Lawmakers warn budgets won’t be pretty

BOISE – Idaho lawmakers are “probably getting close to halfway through the session,” Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, told reporters last week.

He and House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, talked with the Idaho Press Club about everything from texting while driving to tax increases.

Said Bedke, “I think there’s going to be some sticker shock … when those revenue numbers are translated into budgets.” People will realize, he said, that “none of their sacred cows are exempt.”

Geddes revealed that his vehicle was rear-ended by a driver who was texting. Yet, he still has reservations about texting-while-driving legislation, though he thinks he’ll likely support it. “I’m getting a large amount of e-mails saying, ‘Don’t take away another freedom,’ ” Geddes said, noting, “It’s already illegal to drive while distracted.” Both Geddes and Bedke said they support the concept, however, of banning texting while driving, because it’s so dangerous.

Asked if they are likely to raise taxes next year – after resisting the move this year – Bedke said, “I don’t see it ever being easy to raise taxes in Idaho. … That’s not to say that there won’t be tax proposals that come out this year; that’s not to say that there won’t be some next year. It will all depend on the idea and the situation.”

Bedke said of ideas like those proposed by citizens on the governor’s “Efficiency” Web site, including taxing plastic grocery bags and legalizing and taxing marijuana, “Stuff like that just never seems to get critical mass in the Legislature.”

He said, “When we raise the taxes, if we raise the taxes, it will be in an across-the-board, predictable, fairer way and course that’ll be in the eye of the beholder.” As far as next year’s budget, he said, “Everything is on the table,” including the possibility of delaying the next scheduled boost in the state’s grocery tax credit.

Reserve fund for colleges

Idaho’s state colleges and universities would get their own budget stabilization fund, under legislation introduced unanimously in the House committee on education. “It’s such a good idea,” said Bedke, who proposed the bill and is co-sponsoring it with Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, and the governor’s office. “Would that we had done this years ago.”

Initially, the bill would set up three funds: One to contain interest on student fees and on tuition for those institutions that don’t already retain that interest (only the University of Idaho now retains it; the state general fund otherwise takes it); and two “bucket” funds to contain money for distribution; one for the four-year colleges and universities, the other for the three community colleges and Eastern Idaho Technical College. Bedke estimated that the interest fund, which would start July 1, would give colleges and universities an additional $114,000 next year. “It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a start,” he said. There’s no money yet to put into the other two funds.

Rep. Dick Harwood: Remove wolves

Lawmakers would declare an emergency and urge the governor to do the same and order the state’s wolf population reduced, under a concurrent resolution introduced in the House resources committee at the urging of Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries. “This bill is about legislators being able to show their support, should the governor so wish to have an executive order to have wolves removed,” Harwood told the committee.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene disagreed, and said the resolution appears to move Idaho toward a position like that of Wyoming, which hasn’t been given authority to manage its wolf population because of its refusal to enact acceptable wolf management plans.

“I think we all know how big this issue has been in our state the last 10 or 12 years, and the struggle we went through as a state to get to the position to where we can manage wolves,” Sayler said. “To me, this is a move back toward a Wyoming position. … This is a step back to more court cases.”

Sayler moved to kill the bill, but was outvoted along party lines, with only the panel’s Democrats voting in support. The committee then voted, again along party lines, to introduce a corrected version of the resolution. Among the last-minute changes: The resolution now states it encourages the governor to declare a state of emergency and require the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to use “any legal means” to reduce wolf numbers, instead of just “use any means.”

‘No money given to employee’

When Wayne Hammon, acting head of the Division of Human Resources as well as the governor’s budget chief, concluded his presentation of the division’s budget to legislative budget writers, some had questions about the division’s decision to deposit $75,000 into the retirement account of former Director Judie Wright this past year in exchange for her retiring eight months earlier than planned, boosting her retirement benefits.

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, asked about severance payments. “DHR has not paid any severance,” Hammon responded, noting that severance payments from the state are illegal. “The employee who left did not receive any money from DHR,” he said. When Jaquet asked where the money came from, Hammon said, “The employee received no money.”

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, asked if some arrangement was made through the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho. “DHR did purchase time at PERSI for the employee … as authorized by statute,” Hammon responded. “The money was given from the DHR budget to PERSI – no money was given to the employee.”