Dems in sine die press conference: 'Session marked by tone-deafness and missed opportunities'

House and Senate Democrats held a sine die press conference late this afternoon, even though the House hasn't yet adjourned sine die. "I feel the session was marked by tone-deafness and missed opportunities," said House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise. "Our colleagues took a hard right turn into divisive social issues." Plus, she said, with the spreading coronavirus, "It was frankly embarrassing that the Legislature remained in session until today," and not to address pressing, "bread and butter" issues like property taxes, transportation and health care, "but rather to ban transgender athletes, ban affirmative action, and to pass a prospective abortion ban that contains no exception for the health of the mother."

She noted that the two controversial transgender bills that passed were strongly opposed by Idaho's business community, "Because they not only project an image of bigotry and intolerance to the world ... we surely have other things to do with our money in these troubled times."

Senate Assistant Minority Leader Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, was asked about her "Too Great for Hate" specialty license plate bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly, but was voted down as the last action of the House on legislation for this year's session -- with House Republicans casting all the no votes, though all but one of them had earlier voted in favor of a new "Choose Life" specialty license plate bill that's since been signed into law. "Well, clearly, it wasn't about license plates," Buckner-Webb said. "I think it had to do with what it said: Too Great for Hate. Which is unfortunate. We've have thought that would have been a unifying cry for all of us."

"I'm not going to throw labels around," said Buckner-Webb, a retiring senator who's also the only African-American member of the Idaho Legislature. "But I will tell you that there is a problem." She said much legislation this year was "focused directly on underserved and under-represented populations ... and this seems to be the same thing. Even though this is saying we are all too great to hate."

Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, who arrived late at the press conference because she was in a meeting in the governor's office about the 12 new coronavirus cases and the state's first community-spread cases in her home district, also spoke out against bills this year that she said "ratcheted down on the public's ability" to access government information, including HB 601, which created new public records exemptions for legislators and public officials.

"Transparency is what we would hope to see for the public to be able to access our government," she said. "I didn't think it was a wise idea."

Here is the House Democrats' full statement:

"Cherie Buckner-Webb - Senate Minority Caucus Chair (on behalf of Sen. Michelle Stennett)

Thank you all for coming.

The Legislature refused to take the recommendations of the President, Vice-President, CDC, the Governor, and numerous epidemiologists. Some members of the Majority Leadership believe the Coronavirus to be nothing more than an average flu. The decision to stay in the Capitol put everyone at risk, including all of us in this room and our communities at large. Plus, it set a poor example to the public. So, the Democratic legislators will self-quarantine for the recommended weeks in our home districts since we are potentially virus carriers.

Idahoans demanded that the Legislature provide some property tax relief, improve education funding, provide adequate access to healthcare, and repair roads and bridges. As Idaho’s growth continues to escalate at a rapid rate, the State should have a long-term plan for infrastructure and emergency services.

Instead of focusing on services that impact every Idahoan, every day, the focus was on passing punitive bills that harmed our most vulnerable populations. Many pieces of legislation are unconstitutional. The willful disregard for the law not only is an abuse of our oath of office, but will also waste millions of taxpayer dollars that would have been better spent on the very services that the public is demanding from us.

Idahoans are being forced out of the communities, where they have lived their entire lives, because they cannot keep up with rising property taxes. In the last several years, homeowners have seen their property taxes double and even triple. For Idahoans on fixed incomes, especially our older populations, yearly increases in their property tax bills can force them out of their homes. In 2016, Republican leadership pushed through legislation that removed the homeowners’ index. Democrats warned that this legislation would put the property tax burden on residential properties and give commercial properties significant tax breaks. By 2020, our predictions came to full fruition. Many steps are needed to improve property tax burdens.

Over the 2019 interim, Idaho Democrats worked across the aisle to draft six different bills that would have tangibly decreased property tax bills for homeowners. Senate and House Democratic legislators presented bills early in the session trying to give property tax relief by increasing the homeowner exemption, restore the inflation index, and add a circuit breaker for low income and vulnerable Idahoans.

Senator Grant Burgoyne proposed a bill to cap home assessment increases to a certain percentage each year. This would prevent the spikes we are seeing in property taxes each year. Sen. Burgoyne also proposed a bipartisan circuit breaker bill to increase the current exemptions and relief to match the current taxing crisis. This would have provided relief for thousands of Idahoans. Representative Sally Toone has brought a bill to allow revenue sharing for online sales tax with local governments. This would have reduced financial burdens on the counties and allowed property tax reductions. Representative Steve Berch proposed the creation of an interim committee to examine sales tax exemptions across the state. This would allow the state to further research what exemptions are placing undue burden on homeowners. Senator Maryanne Jordan proposed an index exemption that would have fixed the 2016 issue created by the removal of the homeowner’s exemption and would have created parity between the percentage of taxes that homeowners are responsible for versus large businesses and corporations. None of those bills were heard. The Legislature failed to give property tax relief to Idahoans, which particularly hits our seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and veterans. They were rejected. I commend Senators Anthon and Vick for their good bills, with similar language, which were supported by the Senate, but were rejected by the House.

