The big six
Road construction/bonding
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne wants $1.6 billion in road construction around the state, including major upgrades for U.S. Highway 95, financed by bonds issued against future federal highway allocations.
Where things stand: State transportation officials told lawmakers that Idaho would get more federal highway money than anticipated under President Bush’s proposed budget. That means Idaho could afford to issue the bonds and still have money left for other projects.
Lawmakers were skeptical and said there’s no guarantee federal funds will continue to increase.
Water
Idaho faces two huge water issues this legislative session: approval of a water rights agreement settling claims by the Nez Perce Tribe to virtually all the water in the Snake River; and an effort to avoid a shutoff of thousands of water rights in southern Idaho, where years of drought have pitted two competing groups of Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer water users against each other.
Where things stand: Idaho Water Resources Director Karl Dreher issued a 40-page order last week responding to a “call” for water from senior water rights holders in a portion of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. That call, if granted, would cut off water from other users with less-senior rights. Dreher determined that he can’t order curtailment of water use until there’s actual injury, which would happen when the irrigation season is on and there’s not enough water. He said he’ll likely issue an order in early April. He said he hoped his order would prompt the parties back to the negotiating table.
Budget and taxes
Idaho is required to have a balanced budget, and its sales tax is scheduled to drop from 6 percent to 5 percent on July 1, trimming close to $180 million a year from the state’s tax revenues.
Where things stand: Legislative budget writers wrapped up their final week of hearings on state agency budgets. This week, they’ll hear from House and Senate committees that have been examining budget issues and then begin setting budgets. Supplemental budget requests for the current year will be up first, with the setting of next year’s budget scheduled to start Friday.
Education
Education is the top issue in Idaho in virtually every poll. It’s also the single largest slice of the state’s general fund budget.
Where things stand: An effort was launched by the Meridian School District, the state’s largest and fastest-growing district, to change the state’s school funding formula to give additional money to districts opening new schools.
Secrecy
Both the Idaho Constitution and Idaho Open Meeting Law require open legislative meetings, but lawmakers have held several closed-door committee meetings in recent years and majority Republicans hold closed-door caucuses.
Where things stand: A new organization dubbed “The Common Interest” formed to try to bring citizens’ voices to lawmakers. Former longtime Sens. Laird Noh, R-Kimberly, and Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, helped launch the group, along with political scientist Keith Allred. The group polled its 400-plus members and chose three issues to focus on this legislative session. Closed committee meetings came out on top, followed by education funding and telephone deregulation.
Medicaid
The federal-state program that provides health coverage for disabled and poor Idahoans has been growing faster than any other part of the state budget.
Where things stand: Committees in both the House and Senate are working on cost-saving ideas for Health and Welfare and Medicaid, and plan to present those to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this week. JFAC pushed the Medicaid budget off to the very end of its budget-setting process to allow those and other efforts to find cost savings to be completed first.