Feb. 8-13 Legislative Update from Rep. Trail

[Tom Trail <RepTrail@infotrail.com>]

Visionaries:

     We are at the midpoint in the legislative session.  To date I've
received about 800 e-mails and answered 700.   I'm receiving an increasing
number of e-mails from teenagers about key bills.  Many contact me for
information about school projects. One message that caught my attention
came from a 15 year-old girl.  She wrote, "I am writing about SB 1115 (this
bill refers to greyhound racing).  I do not want this to pass.  I have seen
lots of greyhounds that have come off the track.  Greyhounds have been over
bred and there are not enough homes for people to adopt them.  I may be
only 15 but I know that the greyhounds do not have a voice.  Hopefully you
will still hear their cry." 
I'm going to focus on some major educational issues facing the legislature
in this report.

1.  Teacher Salaries -- Good news.   There is enough money in the SPI's
budget  to cover a 3% increase for teachers’ salaries.   This is partially
due to the savings calculated on a short fall in enrollments for next FY
according to projections.  Rep. Bert Marl			ey and I talked with the House
Speaker, and he reassured us that legislative leadership will protect the
money specifically for teachers’ salaries.

2.  PERSI -- You'll get most of the story toward the end of next week but
basically PERSI legislation is dead for this session.   The no cost
enhancements would not cost the taxpayers any additional money and we need
to upgrade our  system to be on a par with sister states in order to
compete in recruitment  and retention of employees.       The conservative
leadership expresses concerns over the financial stability  of PERSI even
though there is a $500,000,000 positive balance in the fund.   We  managed
to get the Speaker to appoint a committee representing the PERSI  Coalition
leadership, the Governor's Office, Counties and Cities Associations,  and
the legislative supporters, i.e. Rep. Bert Marley, Senator Andreason, and
myself.   We met Friday and will have another meeting early next week. It
is clear to me, however,  that leadership will have Rep. Bob Shaefer, Chair
of Commerce and Human Resources Committee, take the bills off the agenda
(unless there some type of unanticipated miracle), and they will be
assigned to an Legislative Interim Committee.  We keep being reassured by
leadership that they are not trying to kill the bills but want  more study
and public input.    Unfortunately, we had a public hearing scheduled for
next Thursday and would have had the opportunity to get plenty of input.
We really don't know where the  Gov. stands on the issue, but his silence
probably communicates a message. 

3.  School Facilities -- There is a lot of smoke and little fire from the
legislators.   Rep. Roger Chase is developing a bill that would take
approximately $20,000,00  from the School Endowment Funds to set up a
School Bond Assistance  Program.   Basically with better management of the
funds and projected  higher returns a percentage over normal returns would
go into the fund. This would  build up a school bond fund that could then
be used as a match for local  school districts.   I'm a cosponsor on the bill.

4.  Reducing the Super Majority -- Rep. Donna Boe and I were ready to
reintroduce  this bill.    We requested the Governor for a meeting and a
strong statement of his support.   We are still waiting after five weeks.
Sen. Schroeder will  introduce our bill from the Senate Side and at least
we'll get a hearing.

5.  Head Start -- Sen. Boatright, Sen. Schroeder, Sen. Dunklin, and I
introduced  a bill to give the Dept. of Education the responsibility of
administering  Head Start.    The bill also asks for the establishment of a
five person  advisory committee.    This is enabling legislation.   Head
Start supporters on JFAC think there is a chance we might be able to tap
into some surplus Health and Welfare funds.

6. Gifted and Talented -- I'm introducing a resolution requesting the
establishment of a Legislative Interim Committee to study the needed
support for gifted and talented programs.   This is basically an unfunded
state mandate  to the school districts.    We will also be lobbying JFAC to
keep $500,000 in the  budget for gifted and talented training of school
district staff and faculty.

7. Reading Initiatives -- These bills will be presented in a house
education  committee hearing on Wednesday and Thursday.   Rep. Ken Robison
of  Boise thinks that he may have a way to protect school district
discretionary money and fund the initiative with new monies.

8.  SB1038 --  Introduced by Sen. Schroeder, this bill would add to
existing law to create an Idaho Public School Safety Commission with the
authority to establish criteria governing measurement of need in school
districts and terms for the award of monies in the State Board of Education
for the purpose of the grants.

9.  SB1037 -- Introduced by Sen. Schroeder, this bill would add to existing
law to appropriate an additional $1,000,000 to the State Board of Education
to be transmitted to the Whitepine Joint School District to construct a new
high school.
I'd like to briefly mention progress on several other legislative bills

10.  Hunting and Fishing -- The House Resources and Conservation Committee
voted down two bills that would have increased hunting and fishing license
fees by an average of $12.   This will leave the Department short by about
$2 million. There is a chance that another bill might help raise some more
revenues for the Department.

11.  HB 80 -- The House passed by a 45-23 vote a bill expanding the state
income tax credit for charitable contributions to education.  The proposed
change would double the limits to $100 and $1,000 for individuals and
corporations.

12.  Reducing the state fuel tax --  Sen. Frasure introduced a bill that
would repeal all four cents of the 1996 fuel tax increase.   My position is
against the repeal until Highway 95 is repaired and is safe. 



Rep. Trail, district 5

Please feel free to contact me in any of the following ways:

by mail:

Idaho State Legislature,
State Capitol Bldg
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0038.

by phone: (at the House Communications Center)

208-332-1000  (phone)
208-334-5397  (fax)

or by email at:

Boise daytime:           ttrail@house.state.id.us
Boise evening:            mjmaxwell@juno.com
Moscow (weekends):   ttrail@moscow.com

if uncertain, you can email to RepTrail@infotrail.com and your message will
be forwarded to me at the proper location.

Legislative newsletters and additional materials and information can be
located on my web
and home page http://www.infotrail.com/idaho/idaho.html


Rep. Trail/District 5