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What's Left for Idaho's Legislature?: Bart Davis Carries a to-Do List of Things That Need Attention

Posted on: Sunday, 19 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Gregory Hahn, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Mar. 19--Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis keeps a hand-scrawled list in his pocket that reminds him what he's got left to take care of.

It's the "Going Home" list, and it's scratched on the back of a yellow piece of paper that carried some Senate committee's agenda that no longer matters.

"It's a pretty solid list," Davis said last week, pondering the obstacles that are keeping him and 104 other lawmakers from calling this session quits and heading home.

The list existed before Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was tapped to be the next interior secretary, before Lt. Gov. Jim Risch knew he would become the 31st governor in Idaho history, and before a few key senators started realizing they may have a chance at being appointed lieutenant governor in the next month or two.

So needless to say, things just got a little more interesting at the Statehouse.

Along with the budget, Kempthorne's highway plan, and property taxes, Davis' list shows a handful of other issues he'd like to see worked out this year.

And he finally conceded that his March 17 prediction for the end of the session was a bit off. But he insisted there's not more than a week or two left of work.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb has a slightly different list of priorities, and since he's retiring and in no hurry to race home for a primary, he's willing to take more time.

"We've got a little ways to go yet," he said.

So what's left?

The first three items on the list are fairly straightforward:

-- The budget: The only thing the Legislature really has to do each year is set budgets. With the Medicaid budget set now -- showing an increase of less than 8 percent -- next year's $2.3 billion spending blueprint is basically done.

-- Highways: Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's plan to borrow money for roads looks like it will survive intact enough for him to approve it and with enough sideboards for the conservative lawmakers to be content with the restrictions.

-- Property taxes: A push to replace all school maintenance property taxes with a sales tax increase failed in the Senate, and it's possible the hopes of major property tax relief this year died with it. As the end of the session nears, it looks more likely that the state could offer more help to low-income seniors but be unable to agree on how to help the rest of the property taxpayers in the state.

The rest of the pack

Davis doesn't stop with the Big Three. His list goes on:

-- Sempra: Magic Valley lawmakers are hearing from very angry constituents that the state needs to stop a San Diego, Calif., company from building a coal-fired energy plant near Jerome.

Like the lawmakers who represent the property tax revolters up north, some of these legislators are afraid to go home with nothing to show the voters.

-- Recharge aquifer: This is Newcomb's top issue, and he told reporters last week that he wasn't ready to say just how important it will be for him in his final days as House speaker. Newcomb wants to claim water rights for the state from Idaho Power in order to use more water to recharge the shrinking aquifer. His bill to do this passed the House Friday with a big majority, but is still four votes shy of a veto-overriding two-thirds majority should Kempthorne decide he disagrees with the concept.

-- School facilities: Don't forget the Idaho Supreme Court mandated Idaho change the way it pays for school buildings. The House Republicans have drawn up a plan that would force districts to fix their decrepit facilities or face a state takeover, and it offers more money than the Legislature has been willing to spend so far on the issue. It will get a Senate hearing Monday.

-- State official and judicial salaries: Statewide officials can only get raises once every four years, and the state's judges say their salaries have fallen below what they should be. But when the Legislature waits several years to adjust pay rates for these jobs, they can either short-change the request or offer a much higher percentage increase than the state is giving its workers. That, of course, can be hard to sell.

The others

Davis has a subsection of issues he'd like to address but that aren't at the forefront of his agenda. A couple of these ideas are important to Kempthorne, though, and are bound to be worked out before he lets the Legislature leave:

-- High school redesign: These once "extremely controversial" rules to add more math and science requirements are now a more manageable "controversial."

-- Parks: Lest you think Kempthorne is willing to ride off to Washington, D.C., and let his $34 million "Experience Idaho" parks plan die, you should know that he just named two giant citizen committees to help implement the project (which still has to be funded by the budget committee). Since Thursday, his staffers have been quick to point out, too, that President Bush had nice things to say about the proposal when he nominated Kempthorne for his new job.

-- Community College: One of the biggest issues for Treasure Valley educators like Boise State President Bob Kustra could be one of the last issues hashed out.

A compromise of a couple of compromises was introduced last week, with members of the governor's office standing literally arm in arm with east and north Idaho lawmakers in support of the idea.

But counties continue to fight any proposal that could take away from their budgets, and that compromise fell apart Friday. A Monday morning public hearing on the bill was canceled.

With each passing day, Kempthorne's prediction that community college classes will open this fall in Boise and elsewhere gets a little more tenuous.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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