Late Rush Of Bills Leaves Lawmakers Taxed

Stiffer fines for littering. Higher pay for judges. A tougher limit on how much drivers can drink.

All passed one house of the Legislature Monday as lawmakers met in marathon sessions from morning to night. They were trying to meet a self-imposed deadline for sending bills from one house to the other.

By the time exhausted senators and representatives wrapped up Monday, the Senate had acted on 20 bills and the House had voted on 34. But that was only about half the list, so lawmakers face a similar day today.

“Sorry to put you through this, but it has to be done,” Rep. Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, the House majority leader, told tired representatives.

House Speaker Mike Simpson said the new system is designed to make sure bills get full consideration. Normally, the mad rush happens at the end of the session, not in the middle. Then there’s no time for full hearings in the other house, even for major legislation that needs scrutiny.

“It takes a change in attitude from legislators, lobbyists, everyone to try to move stuff more toward the front of the session,” Simpson said. “People will be ready to slit my throat this year. But hopefully, over time, it’ll change.”

Part way through its morning session, the House waived a rule that requires strict propriety, including the wearing of jackets. As the afternoon dragged into evening, more and more lawmakers were in shirtsleeves.

They included Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum. Meyer admitted he hadn’t read all the bills that were up for a vote, relying instead on summaries. “There’s no use in trying to fool anybody,” he said.

“Some of ‘em that come up, you’re really not that up to speed on.”

Simpson said lawmakers are generally familiar with the bills after committee hearings. And they’re certainly better off now than in the traditional end-of-session rush, he said, when “I’ve seen us run 70, 80 bills in a day.”

The long day saw many bills pass, but some major legislation failed:

The House, on a 33-37 vote, killed a proposal to shift school operations funding from the property tax to the sales tax.

The bill, by Rep. Frank Bruneel, R-Lewiston, would have meant lowering property taxes by $143.4 million, and boosting Idaho’s 5 percent sales tax to 6.25 percent.

Supporters called it the answer to long-sought property tax relief and a chance to head off the One Percent Initiative, a measure proposed for the November ballot that would force cuts in property taxes. But opponents said the bill would give big corporations a giant windfall, while making renters and poor people pick up the tab whenever they buy groceries or other necessities.

A measure to divert $6 million in state lottery proceeds to match 20 percent of school districts’ costs to build new schools died on a 26-43 vote.

Simpson, R-Blackfoot, said Idaho is the only state that requires a two-thirds vote to pass a school construction bond, and also leaves local property taxpayers with the full bill.

“It is harder to build a school building in Idaho than in any other state in the nation,” he said.

But House Minority Leader Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, said lottery proceeds are already helping schools. Currently, profits are evenly divided between an account for school-building maintenance and the state’s permanent building fund. The bill would have taken the first one-third for school construction.

“Instead of helping 112 districts, it will help perhaps half a dozen or fewer,” said Stoicheff, who maintained poor districts would lose funding to rich ones.

Other opponents said the permanent building fund, which helps fund new college and university buildings, needed the money.

“This does take money out of the permanent building fund,” Simpson said. “But I’ll challenge you to drive around the state and look at the state buildings compared to the school buildings, and you tell me where our priorities are. I wish we had school buildings like the Hall of Mirrors (in Boise) or the Transportation Department in Coeur d’Alene.”

Reps. Meyer; Carol Pietsch, D-Sandpoint; and Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene; were the only North Idaho representatives favoring the bill. All three serve on the House Education Committee, which held hearings on it.

Another hotly debated measure was one increasing penalties for cruelty to animals, developed in the wake of the Ligertown incident in southeastern Idaho. There, 19 African lions were shot after some of them escaped from a ramshackle wild game farm and terrorized a town.

Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the bill went too far. “If I have a dog that’s going to the bathroom in my yard, and I want to take it out and shoot it, I should be able to,” he said. “This is a private property issue to me.”

The bill passed, 42-26. North Idaho representatives voting against it included Alltus; Pischner; and Reps. Hilde Kellogg and Tom Dorr, both Republicans from Post Falls. The measure now moves to the Senate.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Passed Here are some of the bills that passed the House in Monday’s marathon session and now head to the Senate: HB 601 lowers the standard for drunken driving from a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. The measure by Rep. Ron Crane, R-Caldwell, also sets even stricter standards for commercial drivers and those under age 21. HB 681 raises judges’ salaries. Rep. Celia Gould, R-Buhl, said Idaho judges haven’t had a raise in three years and their caseloads are at a record high. An increase in court fees offsets the cost. House Joint Memorial 6 tells Congress that Idaho wants the reintroduction of grizzly bears stopped, and urges Gov. Phil Batt to work to stop it. It passed 65-2. HB 807 adopts the Priest Lake Management Plan. Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, said a committee including environmental, logging, mining and recreational interests agreed to the plan, which seeks to protect Priest Lake’s remarkable clarity. HB 724 would stop the expensive rotating of candidates’ names on ballots, which requires multiple ballots be printed for every election. Instead, names would appear in random order. Kootenai County Clerk Dan English lobbied for the bill, which passed 64-3. Rep. Tom Dorr, R-Post Falls, was among the three no votes. HB 627 would give married couples bigger deductions at tax time, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1996. It passed 66-3. HB 808 would would let fastgrowing school districts require new construction to pay the same tax rate on a school bond levy as taxpayers who originally passed the bond, if the district’s voters approve by a 60 percent vote. The extra money would be saved for more building projects. Normally, rates are reduced when there are more taxpayers to help make the payments. The bill passed 43-27. HB 790 allows for a property tax exemption for damaged property for one year. It was spurred by North Idaho flood damage. HB 789 allows cities and highway districts statewide to charge development impact fees. A similar bill died earlier in the same Senate committee where this bill now heads. Bills that passed the Senate and now head to the House include: SB 1472 would revoke the driver’s licenses of youngsters who do not attend school. It passed 33-2. SB 1411 increases the fine for littering to $1,000, and allows $50 or half the fine to be paid to people who provide information leading to a littering arrest. It passed 30-5.