Friday, March 29, 2024
37.0°F

Legislative warm-up

by Brian Walker; Staff Writer
| December 13, 2018 12:00 AM

photo

Post Falls' Cory Alexander, right, discusses legislative topics with Rep. Jim Addis, R-Coeur d'Alene, during a town hall meeting at North Idaho College on Wednesday night. (BRIAN WALKER/Press)

COEUR d'ALENE — State lawmakers will have plenty to chew on when they come to the legislative table starting in January.

Reps. Paul Amador and Jim Addis and Sen. Mary Souza, all Republicans from Coeur d'Alene, hosted a town hall meeting at North Idaho College on Wednesday night to brief about 35 attendees on their expectations of the upcoming session and to see what's on citizens' minds.

Multiple attendees said they want to ensure Medicaid expansion is implemented in a timely manner and isn't changed significantly from what voters approved last month as Proposition 2.

"We are so desperate in this community (to have Medicaid expansion)," said Post Falls' Cory Alexander, who works in the health care industry. "My big fear is how long it will take when I hear bureaucracy and how many people will die."

Amador said the Legislature intends to hammer out how Medicaid expansion will be implemented this session, with the hope to bring on new patients in early 2020 after federal approval on the state's application.

Addis said that perhaps Idaho's version of Medicaid expansion can be improved from what other states rolled out, so he encourages voters to hold judgment on the program until the legislation is drafted.

"I hope we can find changes to make the law better for the people," said Addis, a legislative newcomer who will serve on the Revenue and Tax, Transportation and Natural Resources and Conservation committees.

"Let's look at the situation as half full, not half empty, and see if we can make it better."

Amador said there's a group of legislators who may discuss an overhaul or even overturning Medicaid expansion — he said he isn't among them — but he doesn't expect such talk would gain momentum.

"I don't believe that opinion would hold the majority," he said. "I believe it's important that, whatever the outcome of the election was, we honor that. My goal is to ensure it's implemented in one way or another."

Amador, who will serve on the Joint Finance and Appropriations (JFAC), Judiciary and Rules and Environment, Energy and Technology committees in his second term in Boise, said the language of the proposition was broad. As a result, legislation writers may fine-tune that in a way that's beneficial for qualified citizens.

An interim education committee has been working on revising the school funding formula for the past three years, so the legislators expect there will be some action on that front in the upcoming session.

Souza, who will serve her third term and serve on the Senate Affairs, Health and Welfare and Commerce committees, said the shift will move from using average daily attendance in the formula to enrollment.

"I'm hearing there's a good chance that it will be accepted, but maybe not loved by all," she said, adding that the proposed formula is still a work in progress.

Amador said the existing formula needs updated.

"There's the argument that, regardless if a student shows up or not, there still has to be class and the lights still need to be on," he said. "If a student doesn't show up, there's still the same expenses."

Amador said the formula is critical considering education is the largest chunk of the state's budget at roughly 50 percent and it needs to be fair to districts across the state.

"The goal is to make it as fair to the students as possible," he said. "We don't want to create wealthy districts and poor districts. Students should have the same opportunities regardless of where they live in Idaho."

Amador said the formula would likely be phased in so districts wouldn't see a dramatic change — if there is one — all at once. He also said that perhaps only a portion of the overall formula will be addressed in the next session.

Coeur d'Alene's Jan Studer, a retired teacher, encouraged legislators to invest in preschool education if the state wants to meet its education goals.

"A preschool program would make a huge difference," she said.

Amador said even with Gov.-elect Brad Little being an advocate of early childhood education, it's still going to be a long road to achieving preschool education.

"We still don't even have full-day kindergarten," he said.

Coeur d'Alene's Kelsey Cordes-Snyder, who is training to be a teacher, wondered what legislators are doing to keep teachers in Idaho instead of moving to other states for greener pastures.

Amador said the state is in its last year of a five-year plan to increase teacher pay, so strides have been made. However, there has to be limits considering Idaho doesn't have as large of a tax base as neighboring states.

"Washington is going to be a tough one to catch because they have deeper pockets than us," he said.

Amador said individual income tax changes made last year, specifically with how exemptions and standard deductions will be handled, have caused the Idaho Tax Commission to have concerns about planning for revenue to set the state budget.

"It's more of a budgetary issue than a legislative priority," he said.

Amador said if residents aren't aware of the changes, they may be surprised in April if or when they owe the state a refund. From the state's perspective, the uncertainty has had a ripple effect on budget planning.

"Right now we're not sure what these changes have meant for the tax rolls in the future," he said.

That, in turn, may lead to tricky budget-setting discussions, he said.

"It's difficult to set a correct budget if you don't have good projections," Amador said. "We're not funding what we collected last year but what we're predicted to receive over the next year. We don't want to shortchange services, but we also don't want to spend money we won't have."