Legislators' work continues after session's end

The 2012 legislative session is expected to adjourn on March 28 or March 29. The Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee finished most of its budget work about two weeks ago, which signaled the beginning of the end of legislative activity. This last week the House and Senate managed to address most of the remaining proposed legislation and the opportunity for any additional proposed legislation to get considered is pretty remote.

There are however, two remaining pieces of legislation that are being described as “going home bills,” meaning that they have to be addressed by the Legislature before the session can be adjourned.

These two legislative bills are Senate Bill 1331 (S1331) and House Bill 563 (H563). S1331 reinstates reductions in state salary support for school district teachers, administrators and classified support staff that was put in place last session to fund the “Students Come First” education reforms.

The estimated amount of funding that would be required to compensate for the reduced funding would be $34,747,500 over the next five fiscal years (FY 2013-FY2017)

H563 reduces the Idaho individual and corporate income tax rates on Idaho taxable income. The maximum individual tax rate would be reduced from 7.8 percent to 7.4 percent and the maximum corporate rate would be reduced from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent. The fiscal impact of this legislation is estimated to reduce next fiscal year (FY 2013) General Fund revenues by about $35.7 million.

S1331 is being held in the House Education committee and H563 is being held in the Senate Local Government committee because of opposition to both bills by members of the Legislature. Some members want H563 to pass, but not S1331, others support S1331 but not H563, but there is enough support for both bills that some compromise has to be reached before the Legislature can adjourn.

It appears that as we get closer to adjournment such a compromise appears promising. The solution may be to provide a gradual decrease of the individual income tax and corporate tax rates over a two year period instead of putting it in place in just one year. At the same time, instead of committing to reinstating the full reduction in salary support over a five-year period, the Legislature would only commit to restoring a portion of the reduction over the next two years, in parallel with the tax reduction.

This agreement would give the legislature more time to determine the speed of our economic recovery before committing to long term General Fund impacts as a result of tax decreases and additional funding for salary support.

Idaho has a part-time Legislature but that does not mean our work as legislators ends when the legislative session ends. All members of the Legislature will be responding to constituent concerns, some will be involved in interim committees and some will be working on legislation that they would like to introduce next session.

This is certainly true of your legislative District 1 and District 2 legislators. Sen. Shawn Keough, Sen. Joyce Broadsword, Rep. Eric Anderson and I will continue our legislative responsibilities in concert with our constituent interests. Given this, we encourage your input on issues of concern to you over the interim. I can be reached during this time at my home in Dover at (208) 265-0123, by email at geskridge@house.idaho.gov and by regular mail at P.O. Box 112, Dover, Idaho 83825.