Legislators get to work as session begins
The opening gavel of the Idaho State Legislature’s session came down on Monday, Jan. 7, and the 105 citizen legislators began their annual meeting to conduct the work of the people of the state. The session typically runs until the end of March.
The November election brought a historic change with 44 new legislators — a record number. For 32 of them this is their first time in the Legislature. Most of the remainder were former House members who ran successfully for the Senate.
With almost half of the Legislature being new either in the Senate or the Legislature as a whole, there is heightened energy as these citizens bring their knowledge, skills, and the issues of their constituents into the Capitol.
As is tradition, the governor kicked off the opening with his State of the State speech in which he offered his perspective on the condition of the state and its economy, laid out his goals and offered a look at his budget. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter believes that while our economy has stabilized and is growing, it will be a slow climb out of the downturn. He predicts a conservative 3.1 percent growth in his budget with a possible 5.3 percent overall economic growth.
The governor’s top goals include elimination of the personal property tax in a way that recognizes that local taxing entities need financial stability to provide the services citizen’s demand of them. The governor called for a state-based health insurance exchange in recognition that the federal health care act is the law of the land and that saying no means the federal government will come into Idaho and set up one that is a one-size-fits-all national model.
The governor noted respect for the no vote from the voters on the three “education reform” propositions and asked a group of 33 citizens with assistance from the State Board of Education to take a year to look at possible changes that we can all agree on to better our public K-12 system. The governor also noted other priorities and those can be found online at http://gov.idaho.gov/
The three of us have the following committee assignments: Rep. George Eskridge — Resources & Conservation; Appropriations; and Environment, Energy & Technology. Rep. Eric Anderson — chairman of Ways & Means; Environment, Energy & Technology; Resources & Conservation; and State Affairs. Sen. Shawn Keough — vice chairman of Finance and senior member of Transportation.
Each of us have other legislative assignments as well in addition to our regular committees. Together we have 36 years of legislative experience that we will be bringing to bear on the many issues before this session. In future articles we’ll each outline the individual issues we are working on and provide updates on what seem to be the top issues. Ultimately, by the close of the session while we will likely approve around 300-plus bills, we will have read and worked on close to 1,000! As always, we look forward to hearing from our constituents at home. The Internet has closed the huge distance between our area and Boise and for those who can access it, all the work can be found and followed at www.legislature.idaho.gov or you can call and leave us a message at 1 (800) 626-0471.
SEN. SHAWN KEOUGH
REP. GEORGE ESKRIDGE
REP. ERIC ANDERSON