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Boise continues to be in a deep freeze.
Temperatures have been at least 10 degrees below normal during January and there has been no additional snow in the mountains. We are finally getting some traction in the legislative process. The word is that we should be out of Dodge by March 23rd. JFAC will set the final budgets on March 9th. There may be a few fights looming between the Legislature and the Governor. The restoration of the
Capitol and the building of two underground wings may be the battleground.
The Legislature worked for five years to come up with a plan to build two underground wings and to restore the Capitol. The legislation passed this last session and was funded by taxing smokers.
The Capitol
Commission took charge and the bonding has already been approved. The Governor got into the act and said we didn't need the two wings but could restore the old Ada County Courthouse.
A compromise was recently reached to build only one story of the two new wings; however, there is a lot of resentment in the Legislature, and since we have to vote to approve any compromise, there is a good chance we may turn it down. That and other issues could lead to a longer session. Here are other items of interest.
1. Minimum Wage -- two versions of minimum wage bills will be up for a print hearing this coming week. One version would simply support whatever minimum wage
legislation is passed at the national level. The current bills would move the minimum wage up to $7.25/hr over a two year level. Senator Schroeder, Representative Ringo, and I are supporting another version which calls for $7.25/hr with a CPI (Consumer Price Index) included. This would automatically adjust for inflation. At least 14 states already have this in place as law.
2. Reducing the Grocery Tax -- there are several versions being proposed.
a) Gov. Otter
-- His plan increases the state's grocery tax credit from the current $20/year to $90 and limits the availability of that credit based on income.
b) Representative Bayer's proposal would increase the grocery tax credit from $20 to $50 for individuals under 65 yrs of age and to $70 for seniors.
c)
Representative Jaquet's proposal would remove 50% of the sales tax on food. This would impact the state budget by $90 million.
d) Representative. Jim Clark and others propose eliminating the tax on food over a four year period. There will be a great amount of discussion and debate on the subject.
3. Public School Budget -- Superintendent Luna presented the public school budget to
the House Education Committee this week. The budget received a generally good reading by the Committee. The most troublesome part of the budget is teacher and staff compensation. Mr.. Luna is prosposing a 3% increase over the base with the state picking up medical insurance increases. The Governor proposed a 5% merit increase with employees picking up a greater share of the insurance costs. The rate of inflation this past year was 3.8% so it appears that teachers and staff willl not be making any major salary gains. There were some good proposals:
a. Classroom Supplies--Supt. Luna recommends that the Legislature $5.1 million to pay for textbooks. This would be about $350/teacher.
b. Textbook Allowance--there is a common complaint about outdated and worn textbooks. The recommendation is to fund $10 million to buy new textbooks. This will be about $50/student.
c. Remediation--currently technology and remediation funds are tied together causing districts to choose between the two items. About $9.5
million will be budgeted for technology and an additional $6 million targeted to the roughly 20,000 students who fail the ISAT.
d. Dual Credit Class Enrollment--increasingly, states are
offering more opportunities for high school students to begin their college education whill stilll enrolled in at the secondary level.
Access to these dual enrollment credit classes can be limited by student or parental ability to pay for these classes. $3.5 million is budgeted.
4.
Human Rights/Dogfighting Felony/Legalization of Industrial Hemp -- My resolution on Human Rights was passed unanimiously by the State Affairs Committee. The Dogfighting/Felony bill was held in committee. Conservative committee members want to see some "hard" evidence that organized dog fighting is a problem in the state.
Industrial hemp will now be grown this year in N. Dakota under the watchful eyes of DEA. Committee members want to see how this experiment works out before moving forward with any more legislation.
5. Extending the School Year
-- All of the states generally offer about 180 days of school. This time has been encroached upon by increasing demands by both state and federal mandates. Increased testing has taken away from class contact time. Teachers would also like to spend more time with parents and also confering with other teachers about how to assist individual students. There is an increasing clamor that we need to prepare our students more effectively to compete with their counterparts as we move forward toward globalization. Canada, Ireland, the European countries, Japan, Singapore, and other countries generally have 42-44 weeks of school time as contrasted to our 36 weeks. Some research indicates that providing for more school time improves academic performance. In reality, the secret is how one organizes that extra time.
The bill has generated a lot of interest, and it will be up for a hearing next week. The price tag of $133 million is enough to stop the bill from going further, but it will be worth it to bring up some of these
important issues to debate.
I'd appreciate your comments. My e mail is ttrail@house.idaho.gov and phone 208-332-1260
Representative Tom Trail
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