Legislative Action 3/10

["Gary Schroeder" <gschroed@senate.state.id.us>]

Friday  p.m., March 10, 2000.  Legislative Action this date.

A few notes before I  catch a plane:  


1)  Rep. Tom Trail's Recycling Bill was passed out of Senate State Affairs Committee 6-2 and will now come to the floor where I will carry it.  Tom has been working on this for several years and we are hopeful that this is the year for this bill!

2)  Senator Marguerite McLaughlin and myself were successful in passing SB 1457 in the Senate today.  This bill would provide that White Pine School District would not be penalized over $200,000 annually because the two high schools are not 15 miles apart.   They would have potentially had to pay back a similar amount for two previous years!  The legislation also covered similar situations in Orofino, Kooskia, Grangeville, Riggins, Bear Lake, and Albion.  The billed passed the Senate unanimously.   It will now proceed to the House where Shirley and Tom can help with it.

3)  The Senate also passed  another of my bills, SB 1494 on a 30-4 vote.  This bill provides that citizens who are denied moving and relocation costs in eminent domain proceedings can be awarded attorneys fees should they have to take their claims to court.  

Please note that HB 707 (the "Tax Cut" bill) will probably be up Wednesday in the Senate  Local Government and Taxation Committee.  The feeling in the Chamber today is that the bill will be amended to provide that the Health Insurance Deduction for the Self-employed will be passed as well as the provision which would remove the Marriage Tax Penalty.  The cost of these will be $12.388 million.  The other provisions of the bill, costing $28.1 million will be deleted, should the votes continue to exist to do this.   The Senate Republican Caucus will meet Monday or Tuesday to discuss  this bill before the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee meets.  It is my hope that we can free up some dollars to help with the University Classroom Center, put some more dollars into the Public School Budget and additional funding  into the Higher Education budget so that student fee increases can be reduced.  

The date of adjournment has tentatively been set for March 24th, although we may run a little longer.  We have agreed that we will not meet on the week ends nor run later than 5:30 or 6 in the evenings.  

Monday I will have SB 1288 before the Senate.  This bill would provide that the education of inmates in the Dept. of Corrections would be implemented by the Board of Education rather than the Board of Corrections as law now provides.  It will be tough to get this issue through the Senate, as the prison folks will mount a savage attempt to kill it.   The bill provides that the corrections folks would be in charge of security while the Board of Education will set policy with respect to design of the education programs. All current employees of the prison education program will be retained, as they are good folks.   It is our intent to eventually provide skill training, including vocational programs, which will allow inmates to hold meaningful jobs upon their release.  Currently, 70% of inmates who are released  from Idaho's prison reportedly end up back in prison.  

Tally Ho!

Senator Gary J. Schroeder