Idaho lawmakers agree rapid growth has caused problems. Is property tax relief an option?

The 2020 legislative session gets going Monday when Gov. Brad Little delivers his second State of the State address at the Idaho Capitol.

Following Little’s speech, the Legislature officially convenes for the next three months or so to set budgets, create new laws and conduct state business.

Little is keeping details of his address and budget recommendations under lock and key until Monday — not even lawmakers will know the details until just before he steps to the lectern on the House floor at 1 p.m.

But each year prior to the address, the governor and legislative leaders from both parties meet with the media to offer some insight and hints about what’s on the horizon.

During this year’s Associated Press legislative preview on Friday, Little and four lawmakers — Senate Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise — agreed that many of the issues the state is facing result from Idaho’s rapid growth over the past decade. Since 2000, Idaho’s population has grown from 1.3 million to an estimated 1.8 million.

Among the issues cited by the lawmakers were rising home costs and property taxes; education needs; prison and jail overcrowding; transportation and infrastructure needs; and even legislative redistricting.

“When I go around the state, what I hear a lot about is growth, about the consequences of growth,” Little said.

“When I travel in other circles with other governors, that is not the problem. Some of the states we compete with on a traditional basis, they are very concerned about what is taking place,” he said, referring to other states not experiencing growth like Idaho’s.

In addition to education, a top issue every session because more than half of the state’s budget goes to constitutionally mandated K-12 and higher education, Little and legislative leadership identified several other issues on the agenda this session.

Property taxes

In some areas of the state, especially urban areas, home values are rising along with property taxes, preventing some people from buying houses and pushing out homeowners who can no longer afford the taxes.

If someone who has had their home paid off for 15 or 20 years has watched their property taxes more than double in the past eight years, something is wrong, Bedke said.

“There is no justification for this doubling,” Bedke said. “If we point to growth as being the cause of this person’s taxes going up from $2,000 to $5,000 in the last eight years, then growth is not paying for growth.”

Hill cautioned that lawmakers need to determine the underlying cause of the hikes before making any “knee-jerk reactions.”

While the state relies on income and sales taxes for the bulk of its revenue, local governments (cities and counties) rely on property taxes.

Local sales taxes, often dubbed local option taxes, may be an option to reduce local governments’ reliance on property taxes, Stennett said, but they need to be done “thoughtfully and strategically.”

Hemp in Idaho

Growing, processing and selling hemp became legal under the 2018 federal farm bill, but the federal rules guiding such activity had not been issued when the 2019 Legislature was in session, causing consternation and confusion. That resulted in the Legislature kicking the hemp can down the road and leaving Idaho as one of just three states not to legalize it (South Dakota and Mississippi are the other two).

This session, hemp legislation is set to return.

“I have said all along I have no qualms with hemp,” Little said.

But he said he does have concerns that legalizing hemp could make it more difficult for police to enforce marijuana laws.

Redistricting with 2020 Census data

The 2020 Census will give Idaho new numbers for redistricting, where new congressional and legislative districts are redrawn based on population. While Idaho may not have enough population gain to get a third congressional seat, its 35 legislative districts will need to be re-evaluated, particularly in urban areas, to ensure that each district is equal in population.

The U.S. Census Bureau should provide Idaho with its 2020 information by April 1, 2021. Then the secretary of state will issue an order to create a redistricting commission, an independent body comprising three Republicans and three Democrats. The redistricting commission then has 90 days to come up with a plan. Barring any legal challenges, the process should be wrapped up by September 2021.

Though it sounds simple, redistricting often is a political melee.

“My experience in legislative leadership is if you lost, it needs to be changed, if you won, it is fine,” Little said.

Any significant changes to the redistricting process would need a constitutional amendment, which requires a statewide vote. With redistricting rapidly approaching, any changes to the process need to happen this year.

“I will get a chance to vote on it when you do,” Little said, referring to a possible amendment.

Regulation reform

In his inaugural State of the State address last year, Little said regulatory reform was a priority. But in April, during the final days of the state’s legislative session, Little’s pet project got an unexpected boost.

Following a dispute with the Senate, the House decided to abscond from its annual duty to reauthorize all state rules and effectively put a routine “housekeeping” bill required to keep state government running for another year in a drawer without any action, meaning all existing rules would expire on July 1, 2019.

The Legislature went home in April, and the mess landed on Little’s desk. Little, his staff and state agencies took on the once-in-a-governorship opportunity to clean up and clear out what they said were unnecessary rules.

