The legislative session is underway. Gov. Phil Batt made two points clear in
his final State-of-the-State message: First, Idaho is in good condition, and
Second, he intends to aggressively carry out the duties of his office up to the
end of his term.
The governor called for legislative action on a number of issues, including:
. Pass legislation allowing local voters to exempt certain local offices
from term limits
. Give outstanding resource waters designation to portions of the Salmon
and Selway rivers, including some of their tributaries
. Develop what he called a "showpiece state park" on the Lolo Trail
. Create a Task Force to study the problem of drug and alcohol abuse
. Win approval of his recommended changes in Idaho's prison system
. Create an early childhood development program in the Department of
Health and Welfare
. Put a 65 mph freeway speed limit on trucks with lower limits on other
Idaho roads
. Upgrading the status of the DEQ to divisional status. It would be pulled
out of the Dept. of Health and Welfare and stand alone as the Department
of Environmental Quality. This should give some added clout to
environmental concerns of the state.
. Budget--The governor's proposed budget for the four largest categories:
* K-12 Education: $741.7 million, a 5.2% increase and 47.5% of the
general fund
* Higher Education: $191.5 million, a 7.2% increase, and 12.3% of the
general fund
* Health and Welfare: $256.8 million, and 8.5% increase and 16.5% of
the general fund
* Corrections: $85.5 million, a 23.9% increase, and 5.5% of the general
fund
The increased funding for corrections continues to eat away at potential
funding for educaton. The budget share for public schools in FY99 will
drop from this year's 49% to about 47.5%, the lowest percentage in the last
decade.
ISSUES OF NOTE
1. School Facilities--Reps. Tilman, Boe, and I are working on a constitutional
amendment that would reduce the supermajority of 66.7% to 60% for school
bond elections. Election dates would have to correspond to the 4 state
approved consolidate election dates. Gov. Batt said he might support
such legislation if some type of degree/level of voter participation
was included. Montana, Washington, and Oregon are the only states
requiring a level of participation. We plan on talking to the Governor
about his ideas on this matter next week.
A number of legislators are working on legislation to set up a fund for
state support for school districts with priority and critical building
needs. Troy and Genesee are two local schools with such needs. Sen.
Dean Cameron is developing two bills. We plan to meet with him next
week and see if we can work out a bill that can be presented to the
legislature.
2. Salary Increases for State Employees--The Governor listed a 5% salary
increase for state employees in his budget. Our dedicated and valued
state employees badly need this increase. The legislators all support
the increase. We are currently in negotiation to recommend how the
monies should be split, i.e. cost of living, merit, etc. I favor a
flat $700 increase for all employees and then use the remainder to
help move employees closer to their respective paylines, and then use
the remainder for merit.
3. Highway 95--There hasn't been much discussion the first week on this issue.
Sen. Jack Riggs will present the bill. He has also included about
$100 million in the bill for Southeastern and Southern Idaho. There is
much concern about raising taxes through a cent a gallon increase on gas
and raising car registration fees. I try to point out to legislators
that a major long term bill to improve highway 95 is long overdue, and
that we must move forward to improve the infrastructure of our highways
to remain competitive. The safety issue is also of great priority.
4. Higher Education--The $1.05 million to complete the state's funding
obligation for the biotech building and listing the student learning
center/commons on the capital building list is a positive step. Salary
increases are also in the budget; however, the Governor did not
address salary equity and innovative research proposals. President
Hoover and his staff will meet with JFAX during the coming two weeks
to try and get additional funding.
5. Headstart--Sen. Cecil Ingram and I are working on a bill to transfer
Headstart officially to the Dept. of Education, and we are trying to
obtain $1.5 million to fund the program from the State.
6. $1,500 Tax Credits to Send Students to Private/Secular Schools--I've
received a number of calls on this proposal. My position is quite
clear. Public tax funds are to be utilized for public education. The
U.S. constitution and the Idaho Constitution are quite clear that
public tax funds are not to be directed to the support of students sent
to private religious schools. St. Maries students are transported
on Moscow School District buses, and the point has been raised that
this must be an exception to the Idaho Constitution. I asked for a
point of clarification from the Attorney General's Office. The AGs
office indicated there was no conflict since a fee is received from
parents of St. Maries parents to pay for the service rendered.
7. Charter Schools--in general there appears to be widespread support for
charter schools from both the Governor and legislators, and there is
an excellent chance the bill will pass this legislature.
8. Treatment of DUI's--Rep. Miller will be introducing a bill that will
utilize a number of less expensive treatment of repeat DUI's--workcamp,
electronic monitoring, etc. The Governor appears to favor the bill and
the most optimistic savings figure is $15 million if the bill is passed.
9. Gifted and Talented Programs--Rep. Boe and I plan to introduce a bill
developed by Rep. Alexander that would dedicate 5% of any surplus
in the state budget at the end of the fiscal year. This fund would
build up to a level of $500,000, and then could be utilized on a match
basis by school districts to enhance their talented and gifted program
Rep. Alexander feels that he might be able to get $2 million from
the private sector to help build up the find.
10. H443 would create the Budget Stabilization Fund by transferring all
monies in current budget reserves account and then annually adding
1% of the past year's general fund budget whenever that year's budget
surplus exceeds 4%. Our calculations indicated this could take away
about $15,000,000 from public education each year, and so I will oppose
the legislation.
11. Idaho Library Computer Enhancement--The Governor included an item of
$465,000 which will enable all libraries in the state to access 15,000
journals. The bill deserves all our support.
I can be reached via e mail at: ttrail@moscow.com in Moscow and mjmaxwell@
juno.com in Boise. I can be reached by phone in Boise at my desk at
208-332-1216 and 208-332-1000 (you can leave messages for me at the info
desk).
The legislative fax numbers is 208-334-5397.
Legislative newsletter 2 will be sent out next week.
Rep. Tom Trail, Dist. 5
Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
2039 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel: (208) 882-6077
Fax: (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail@moscow.com