Ilana Rubel - House Minority Leader

I want to start by acknowledging the critical health and economic concerns facing the people of Idaho and America today. While we are finally leaving this building – something we should have done some time ago given expert health guidance – our work is far from done. I headed into this session bombarded by constituent concerns about property taxes, which remain serious and unaddressed, but now I am hearing even more urgent concerns on other matters.

As our restaurants, travel, hotel, retail and other sectors are facing a near-total loss of customers, many Idahoans will be going without paychecks as their employers cut back, and many small businesses will be struggling as customers stay home and spend less. We are being warned of national unemployment levels reaching 20% and widespread personal and corporate bankruptcies. I am hearing from small business owners facing the loss of their life’s work, and laid-off workers who may not be able to cover the costs of food and rent next month. This is in addition to a pending health crisis of unknown proportions and the possible overload of our hospitals in an already medically underserved state. Our health professionals will face strains and dangers and our health system will be put to an unprecedented test. I am more grateful than ever that Idahoans passed Medicaid expansion to ensure that our neediest citizens have healthcare access and can seek testing and treatment at as early a stage as possible. But I think more assistance will likely be required in the months to come. It’s critical that we follow all these developments closely and be prepared to address needs that arise. We are prepared to work during the interim to develop solutions and I would not be surprised if an emergency session proves necessary in upcoming months. It is unfortunate that GOP party leaders refused to consider Representative Gannon’s proposal to allow for emergency online meetings of the Legislature at times like this, which would have made such a session safe and practicable. But regardless, we must look at ways to mitigate a potentially very dire situation.

As we conclude this session, I feel it was marked largely by tone deafness and wasted time and opportunity. As Senator Stennett noted, every effort by the Democrats to address property tax relief was stymied by House Republicans, who were only willing to consider property tax cuts if they came at the expense of our pandemic response preparedness. As counties are at the front lines of a pandemic, being responsible for paramedics, public health districts and emergency response services, I was amazed to see one House GOP-led effort after another to strip funding away from county budgets even as coronavirus cases increased throughout the state. I am thankful the Senate did not allow these defunding efforts to proceed, but was very disappointed at how much other harmful and divisive legislation was passed.

Rather than address teacher pay, deteriorating roads and bridges, lack of affordable housing, workforce development, lagging wages, or any of the bread and butter issues that could help every day Idahoans, our Republican colleagues took a hard right turn into divisive social issues. Their bills seemed largely targeted at making life as difficult as possible for minority and marginalized members of the community, and there was remarkably little interest in addressing the very real problems we face.

It was frankly embarrassing that the Legislature remained in session until today, in flagrant disregard of all public health guidance, from the White House on down. We remained not to pass bills that would help laid off waitresses find a way to cover rent, not to help small businesses facing bankruptcy, not to address unforeseen pressures on Idaho’s healthcare system, but rather to ban transgender athletes and affirmative action, and to pass a prospective abortion ban that contains no exception for the health of the mother. This was despite there being not a single instance anywhere in the state of Idaho of any problem whatsoever of transgender girls playing sports. I hope very much that the Governor will veto HB 500 and 509, which are totally unnecessary hurtful and unconstitutional attacks on transgender Idahoans, who already have the highest rates of bullying and suicidation. These bills are opposed by our business community, because they not only project an image of bigotry and intolerance to the world, they will land Idaho in costly and losing lawsuits if they are enacted. We surely have better things to do with our money in these troubled times.

But there were some good things that happened this session. I’m very proud of our caucus members, who did everything in their power to stay laser-focused on advancing legislation addressing the real needs of the people of Idaho. We passed Representative Green’s bipartisan legislation to protect our youth from an unregulated vaping epidemic. At a time when the majority of Idahoans live in a place where there is an affordable housing emergency, we worked across the aisle to pass the Fair Warning Act to protect renters from abusive last-minute rent spikes. We supported the hands-free driving law, listening to the overwhelming majority of Idahoans who want safer roads. We pressed for property tax relief and for loan forgiveness for teachers willing to teach in under-served rural areas. Senator Buckner-Webb worked tirelessly to get former offenders a fair chance at gainful employment. We pressed for sentencing and criminal justice reform, and for Representative Wintrow’s bill to ensure protection for sexual assault survivors. Representative Toone passed legislation to fund ambulance districts, which is particularly timely given the current coronavirus pandemic. And our votes carried the funding of our higher education institutions.

Times like this are a reminder that we are all in this together, and that as Senator Wellstone put it, we all do better when we all do better. We in the Minority Caucus are committed to advancing the well-being of all Idahoans, through access to healthcare, promoting public safety, improving our education system, keeping people in their homes, protecting their jobs, and guarding the freedom and civil rights of everyone in our society. We will keep working hard on these objectives, and hope that in the future our colleagues across the aisle will take a break from the culture wars and the removal of funding from higher education, and work with us on more productive endeavors. I hope that all of you out there will listen to the advice of health professionals, and stay safe."