Two North Idaho legislators offer session insights
Two North Idaho legislators said the recently finished legislative sessions went well and many bills were passed that will benefit Idahoans.
"There were so many positives, including property tax relief, income tax reduction and school facility funding increases, that came out of this legislative session," said Sen. Doug Okuniewicz, R-Hayden.
"Some highlights of the session are the new budget process to make the state spending more transparent to all Idahoans," said Rep. Elaine Price, R-Coeur d'Alene. "This process will allow the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee to dig deeper into the budgets to hopefully cut spending and lower taxes for our constituents."
Okuniewicz said there was a big push for law enforcement in the session and cited several bills that were passed.
House Bill 406: Established mandatory minimums for fentanyl tracking and possession.
Senate Bill 1369: Implemented stronger penalties for DUI-related vehicular manslaughter.
Senate Bill 1326: Enhanced penalties for aggressive driving that causes injury while racing a car, road rage, etc.
Senate Bill 1416: EMS reorganization for better coverage throughout the state.
House Bill 494: Mandatory minimums for human trafficking and commercial sexual activity.
Okuniewicz was disappointed that House Bill 613 failed. It would have prohibited the advertising of marijuana and other federally illegal activities or services from other states on billboards in Idaho.
He said there were big improvements in the budgeting process.
Although there was resistance, the legislature implemented a new budgeting procedure that breaks each agency's appropriation into two parts, he said. The first part is a bare-bones budget appropriation bill. The second part is a separate appropriation bill for new programs, employees and equipment.
"In the past, the two parts were always lumped together, which made it harder to vote against a budget if it was also filled with pork," Okuniewicz said. "After all, nobody wants to vote against an appropriation for the state police, for example."
He said prior to this year, if a budget came to the Senate or House floor loaded with unnecessary or exorbitant spending, a legislator had to vote yes or no on the entire budget, because there isn't a line-item veto option.
"This change to the budgeting and appropriation process was an extremely important one," Okuniewicz said.
Price said legislators passed several bills protecting children in Idaho, such as the Children’s School and Libraries Protection Act and the Online Child Protection Act, both aimed at keeping material harmful to minors out of their hands.
It also passed legislation to create agriculture protection areas in Idaho, which would allow families to protect their agricultural lands for 20 years at a time.
"I would have liked to see more legislation passed that secured our constitutional rights and returned money back to the people of Idaho," Price said.
Education funding and school facilities funding were two issues Price said were discussed often.
"This is a tough discussion as we need to make sure the taxpayers are getting the best value for their money. I would like to see these discussions continue and not be rushed," she said.
Price said the state needs to prepare for the elimination of American Rescue Plan Act funds and possible downturn of the economy.
"We will be dealing with budgets in the next session that will not include ARPA monies," Price said. "This will be a challenging task to prevent state money replacing this one-time money. I look forward to this challenge, keeping in mind the taxpayer as we make these decisions."
Okuniewicz and Price were the only North Idaho legislators who responded to requests for comment on their work during the legislative sessions.
Elaine Price