Local-option bill killed, but leaders suggest new life

BOISE – In a late-session burst of political theater, Senate leaders said Monday they may reconsider a bill to allow local option sales tax authority for projects including roads and mass transit.

The decision came hours after the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee voted 4-3 to kill the measure.

Privately, senators said a related constitutional amendment that also must pass for the local option sales tax bill to take effect doesn’t stand a chance of passing their chamber with the required two-thirds vote.

Still, senators believe resuscitating the issue at least temporarily secures them a bargaining chip at a time when they want the House to agree to a Senate amendment to House Bill 599. That amendment exempts business owners from paying taxes on the first $75,000 worth of personal property, far more modest than a House-passed version that called for eliminating the $120 million annual tax on business equipment by 2015.

The House is scheduled to take up the Senate amendment this morning; if representatives don’t agree, it’s dead. In that case, it’s unlikely the Senate will consider the local-option tax bill.

“We’re still trying to get House Bill 599,” said Senate President Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, of the behind-the-scenes political negotiations.

House leaders including Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, and Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, refused to confirm that keeping the personal property tax bill alive in the House hinged on the revival of the local-option tax issue in the Senate.

“We tried to make it clear with our body that the House is not playing ‘tradesies,’ ” Moyle said.

This back-and-forth wasn’t the only late-session legislative action aimed at ending the 2008 Legislature.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations budget-writing committee unanimously approved a $15 million substance abuse treatment package to replace the original $16.8 million appropriation that was vetoed by Gov. Butch Otter on March 20.

Otter had said the funding, originally part of a three-year, $21 million federal grant, had been expanded beyond its original scope. He also demanded to see data documenting programs’ success before approving any increases. By now agreeing to 90 percent of the original amount, Otter can rack up a symbolic win in his push for greater government accountability.

“He supports the compromise and feels it provides the performance-based accountability and monitoring oversight he felt was necessary for safeguarding precious state resources,” said Jon Hanian, an Otter spokesman.

Meanwhile, lawmakers get to say they got nearly everything they wanted for drug treatment.

“Politics is the art of the possible, and that’s what’s possible at this stage,” said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert and chairman of the budget-writing panel.

Several other issues remain before the 2008 session can adjourn, likely today or Wednesday.

•Rep. Robert Schaefer, R-Nampa, and other House leaders were meeting with officials including Department of Administration Director Mike Gwartney on Monday over a bill to trim retirement medical benefits for former state employees to reduce the state’s $442 million unfunded liability. Schaefer declined to speculate on what would become of the bill, which some state workers fear, despite assurances the state is working on alternative private insurance plans.

•Keith Allred, with the good government group The Common Interest, was involved in shuttle diplomacy between the House and Senate, trying to keep alive his plan to replace Idaho’s existing open primary with a model that calls for registered Democrats and Republicans to vote in their own party primaries, while still allowing unaffiliated independents to participate, too. The measure is a response to Republican conservatives who aim to close the GOP primary to all but party members.

•And the House State Affairs Committee planned to meet today to debate a plan to amend the Idaho Constitution to make it easier for cities, counties and public hospitals to take on debt, so long as no property taxes are used to repay the money. It’s already passed the Senate, but has been held hostage in the House.