Eye on Boise: Senators reject bill to repeal legislative pension perk

Idaho senators shot down a bill last week to repeal a 1990 law that allows longtime state legislators to get big lifetime pensions after they are appointed to high-paying state jobs late in their careers.

Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, unsuccessfully proposed the legislation in the leadership-heavy Senate State Affairs Committee. But after he asked the panel to introduce his bill, no member said anything. Committee Chairman Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, said, “It looks like the bill will be held in committee because of lack of a motion.”

Later in the meeting, Hagedorn moved for reconsideration. He noted the state’s Citizens Commission on Legislative Compensation has submitted a request to the Legislature to revisit the issue. Hagedorn’s motion to reconsider, seconded by Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, passed on a 6-3 vote, with only Sens. Bart Davis, Chuck Winder and Todd Lakey opposing it – all members of the Senate GOP leadership.

But then, Hagedorn’s motion to introduce his bill failed, 5-4. Davis, Winder and Lakey were joined by Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, and Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, in blocking the measure from being introduced or heard.

The House passed legislation in 2015 to do away with the perk. After that vote, at the urging of House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, the bill was reconsidered, and it passed again. But it died without a Senate committee hearing.

Bedke and some GOP leaders in the House said they thought the legislation was unconstitutional, because lawmakers aren’t supposed to set their own compensation; that’s done by the citizens commission. The commission was created by a constitutional amendment in 1976.

In June, two Idaho citizens, a retired Potlatch math teacher and a Boise CPA, urged the commission to weigh in on the issue, and the panel did, for the first time urging lawmakers to revisit it. But lawmakers have taken no action, despite repeated contacts from the two citizens, brothers Jim and Tom Haddock.

Here’s an example of how the current law works: When longtime state lawmaker and former House Speaker Lawerence Denney was elected secretary of state, his state pension as a legislator was worth roughly $500 a month. If he serves out one four-year term in the higher-paying elected position, his pension will be roughly $3,600 a month, for life. That’s because the 1990 provision treats years of legislative service the same as full-time state employment for purposes of pension calculations. That’s not true for any other part-time elected official.

After the meeting, Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said he doubted the bill would advance.

“I also don’t think it’s good public policy to do this,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Hagedorn said he would continue to work to change the law.

“I’m disappointed. We’ve had a problem for a long time of treating legislators differently from the rest of state workers, and I don’t think that it’s appropriate,” he said. “I think the concerns of those who voted against it are likely constitutional concerns. But we screwed this up in 1990, so it’s up to us to fix it.”

Climate change education and the rules …

When the House Education Committee recently voted to approve new state school science standards only after deleting five sections referring to climate change, there were ripples of outrage around the state. Many worried the Legislature was trying to delete references to scientific matters from the state’s school textbooks.

But the move didn’t do that; the standards are minimum benchmarks for what schoolchildren should be expected to learn, developed by the state Board of Education, state Department of Education and top Idaho science teachers after a year of public input. They don’t preclude additional information from being taught.

The department is planning to bring back revised standards next year for lawmakers to consider. The science standards haven’t been updated since 2001, in part because of past objections to references to certain topics from state lawmakers.

The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to consider the science standards on Thursday. But under the arcane rules governing administrative rules in Idaho, if the Senate panel doesn’t go along with the House, the standards would be rejected, and at the end of this year’s legislative session, Idaho would go back to the 2001 standards.

That’s because the standards are being proposed as part of a temporary rule under the state Administrative Procedures Act. Temporary rules expire unless both houses extend them, as opposed to “pending,” or permanent, rules, which stand unless both houses reject them.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense – even if you are well-versed in it, it still is a little bit confusing,” said Dennis Stevenson, state administrative rules coordinator. “We’re one of the few states that have a process like this.”

The Senate committee could vote to approve the standards as-is, without the House’s deletions. But if the House didn’t agree to that, the entire temporary rule containing the standards would expire. Either way, lawmakers will get another crack at the issue next year with the pending rule.

State workers to get 3 percent merit raises

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has voted unanimously, 19-0, in favor of funding 3 percent merit raises for permanent Idaho state employees next year, as recommended by both Gov. Butch Otter and the Legislature’s joint Change in Employee Compensation Committee. The joint budget committee will now build that cost into every state agency budget it sets; that process starts on Tuesday. JFAC also approved a 3 percent increase in the state’s pay scale system, as recommended by both the governor and the CEC panel.

The cost to the state general fund is $18,522,700. In total funds, it’s $38 million.