House passes abortion legislation
Boise The Idaho House of Representatives passed a stringent bill Tuesday requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortion. The vote was 50-18.
HB 351 would replace an Idaho parental-consent law that was overturned by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals as unconstitutional.
Rep. Bill Sali, R-Meridian, acknowledged that the new law also would likely lead to legal challenges, but said it was worth it.
“We saw a 30 percent reduction in the number of abortions in the three years after” the original law passed, he told the House.
“That amounts to 120 Idahoans that are now alive that would have been victims of abortion had we not had our original parental consent law.”
The bill, which was proposed during the final weeks of this year’s legislative session, “will once again tie us up in expensive and unsuccessful litigation,” said Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise.
Panhandle representatives split on the bill, with Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, joining the three Democrats in opposing it.
Micron gets tax break of $7 million a year
Boise Micron Technology Corp., the state’s largest private employer, won a nearly $7 million-a-year tax break from the state Legislature on Tuesday, on a 32-2 Senate vote.
HB 230, sponsored jointly by House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, House Assistant Majority Leader Mike Moyle, and Micron lobbyist Mike Reynoldson, grants a new sales tax exemption for property or items used in research and development.
It expands the existing “clean room” sales tax exemption to include clean rooms used for research and development, and adds research and development to the state’s production exemption from sales taxes.
Micron is expected to reap the most from the benefit, though other, smaller high-tech manufacturers could also use the new exemption.
HB 230 earlier passed the House and now heads to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who already has said he supports it.
“Some will say we just don’t have the money this year,” said Sen. Hal Bunderson, R-Meridian, the lead Senate sponsor for the bill.
But, he said, Idaho can’t afford not to provide incentives to its top high-tech businesses, because other states are doing even more.
“We can drive them from us, or we can participate with them so that they can effectively compete, and then we’ll have a friend for life,” Bunderson told the Senate.
Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, complained, “we have somebody asking for a sales tax exemption on something every year, and we very seldom have the courage to say no.”
“It’s a $7 million hit to the budget,” Stegner told the Senate.
“That is a transfer of $7 million from the pockets of taxpayers to the pockets of Micron shareholders. I think that is very poor policy.”
Besides Stegner, only Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett, voted against the bill, which takes effect as soon as it’s signed by Kempthorne.
Stuck motorists found near ranger station
Three people who headed into the woods Monday afternoon for a drive spent the night in the McGee Ranger Station area of the Coeur d’Alene National Forest after their pickup became stuck in the snow, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.
Raymond Branthoover, 24; his sister, Dawn Branthoover, 23; and family friend Shelly Purl, 19, all of Coeur d’Alene, left town Monday around 3 p.m. to go for a drive in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest.
They intended to return at 5:30 p.m., according to the Sheriff’s Department.
When they failed to return, Purl’s mother drove to Fernan Saddle looking for them and called the Branthoovers’ mother. At 7 a.m. Tuesday, Purl contacted the Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s deputies and officers from the U.S. Forest Service searched the area and in the early afternoon, just after the Kootenai County Search & Rescue was activated, found the missing people in good health near the McGee Ranger Station.