‘Wild session’ for lawmakers

BOISE – With Idaho lawmakers crammed into an old courthouse for their annual legislative session – while the state Capitol is closed for a two-year-plus renovation – many hope for a short, businesslike session that will wrap up long before campaigning starts for this spring’s primary election.

But working against those hopes is a plethora of pressing issues, from taxes to roads to water, and a clear lack of agreement between the Republican-dominated Legislature and Republican governor over how to address them.

“I think it’ll be a wild session, a difficult session,” said Jim Weatherby, longtime Idaho political observer and political scientist emeritus at Boise State University.

“I know there are going to be some huge issues facing us,” said state Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle.

Gov. Butch Otter will lay out his agenda in his State of the State speech Monday, a week before Washington lawmakers start their session in Olympia. Otter has said he wants a needs-based grocery tax relief bill – something lawmakers refused to go along with last year, prompting a veto fight in Otter’s first session – and a property tax valuation freeze, which long has been a nonstarter in the Legislature. Transportation, prisons and teacher pay also promise to be hot-button issues.

“There will be disagreement, there will be conflict – but that’s the process, and that’s healthy for Idaho,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.

One area of conflict is the grocery tax. When Idaho raised its sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent in a special session in August 2006, lawmakers were near-unanimous in saying their next step would be to change Idaho’s distinction as one of just a few states that fully taxes groceries. Though Washington’s sales tax is higher than Idaho’s, Washington exempts groceries. But last year, Otter’s first in office, the governor insisted on a grocery tax relief plan targeting the neediest Idahoans. Lawmakers refused, pushing for an across-the-board break, which Otter vetoed. In the end, nothing passed – and now both sides are staking out the same positions.

Democrats in the Legislature have a plan to phase out the sales tax on groceries, dropping it 1 percentage point a year for six years, and eliminate the current income tax credit that offsets part of grocery taxes. Eliminating the credit would offset the first-year cost of the tax break, so the state budget wouldn’t take a hit. But Democrats, despite electoral gains two years ago, remain a small minority in the Legislature, holding just 26 of 105 seats.

Conflict in the Legislature is likely between the two parties, between the House and the Senate, between both houses and the governor, and even between lawmakers simply trying to find their way around the maze-like stairways of the temporary Statehouse.

Some of the main issues:

Transportation

Otter will unveil his plan to address a $200 million annual shortfall in funding for road construction and maintenance, which could include sharp increases in vehicle registration fees.

“That’ll be a tough one,” said state Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries. “I don’t know that you’re gonna go and increase everybody’s registration. That’s like throwing a big tax on ‘em and then saying, ‘OK, re-elect me.’ This is an election year.”

There’s also talk about allowing local-option sales taxes for transportation needs, including public transit and road projects. Lawmakers have long kept most taxing authority for themselves, leaving most local government functions to subsist on property taxes.

Teacher merit pay

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna has proposed a $60 million teacher merit pay plan that would give teachers bonuses if they give up their continuing contract rights and meet other qualifications.

The Idaho Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, proposes its own merit pay plan, minus the contract issue.

House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, says he wants hearings on both proposals, but says the contract clause is needed for the bill to pass.

“There’s some political reality here,” Nonini said. “We have a Legislature that’s heavily controlled by the Republicans.”

The Legislature also is loath to approve budget increases as large as Luna’s proposal. Said House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale: “I think he’s being very optimistic that he’s going to get $60 million this year.”

Water

While southern lawmakers are concerned about a drought, North Idaho residents are facing a water rights adjudication, or sorting-out of who holds rights to how much water.

The prospect of adjudication has raised so many fears among residents that several North Idaho lawmakers are backing away from the idea.

At least two, Sens. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Sagle’s Broadsword, will propose legislation to scale back or cancel the adjudication, while others, including Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, insist it must go forward to arm Idaho for future water wars with Washington.

Property tax relief

While Otter and North Idaho lawmakers want limits on how much property values can rise each year for purposes of calculating property taxes, many legislators, particularly from Southern Idaho, think they already dealt with property tax relief when they raised the sales tax in 2006 to pay for a property tax cut.

State Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, says he’s been promised a hearing on his bill to limit increases in values for all kinds of property to 3 percent a year.