Legislative update January 11-16

[Tom Trail <RepTrail@infotrail.com>]

LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER 1--January 11-16/99

     I spent the first week of the legislative session in the hospital
after suffering from a mild heart attack.   I am making excellent progress
and have had a good report from the doctor.  I plan on resting this week
and then starting back to work on January 25th.  In the mean time, I’ve had
Dr. Maynard Miller serving as my replacement and I've been in contact with
a number of legislators.  This week's letter will highlight some of the
important issues from both the Governor's keynote speech and the legislature.

1)  Education Initiatives -- In his State of the State address Governor
Kempthorne emphasized spending more than $11 million on new programs to
immunize children and on a new $5.5 million reading program.  In addition,
he proposed allowing school districts voters to decide whether to lower the
super majority to 60%, and a $3 million incentive to attract and retain key
college faculty.

     In a very tight budget year, the funding for public schools moves from
49.4% to  49.2% and higher education from 15.3% to 15.2% (as a percent of
the overall state budget) in the Governor's budget.  Public school
teachers, especially in rural districts, who rely on state money for salary
increases might not get a raise.  I'm a strong supporter of the new
initiatives but concerned about potential impact on current state
discretionary funds utilized by local school districts.  This will be a
topic of great debate.

2)  Immunization Initiative -- Idaho's immunization rates for children
ranked 50th nationally in 1997.  The support for a $2.5 million budget to
greatly improve this initiative should receive strong support.  The key
issue will be the source of this funding..

3)  Reading Initiative -- Governor Kempthorne's Reading Initiative is
priced at $5.5 million.  I served on the Legislative Interim Reading
Committee and we will be introducing the new legislation.  Statewide
results show that about 25% of Idaho 3rd graders read below grade level and
that 60% have significant reading comprehension problems.  National
research indicates that if a child cannot read at grade level by the end of
the 3rd grade, that child will have a very small chance of graduating from
high school.  There will be bi-partisan support for the Reading Initiative
but battles over how to fund it.

4)  Rainy Day Fund/Tobacco Monies -- Governor Kempthorne recommended that
the tobacco settlement monies be placed in the state's rainy day fund.
Some legislators recommend allocating 1 percent rather than 4 percent of
any state surplus in the rainy day fund.  Income from the tobacco
settlement is estimated to be $9 million this year, going up to $25 million
in several years.  The debate will be whether or not we should utilize the
tobacco monies for high priority programs instead of placing the money in
the rainy day fund.  I'd like to see some of the new monies fund programs
like Head Start.

5)  State Employees Salaries/PERSI -- The Governor recommended a 3%
increase for state employees and this was endorsed by the legislative CEC
committee.  There is strong support among the members of the state
employees association to move the PERSI Retirement Plan from the Rule of 90
to 85 and improve the retirement equity.  Sen. Gary Schroeder and I are
working with other legislators to introduce this legislation.  The PERSI
fund is in excellent financial shape and there would be no cost to the
taxpayer.  The changes would make Idaho competitive with sister states and
help in the recruitment and retention of employees.

There will be many more key issues to be discussed in the coming weeks and
I will report these to you in the upcoming newsletters.

Rep. Tom Trail/Dist. 5