislative Town Hall Forums and we encourage you to attend. We will share what is happening at the Statehouse and listen to your questions and concerns. Here is the complete schedule:

Friday, February 1st
5:30 p.m.            Ketchum       Whiskey Jacques (upstairs)

Saturday, February 2nd
8:00 a.m.            Bellevue        Oak Street Take-Out Deli

10:00 a.m.          Shoshone      Community Center

12:00 p.m.          Gooding         Zeppies Pizza

2:00 p.m.            Wendell          City Hall

4:00 p.m.            Hagerman      City Hall

I always appreciate your input be it through town hall meetings, emails or phone calls.

Michelle

mstennett@senate.idaho.gov 

208-332-1353

Legislative News, WEEK TWO, January 14-18, 2013

Greetings from the Idaho Statehouse where we are concluding our second week of the 2013 session and new issues are beginning to percolate up after the focus in week one on the "big three" legislative topics discussed in my previous newsletter. While on the subject of last week's newsletter, I want to correct a statement that suggested the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee approved Governor Otter's budget recommendation of a 3.1% increase for FY2014. More accurately, the Governor's Division of Financial Management presented the Governor's budget recommendation to JFAC which is now in the process of hearing testimony from state agencies.  Upon completion of this phase of the process, budget setting will begin and then JFAC will bring appropriation bills before both chambers for final consideration.
 
In Idaho, the legislature devotes the first weeks of every session to reviewing administrative rules drafted by executive branch agencies over the interim in response to laws passed in the prior legislative session. Idaho is among the minority of states where the legislature can veto agency rules in whole or in part (click here for more information on this process).

On this subject, there was much to concern the Senate's State Affairs committee on Wednesday during our review of the rules crafted by the Department of Administration with respect to public use of Capitol grounds. These rules were hastily written to comply with legislation hastily passed in  2012 in direct response to the lawful and peaceable activities of one group: Occupy Boise. We have had extremely hostile groups testify in State Affairs without it precipitating any rush to promulgate rules so this has become an issue of fairness in my mind where one group is discriminated against on ideological grounds. And because these rules could have a chilling effect on constitutionally-protected speech and assembly, Senator Elliot Werk and I moved to reject them in their entirety. Instead, the majority voted to accept the rules by-and-large while rejecting just those sections that limited event/exhibit hours/locations or placed excessively strict limits on amplified speech. Now the House State Affairs will weigh in and must approve the Senate's actions for these rules to take effect and a legal challenge of the 2012 law is proceeding with a court hearing scheduled for February so this matter is far from resolved.

Things were also somewhat fraught with respect to rules review in my other committee, Resources & Environment, where three rules governing the taking of big game and game birds were rejected. Today, there was a bi-partisan admonishment of the Idaho Fish & Game Commission over their tendency to avoid negotiated rulemaking when confronted with contentious issues and they were urged to reconsider this practice. After all, what issues are more in need of a democratically negotiated process than those that are controversial?

On a more positive note, it was revealed today that F&G will partner with the Idaho Transportation Department to identify six areas with high animal mortality rates or where there is a threat to public safety due to animal encounters and create up to 12 wildlife corridors. Highway 75 has a very high incidence of game collisions at dawn and dusk (also peak traffic times) and that puts the Wood River Valley high on the list of areas under consideration for a wildlife corridor. I am very pleased with this initiative and plan to remain an engaged and active supporter of this effort.
 
As always, I welcome your input and continue to believe that government works best when the citizens are engaged. Please email me at mstennett@senate.idaho.gov or call my office at 208-332-1353 with any questions or concerns.

Legislative News, WEEK ONE, January 7-11, 2013

Greetings from Boise where 105 lawmakers, over a third of them freshman, gathered this week for the start of the 2013 legislative session. After the November elections, there was much re-organizing to be done before our work can resume and I was very honored when the Democratic Caucus voted to elect me their new Senate Minority Leader. It is an honor I accept with humility and a deep sense of responsibility. In addition to my new leadership role, I will be serving on the Senate's State Affairs and Resources & Environment Committees.

Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter kicked off the session on Monday with his annual State of the State address. He submitted his budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 in which he recommended a 3.1% increase in General Fund spending based on a projected increase in state revenues of 5.3%. This recommendation was unanimously approved by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee today and, with this budgetary target established, we now have a roadmap for how we might balance the state's resources with the needs of our citizens.

In just the first week, we are beginning to see three big issues emerge that will likely dominate policy discussions this year. They are the repeal of the personal property tax, education funding in the wake of the rejection of Propositions 1, 2, 3 and the choices Idaho faces in implementing the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with respect to a state-based insurance exchange and the expansion of Medicaid.
 
Idaho is a very business-friendly state and has the second best personal property tax rate in the nation. The governor has placed a priority on eliminating this tax on items used by businesses which would reduce the state's tax receipts by $141 million. Revenue from this tax covers costs related to the Indigent Health Care Program, schools, public defense, community college tuitions, mental health services, and all taxing districts like police, ambulances, fire departments, roads, water systems, and so on. In balancing public safety and the well-being of our local communities against repealing a tax that is administratively challenging but not inherently unfair to the majority of businesses, I will work for a solution that keeps local communities whole.

The people of Idaho sent a strong message in November when Propositions 1, 2, 3 were repealed by an overwhelming majority of voters and every decision made regarding education in 2013 should honor the will of our citizens. We most certainly will be confronting issues pertaining to education funding in the wake of repeal and several years of budget cuts but do not sense a strong interest in revisiting these controversial laws in the coming session. Governor Otter established the Task Force for Improving Education which is already meeting to discuss recommendations for the 2014 legislative session.

With the Supreme Court affirming the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Idaho resumed discussions on how to comply with the federal law. On the issue of a health-care exchange, which is a marketplace for the purchase of insurance by individuals and small businesses, the governor supports the establishment of a state-based, non-profit exchange which will control costs given Idaho's lower-than-average insurance rates. Additionally, the governor announced this week that he does not support the expansion of Medicaid. This is despite the strong recommendation for expansion by his working group which examined the issue in great detail and believed this would reduce overall health-care costs.

For the past six years, Idaho Democrats have been committed to improving ethical standards in Idaho government. So we were gratified that the Pro Tem of the Senate and Speaker of the House established mandatory ethics training this week for all legislators which is particularly necessary as the new legislature has a large class of freshmen lawmakers. However, we are still intent on pursuing the establishment of an independent ethics commission which would provide an opportunity for our citizens to file complaints about government officials as is the standard in almost every state in the nation.

Your representatives from District 26 plan to hold Town Hall Meetings the weekend of February 1st and 2nd and more details will be released in subsequent newsletters and through the media. We hope you will attend with questions or concerns of importance to you and our community.   I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to represent you in the Idaho State Senate and welcome your input into the decision-making process. Please email me at mstennett@senate.idaho.gov or call my office at 208-332-1353.

Respectfully, Michelle