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| published Wednesday, January 30, 2008 |
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Rep. Nicole LeFavour pointed out in her blog that on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Idaho legislature made history by printing a bill to reduce discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Senate Bill 1323 is promoted by the Idaho Human Rights Commission and is co-sponsored by Reps. LeFavour, Carlos Bilbao and Les Bock and Sens. Tim Corder, Chuck Coiner and David Langhorst. It would make it illegal to for an employer of 5 or more employees to fire someone simply because they are gay or to deny them housing or education. Religious groups are exempted. Don’t be silent. Contact the co-sponsors and say Thank You!
With most bills, lawmakers vote for or against them AFTER the public has had a chance to weigh in at a public hearing. Sen. Curtis McKenzie, however, told his home town paper he wants a majority of his committee to commit to vote for the Human Rights bill (SB 1323) BEFORE he will schedule a hearing! Dont be silent. If this offends your sense of fairness in our government, contact Sen. McKenzie and tell him so.
There was a huge turnout for four days of public hearings on two bills that would provide additional compensation to teachers who go above and beyond the call of duty. Senate Bill 1290 called We Teach is proposed by the classroom teachers and Senate Bill 1310 called iSTARS is proposed by State School Superintendent Tom Luna. Advocates for both bills agreed that improving student achievement is connected to improving a teachers knowledge and skills and that to achieve both, the state must invest more funds! Luna’s plan drew the most criticism because it would require teachers to give up their continuing contract rights in exchange for better pay and it relies on standardized test (ISAT) results to evaluate teachers rather than tests plus other performance indicators. The members of the Senate and House Education Committees want to do something but most agree that other legislators (the budget committee) wont support investing the needed funds and even if they did, a third set of legislators (the tax committee) show no interest in subjecting the tax code to the same level of scrutiny that teachers and students are subject to. If they did, they might actually find the revenue to invest in student and teacher achievement.
This week, leaders from both the House and Senate implied they will take action on a bill to address the unfairness of taxing groceries. The Governor again asked to increase the grocery tax credit (which reduces income taxes to offset the sales tax on food) and to make it refundable so people who make such low incomes they dont file returns can get the credit. The Governor wants the credit to phase out for higher income taxpayers. Last year, the legislature rejected the Governors approach but could not agree on an alternative they were willing to pay for. Conservative legislators balked at the notion that a family making $20,000 might actually feel the impact of the 6% sales tax on food more than a family making $200,000 would.
One factor that derailed the grocery tax credit last year is that lobbyists for Idaho’s biggest corporations were asking at the same time to repeal the property tax on their equipment. It is called the personal property tax and has been on the books for generations to balance the disproportionate burden homeowners pay for real property. Few would argue that for small businesses it is an administrative headache. Spokesman Review reporter Betsy Russell quotes Speaker Lawerence Denney saying This may not be the year that we have the funds to do that. Outright repeal will cost the state over $100 million. Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes agrees but admits they are getting a lot of pressure (presumably from corporate lobbyists who are also poised to donate generously to supportive legislators campaigns this year). Reasonable proposals have been floated by Rep. James Ruchti and others to repeal the provision for 84% of Idaho’s businesses small and medium-sized companies which keeps the price tag to about $10 million. But lobbyists for the big corporations know they need small businesses to be their poster child for full repeal.
It is only three weeks into the session but the frustration is so intense in the House Revenue & Taxation Committee that Rep. Wendy Jaquet has taken to calling it the killing field in her report to constituents. Last week, the committee refused to even take testimony on the possible repeal of 5 out of 6 exemptions (they refused to print the bill so they never saw the light of day). This week, it killed the one bill it deigned to print on vending machine sales, even when it was watered down to keep much of the exemption in place.
Some Senators are also disgusted that the House Revenue & Taxation Committee keeps smothering tax reform ideas before they take their first breath. Senators Tim Corder, David Langhorst & others responded this week by introducing Senate Bill 1315. It takes up the concept of zero-based budgeting and applies it to all tax credits, deductions, and exemptions. It would require the legislature to periodically re-authorize them rather than let them continue in perpetuity with no review. Senators are undeterred by the prospect that House leadership which broadly interprets the constitutional requirement that all tax bills can only start in the House will treat this and every other Senate tax reform idea as dead on arrival.
In the private sector, when a company invests in developing skills and relationships for its top employees, it routinely requires them to sign "non-compete clauses in their contracts. These key employees should not be able to take the assets their former employer paid for and immediately go to work for another company in the same market. (Ask weatherman Scott Dorval how long he had to be off the air when he left KBCI and went to work for the competition at KIVI in the Treasure Valley.) Other states require top elected and appointed public officials to wait a year or more before going to work for a company that lobbies the agency they used to work for. The public paid to develop their skills and relationships and is entitled not to have that investment immediately go to benefit a private company. Sen. Kate Kelly figures this standard practice ought to apply to Idahos public officials too and has introduced Senate Bill 1303. But, alas, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis said opposes the change. He sees no problem in the speed at which the revolving door currently swings.
I was serving my first term in the Idaho Legislature when met an attorney named Jack Van Valkenburgh who had just founded the Idaho Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. This week, Jack announced he will be retiring as Executive Director of the ACLU. How can 18 years have gone by so quickly? There are lots of people who cringe at the people who benefit from the Bill of Rights that Jack fought for but Jack taught us all to understand that for our constitution to have meaning those rights must not only apply to every American in theory, they must apply in practice. It has been an honor to work with such a righteous defender of my rights as Jack! You have done the memory of James Madison proud!
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