The 62nd Idaho Legislature will begin
its third month of session in two weeks, bringing with it a
considerable number of bills moving through both the House and Senate
side for further review.
President Pro Tempore Brent Hill said
the session is looking to end right on their goal date of March 21,
and much business is taking place on the House and Senate floor week
after week to ensure ending by that goal.
Two of the state's primary topics –
education funding and justice reinvestment – have moved smoothly
from each side of the Statehouse.
Funding education
Joint chairs of
the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Sen. Dean Cameron,
R-Rupert, and Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, said education is in the
forefront of JFAC's mind while setting the budget for fiscal year
2015.
While putting the
state's budget together, they said it is very much a piece-by-piece
process.
“We either set
(the education budget) first to make sure we can put everything we've
got into it, or we set it last to make sure we've gathered everything
we can for it,” Cameron said.
JFAC has set March
7 as their target date to have the budget completed. The
state public education budget is the single largest budget in the
state's ledger book.
Reinvesting in justice
Figuring out just how the Idaho State
Prisons would change hands from private contracted control to state
control has been an issue for select lawmakers since June 2013.
Marc Pelka, program director of the
Council of State Government Justice Center has collaborated with
lawmakers over the past eight months to create a batch of policies to
decrease recidivism and increase responsible spending within state's
the prison system. By tweaking programming and establishing a process
focusing on treatment and probation, the state is able to save
millions of dollars by not having to build a new prison facility.
Senate Bill 1254 – One of the
most-discussed issues of the session, this bill would allow concealed
gun carry on state university and college campuses. After passing
through the full Senate by a 25-10 vote, the bill is currently in
review by the House. It is expected to be up for hearing later this
week.
SB 1271 – A bill sponsored by
one of the newest senators to the Idaho Legislature, Sen. Janie
Ward-Engelking, in conjunction with 13-year-old Ilah Hickman, to make
the Idaho giant salamander the state's official amphibian. Hickman
pitched the idea to a House committee last year but never received a
hearing. This year the Senate State Affairs Committee voted in favor
of the bill, and it will next move to the House for approval before
landing on the governor's desk for introduction to law.
SB 1327 – The full Senate
voted unanimously to allow schools to supply Epi-Pens and similar
allergy-related lifesaving items in case of an unexpected and severe
allergic reaction. The bill will now move through the House for
continued examining.
SB 1337 – Called the “ag-gag”
bill, this would criminalize taking video or photos of an
agricultural-based operation without owner permission. The bill was
created following the leak of a video containing images of severe
abuse to cows at a large southern Idaho dairy. The House Agriculture
Committee voted 13-1 in favor of the bill.
SB 1357 – Called the “justice
reinvestment bill,” this bill utilizes the study crafted by the
Council of State Government Justice Center to reduce the percentage
of the prison population that soon re-offends after being released
and rework programming and sentencing to save space in the prisons.
It received unanimous support from the Senate Judiciary Committee and
is currently moving to the full Senate.
House Bill 426 – This bill
presented another hot-button bill in this session of the legislature.
Sponsored by Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, 426 would protect professional
liscensure in the case of violations when citing “sincerely held
religious beliefs.” This bill never received a public hearing, and
isn't likely to advance.
HB 427 – Luker's companion
bill to HB 426, this bill would make it legal to protect individuals
who deny services to others if they cite religious beliefs. Following
a three-and-a-half hour public hearing largely in disapproval of the
bill, it passed through the House State Affairs Committee on a 11-5
vote to general orders, but isn't likely to advance for the remainder
of the session.
HB 470 – Gov. Otter listed
wolves as one of his main priorities in the State of the State
address Jan. 6, 2014. Now, HB 470 is bringing that priority into
focus by injecting $2 million into the creation and operation of a
state board to manage the wolf population. The House voted 49-16 in
favor of creating the board. Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, said the state
is increasingly losing control over the population, and 35 to 40
percent the wolf population needs to be harvested each year to
maintain balance.
HB 504 – This house bill would
grant $15.8 million in leadership bonuses to Idaho teachers,
beginning next year. Both the House and Senate Education Committees
are working to bring Idaho's teacher salaries and educational
programming more in like with the recommendations made by the
Governor's Task Force to Improve Education. HB 504 would set up a
reward system in which teachers deemed deserving by their district
receive the awards. The bill passed through the full House in a 62-6
vote then passed through the Senate Education Committee and will soon
be seen by the full Senate. If approved by the full Senate, it will
travel to Gov. Otter's desk to become law.