The poster came to mind Thursday afternoon while I was listening to testimony on House Bill 81 from various anti-hunger advocates. A Boise Methodist minister, talked about the “mercy work” they do as a congregation and how a well structured credit would better get at the structural issues of poverty. HB81, as was pointed out in the Senate Tax committee, was “the winner in the four way beauty contest” to decide how to deal with the issue of sales tax on food. This bill would provide a credit of $50 to all Idahoans under 65 and $70 to seniors. Most of the testimony called for changing the bill to look more like the Governor’s original proposal, which better targets the tax benefits to households with incomes under $50,000. After nearly two hours of testimony, the bill was sent to the floor for amendment, because, Senator Joe Stegner joked, “This is what we do with House tax bills.” What amendments will be made—large or small—are still up in the air.
This ain’t your grandpa’s tax committee. There’s some attitude around the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee. Several members of the committee have agreed not to pass any new tax exemptions until the Legislature as a whole agrees to review the exemptions and exclusions that already exist. On Thursday a motion to hold the bill in committee by Senator Tim Corder almost succeeded in blocking movement of HB81. Corder argued that the committee should have the whole picture on the table—the budget, all other tax proposals—before deciding on any of them. The vote was 4 to 4 to hold the bill in committee before the chair, Senator Brent Hill broke the deadlock. And then there was David Langhorst who point blank questioned the bill’s main Senate sponsor, Russ Fulcher, about why recipients of Food Stamps are restricted from getting the credit but not recipients of very large government benefits like farm subsidies. You go, Boy.
The House Education Committee printed a bill this week that if passed will allow undocumented students who have lived in Idaho for at least 3 years to go to Idaho colleges and universities and pay in-state tuition. ICAN figures they sent at least 1000 faxes to the committee asking that the bill be introduced. Idaho would join 10 other states that have passed similar provisions.
. The Idaho Women’s Network brought in the director of Washington State’s Human Rights Commission this week to talk about that state’s legislation that includes “sexual orientation” as a protected class in their Human Rights Act statute. Several groups are pushing for a similar addition to Idaho’s Act. Supporters are looking for bi-partisan sponsors before the bill can be introduced. Three Republicans have agreed to sign on as co-sponsors but they want a larger pool before they will jump in. Some legislators have asked supporters why they are doing this “to them.” Huh? Is it always all about you, Mr. Legislator? For the GLBT community it has been a long time coming.
. On Tuesday morning people concerned with the state retirement system’s $50 million investments in companies doing business in Sudan will be protesting their continued enablement of genocide in the Darfur region. A picket will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a press conference at 11 a.m. at the PERSI Building on 8th St. in Boise.
. Although he said it was about “bringing people in, not shutting them out,” when Senator Mel Richardson presented the latest version of “English as the Official Language”, it didn’t sound that way. To Senator Edgar Malapeai, who is one of only two people of color in the Legislature, it sounded divisive. He suggested that English was already the official language and that this type of legislation sends the wrong message to people coming into the state. “People are here because they want to be here. They want to be Americans…They know they need to learn English.” The Senate State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce the bill Friday morning. While I was standing by the taco wagon on Sixth Street at noon today with Spanish and English mingling comfortably, it made me wonder once again what’s going on.
. Another attempt to get Idaho to join the Stream-lined Sales Tax Agreement (SSTA) failed on the House floor amidst debate that sounded a lot more like “all taxes are bad” than about evening the playing field between Main Street and the internet. The SSTA is a multi-state agreement that would eventually allow states to collect their sales tax on internet purchases by consumers in their states. Although Idaho consumers are supposed to pay the sales tax now, in practice it is nearly impossible to collect. This gives internet based sales a competitive advantage over local retailers. Instead the debate by opponents became an anti-government screed raising fear that streamlining allows “the tentacles of government where it isn't right now," said Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol. The floor sponsor, Leon Smith of Twin Falls, noted before the bill failed 37 to 33 that “It’s obvious that this bill is not popular here in redneck corner.”
said Alex LeBeau, the new director of the big business lobby, IACI, in summing up two days of debate around the phase out of the personal property tax. He was responding to questions raised by Representative Nicole LeFavour about the efficacy of giving another tax break to big business rather than putting money in the hands of consumers. LeFavour was shut down by the committee’s chair, Rep Dennis Lake twice this week for raising similar questions. “That is a philosophical question,” Lake opined. “I don’t want to get into that here.” Bubble up, trickle down, kind of fundamental questions. The current bill, HB206, will be replaced with a new bill that makes some small adjustments. Suffice it to say that it’s ok for some people to express their tax philosophy. “If investing in our big businesses is wrong,” said IACI’s LeBeau with apologies to Barbara Mandrell, “I don’t want to be right.” You cannot make that stuff up.
said Ken Roberts, the sponsor of the minimum wage bill that passed the House this morning. Gadzooks! That’s the problem of giving the people who don’t believe in minimum wage, control of the issue. Others, like Representative Shirley Ringo talked about the need for a fairer tip credit to benefit the workers rather than employers and the need to index the wage to the CPI like Oregon and Washington do so that we don’t just wait on Congress to improve wages at the base of the wage ladder. The bill passed 47 to 19 and is making its way to the Senate.
here’s one that has gotten little attention. Stuck somewhere in the far reaches of the House Business Committee is HB112 dealing with advertising for insurance companies. This little stinker attempts to make it OK to fudge on Truth in Advertising if you advertise in a foreign language. Here’s the idea: say you’re advertising on Spanish radio for an insurance product and you make certain promises that may or may not be in the policy you sell. No matter. If this bill becomes law, that Spanish ad could not be used in court if you relied on it or a brochure in another language. This is not true of English ads, which must comport to the English language policy you buy.