SINE DIE NEWSLETTER

Constituents:

The Idaho Legislative Session finally wound to a halt on May 8th after a long and fatiguing 117 days which failed to break the all time record by one day. Rumors abounded that the last month of the session was especially designed as the "Boise Economic Stimulus Package."  Everyday legislators stayed on in Boise cost the taxpayers about $30,000/day. The last four weeks of the session reminded me of the movie, Ground Hog Day.

In the movie all events of the 24 hours of Ground Hog Day were recycled and the actors could never get out of the time warp--I think many legislators felt the same way. This is especially true of the back and forth battle that went on the transportation issues between the House, Senate, and the Governor.

  1. Public Education--The K-12 budget was cut for the first time in many years.  The general fund appropriation was decreased by 7.7% from FY09. About $20 million of stimulus money was spent so we could reduce the general fund appropriation by $20 million and use this toward other budgetary considerations.

     Here are some of the major impacts on the public education:

     a. The salary grid was frozen according to the Idaho Education Association, and this will impact about 46% of our public school teachers.  The impact will be a loss of about $63 million in salaries over the next eight years, and will also negatively impact a teacher's retirement.

     b. Field Trips for students were almost eliminated but thanks to the Senate, funding was restored.

     c. Funding for teacher supplies and textbooks was reduced.

     d. Early Teacher retirement funding was restored.

     e. The adoption of a four-day school week will, no doubt, be on the rise in many districts under financial pressure.  There are 17 school districts who are already utilizing a four day school week.  It is interesting to note that most of our competing school systems in Europe and Asia are increasing the number of school days. Most of the countries in these areas now require from 215 to 240 days of school as compared to 180 days of school in the U.S. Many teachers report they need at least 10 or more days for testing so that leaves about 170 days for teaching.  I think this gives all of us reasons for concern about the future of public education as we look at global competition.

   2.  Higher Education--About $408 million was approved for funding higher education.  This was supplemented by $15.3 million from Federal Stimulus Funding, and that will be spread over two years.  The University of Idaho will receive just more than $145 million of the state appropriation including $10 million from the permanent building fund for a proposed research dairy near Twin Falls. With the exclusion of the money for the research dairy funding dropped by 3.6% for the U. of Idaho.

       The University will cut 62 positions and reduce 35 programs as part of a plan to cut its budget by $11.7 million next year. The university will meet its budget by reducing the general education budget by 7% and its personnel costs by 5 percent. Basically 21 positions will be lost as a result from non renewal of contracts.  The budget impact was cushioned by an allocation of $4.8 million in federal stimulus funding.

   3. Comments--All of us hope that the economy will recover and that we will be able to recover much of the funding lost to education this year. It is evident that the $1.2 billion in Federal Stimulus Funds were very helpful in lessening the damage to essential services, and will also be useful in the next fiscal year. Personally, I feel we should have used more of our reserve funds to at least supported education as the same level as FY09.

       Looking ahead to FY11, Idaho has about $281 million in various reserves, $47 million in stimulus funds designated for education in FY 11, and $82 million in the Millennium Fund (which will not be touched). The entire situation calls for badly needed tax reform for the State. Many Republicans and Democrats have pointed out this need.  This year Sen. Schroeder and I attempted to introduce legislation to sunset all of the 75 tax exemptions and set up a system to truly evaluate whether or not the exemptions are providing a benefit to the state. Those that are not could provide funding for education, transportation, etc.

   4. Transportation--Many of us remember when Governor Batt cashed in many of his political assets in 97 to increase the gas tax by 4 cents to the current 25 cents/gallon.  Much of the increase helped rebuild the North Idaho transportation infrastructure after severe flooding.

       The long and lengthy end of session revolved around the Governor trying to get added support for a gas tax to be used to help rebuild a failing transportation infrastructure.  In the end the compromise only yielded an additional $53 million. Many conservatives were reluctant to increase taxes on constituents in hard economic times.

       The Idaho Transportation Department reports that we will have about $1.1 billion to invest in road construction this year, but much of this investment will be in the Treasure Valley Area and financed by GARVEE Bonding. An unfortunate aspect of the bonding is that we will be paying out almost $27 million in interest on bonds or money that could have been used to repair roads. We received about $100 million from the stimulus package for highway repairs, and this will be helpful. Good roads are needed to protect students who travel thousands of miles each day and also to help attract businesses to the state. Replacement costs are often 5-6 times greater to replace roads that have not been well maintained.

   5. Election Consolidation--This bill passed at the last minute.  The cost of carrying out this process is estimated at $4.1 million, and will take effect in FY11. Most District 6 School Administrators as well as the Latah County Clerk opposed the measure because of costs that may have to be borne by the County and lack of flexibility for school districts for scheduling elections to meet local needs.

       In FY11 there will be four election dates:  Second Tuesday of March, Third Tuesday in May, Fourth Tuesday in August, and the Traditional November General Election.

   6. Lochsa Land Swap--I talked with Congressman Walt Minnick about this issue yesterday.  He reported that he is essentially against the proposal. He requested that the Dist. 6 Legislators to write a joint letter to all of our Congressional Delegation and they will discuss the issue at a joint meeting in several weeks. I was glad to see that the Latah County Commissioners are opposing this proposal.

There were many other pieces of legislation to pass this year, but I've reported on the major issues. If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations, please contact me at ttrail@moscow.com

Rep. Tom Trail

ttrail@moscow.com

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