House Panel Gets Batt’s Farm Workers’ Comp Bill

The House Human Resources Committee will be the next battleground for the governor’s bill to extend workers’ compensation coverage to 40,000 Idaho farm workers.

At the end of week five in the 1996 legislative session, the Senate voted 30-5 for legislation ending agriculture’s 79-year exemption from the law requiring almost every other employers to protect their employees with workers compensation coverage.

The House Human Resources Committee narrowly approved comparable legislation last session, but the bill went down to a resounding 47-23 defeat on the House floor.

But Gov. Phil Batt has engineered this year’s proposal through the Senate, offering farmers and businessmen reduced premiums as an incentive. Legislative leaders have been predicting throughout the session that the governor’s proposal has a good chance of clearing the more conservative House this time.

The Senate also approved two other measures intended to further ease the financial impact on farmers by directing the State Insurance Fund to offer deductible and group coverage not just to farmers, but all businessmen.

Agriculture interests have not directly attacked the governor’s crusade to bring some 10,000 growers into the worker compensation system. But they have picked at the details of the legislation and warned that even the drastically reduced minimum premiums will be too much for many small producers.

The Legislature’s biggest annual chore - setting the public school budget starting next July - is expected to come Tuesday in the 20-member Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

The panel is likely to go along with Batt’s recommendation for general fund public school support of $689.5 million, up nearly $30 million from the current appropriation. Education leaders want $20.5 million more, but so far, the Legislature has shown little inclination to spend more than the governor’s recommendations.

The Legislature also will get a look at some new ideas this week.

Today, House State Affairs will consider three bills from Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Nampa, allowing for impoundment of vehicles driven by people with suspended licenses, no insurance or drunken driving.

On Thursday, the same panel will consider a bill from Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, allowing people to file a statement that they don’t want their tax payments to be used to pay lobbyists.

Earlier this month, the House Human Resources Committee quietly approved legislation allowing state agencies to grant employee bonuses up to $2,500, up from the previous limit of $1,000.

House Minority Leader James Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, promises it won’t go quietly when it comes up for final approval today in the House. He thinks it’s outrageous.

People who want to use the legal system for their own purposes will come in for attention in both chambers.

The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee will consider a bill cracking down on frivolous or malicious inmate lawsuits. Attorney General Alan Lance said the state’s legal bill for fighting the suits has been running more than $1 million per year.

The bill says inmates can face prison or jail disciplinary action for submitting a frivolous or malicious claim or false testimony. The measure says the normal filing fees may not be waived for inmates.

In the House, the attention will be on a bill cracking down on “vexatious” property liens filed against public officials. Constitutionalists use the liens to protest actions or lack of action by elected officials.

Members of the House State Affairs Committee felt they were threatened by witnesses testifying on the measure last week, so they took the unusual step of recalling a bill previously acted upon so it could be changed to take effect as soon as it passes the Legislature and is signed by the governor.

The House Transportation and Defense Committee will hold hearings on a number of proposals to put more money into road and bridge construction.

The Legislature’s resource committees will hold hearings next week on the deal Batt signed last October allowing the federal government to resume nuclear waste shipments into the state.

Only state and federal administration officials involved with the deal are scheduled to testify, but the Legislature’s Democrats Friday afternoon sent Batt and GOP leaders a letter asking for broader public testimony.