In Otter’s first year, many legislators leave Boise unsatisfied

BOISE – Frustrated lawmakers are heading home from their three-month legislative session without the one thing many had as their top priority to accomplish this year: Relief from the sales tax on groceries.

“I’m frustrated and disappointed,” said Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene. “The governor had a little bit different idea than we did – now nobody gets anything. He doesn’t get his idea, we don’t get our idea.”

For Idahoans, the result is that the new 6 percent sales tax, which lawmakers raised from 5 percent in a special session in August, will continue to apply fully to basic necessities such as milk and bread. The failure of lawmakers and Gov. Butch Otter to reach agreement – even though both had the issue at the top of their agendas, and most are of the same political party – was emblematic of a legislative session that never quite seemed to work.

“It feels like we’re stumbling around,” said Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum. “We have a new governor, new leadership in the House – there seems to be a lack of direction.”

The session began with a battle between the Legislature – 75 percent of the seats are held by Republicans – and the new GOP governor over long-set plans to expand the state Capitol with new underground wings, to accommodate larger public meeting rooms and more office space. Otter campaigned against the wings, and when lawmakers proceeded anyway, he issued a stop-work order and forced a compromise that made everyone unhappy: The wings will be built, but they’ll be half the size, with a much higher cost per square foot.

As the session continued, lawmakers considered but killed an array of bills – from setting basic licensing standards, including criminal background checks, for all Idaho day-care centers, to the governor’s proposal to make it easier for voters to form a new community college district. They squelched proposals from county clerks across the state to implement a vote-by-mail system, considered but rejected a huge property tax cut for businesses, and killed proposals for local-option taxes.

But there were some changes enacted:

“North Idaho lawmakers are celebrating a new law that will allow sporting goods retailer Cabela’s to finance a new freeway interchange at Post Falls, then get paid back from future sales taxes.

“Hayden Lake Rep. Jim Clark secured $2 million to expand drug courts across the state and potentially keep hundreds of Idahoans out of the state’s swelling prisons

“Funding was approved to combat milfoil in North Idaho lakes.

“School funding was increased.

“A second year of reforms tightened up Idaho’s child abuse laws.

“The end result of the session was good for my district,” said Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls.

House Assistant Minority Leader George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, said, “For me personally it was frustrating because my major legislation (on day-care licensing) was killed in committee again.

“But from a broader perspective, I think it’s been frustrating as well in that it’s been sort of a do-nothing session,” Sayler said. “A lot of major issues have been brought forth, but not much action taken on them.”

Lawmakers had planned on a short session this year because they had a rare deadline. They needed to be out of the state capitol by April 1 to allow construction to start on the long-planned Statehouse renovation. As a result, only half as many bills were passed as usual, and many ideas simply were put off. Still, the session dragged on for a full three months, pushing up against the deadline.

Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, said, “It was a disappointing session for me primarily for one reason” – because the House tax committee declined to consider a bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, to limit property tax increases. Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, said that discussion should wait. “Ours was kind of a victim,” Eskridge said.

Lawmakers did agree to launch an in-depth study of tax issues including tax exemptions, and many are hoping that effort will hold the answer to the grocery tax relief question and more.

Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, said he thought the best thing this year’s Legislature did was passing a bill requiring parental consent for minors to get abortions. Similar laws in the past have been overturned in court.

Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, pointed to a series of reforms in how Idaho deals with substance abuse and mental health treatment. “It’s a huge shift in policy,” he said. “My hope is that in the long term, we can treat people, get ‘em off drugs, and hopefully not continue housing them. … I think that is a very big deal for the state of Idaho.”

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said she was surprised by “the give and take both with the leadership in the House and the executive branch – I think that I was expecting more civil interaction.”

Otter issued a half-dozen vetoes, and both houses successfully overrode one of those, to pass a bill banning smoking in Idaho bowling alleys.

Sayler, a retired high school government teacher, said he saw more clashing ideologies this year and less focus on public policy. That wasn’t what he envisioned when he taught his students about how government works. He said, “There’s the ideal, and there’s the real.”