Bill introduced to ban all public-sector collective bargaining, but won’t advance

The Senate State Affairs Committee has introduced legislation this morning, at the request of Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, to ban all public-sector collective bargaining in Idaho, but McKague said she planned only to introduce the bill this year, not move forward with it. “It’ll be printed and that’s all,” she said. “That’s all I asked to do this year. I think we’ve got enough going on in the state right now - I don’t think it’s good timing.”

Sen. Curtis McKenzie, R-Nampa, the committee chairman, said, “I allowed the print hearing with that understanding - that we will not hear that in committee.” McKague said she introduced the bill because “some people approached me” with interest in the issue. In the fiscal note on her bill, she wrote, “There could be a positive impact for the state.”

McKenzie said the plan was the same for another measure introduced this morning at the request of the National Rifle Association, altering Idaho’s firearms laws in several ways, including loosening the law that makes it a misdemeanor to possess a deadly weapon with intent to assault, changing that to “intent to use unlawfully” and adding a clause saying “intent … may not be inferred from the mere … carrying … of the weapon;”  and making changes in Idaho’s concealed weapon license law. “We will not have a hearing on that,” McKenzie said.