State agencies spent the summer holding public hearings on proposed rules changes and deletions. Last month, Little proclaimed Idaho to be the least regulated state in the country.

Many of the changes involved removing outdated rules or simplifying remaining ones, but there are some significant changes in the mix. Now the Legislature must approve all those changes, along with any new rules proposed this year. This could mean that the Legislature spends more time on rules review than in previous sessions, Hill said.

“We need to take whatever time it takes to do it right,” Hill said.

Initiative process changes

During his first year in office, Little vetoed two controversial bills pushed by Republicans that would have tightened the process to get citizen initiatives on the ballot.

The legislation came on the heels of a successful citizen-led initiative to expand Medicaid, much to the chagrin of many GOP lawmakers who opposed such action.

In defense of changing the initiative process, Bedke said that if residents are going to vote to create new laws, then the laws should have a statement of purpose and a fiscal impact process, just as lawmakers must do when they propose a new law.

Rubel noted that lawmakers’ statements of fiscal impact on proposed legislation are sometimes incorrect and that a lawmaker’s bill does not require support of 32 of the state’s 35 legislative districts to pass.

“We have an incredibly hard initiative process,” Rubel said. “We are just about the hardest in the nation already of the states that allow this.”

Bedke responded, “This is not about making it, quote, harder. ... A little further direction from citizens on what their priorities were, even if it is a half-baked fiscal impact ... that is good government and I do not think it is too much to ask.”

Prison and jail overcrowding

According to the Idaho Department of Correction, the state currently houses 651 of its inmates in Texas and about 900 inmates in county jails around the state. Why? Because Idaho prisons are full.

Some county jails are near capacity as well, and having to make room for state inmates is becoming problematic.

A few weeks ago, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office asked a judge to hold IDOC in contempt for failing to remove state inmates from the county jail quickly, The Associated Press reported.

Sheriff Steve Bartlett said county taxpayers are footing the bill for inmates who have been sentenced to prison but continue to be held at the Ada facility, which is designed to hold low-level offenders or people waiting for trial or sentencing.

Ada County says about one-third of inmates in its jail should be in prison.

Bartlett wants the judge to enforce a decades-old court order that requires IDOC to remove inmates from the Ada County Jail within seven days of learning that they belong in state custody.

Little hinted that Idahoans “might hear about” prison overcrowding during his State of the State address.

“From a 30,000-foot view, I see it as two problems,” Little said. “We’ve got a shortage of beds ... but, more importantly, we’ve got to address the number of people going in.”

Bedke noted, “We are a growing state, we need to have more capacity,” but he explained that is not the only solution.

“We need to beef up and make efficient the parole system as well as the problem-solving courts, and, I hate to say it, sentencing reform,” he said.

“It is all of the above. I think we have got to bite the bullet and do it.”

2020 Idaho lawmakers

Last year’s legislative session saw marked change at the Capitol, with the state’s first new governor in 12 years; its first new lieutenant governor in 10 years and its first female lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin; its first new treasurer in 20 years, Julie Ellsworth; and 24 new lawmakers, which is nearly one-quarter of the Legislature.

Idaho’s 105-member body is made up of one senator and two representatives from each of the 35 legislative districts. All legislative seats are two-year terms, so all seats are up for election this year.

For 2020, the 35-member Senate comprises 28 Republicans and seven Democrats. The 70-member House comprises 56 Republicans and 14 Democrats. There are 72 men and 33 women serving as lawmakers.

Two state representatives are not returning this session. Boise Democrat Mat Erpelding resigned Dec. 6 to take a government affairs position with Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. Gov. Little announced that he had appointed Boise nonprofit director Lauren Necochea to complete the remainder of Erpelding’s term.

Erpelding also served as House Democratic leader, so his departure created a leadership vacancy. Democratic caucus members selected Rubel to replace him. Garden City Rep. John McCrostie took Rubel’s House Democratic assistant leader post.

Also not returning is Boise Republican Rep. Thomas Dayley, who resigned in May after President Donald Trump appointed him to serve as state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.

Gov. Little appointed Megan Kiska to Dayley’s seat in May. Kiska works for the 124th Fighter Wing in the Idaho Air National Guard as an inspector general and real property officer.

Two longtime state senators have announced that this session will be their last: Seven-term Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, who also served two terms in the Idaho House and chairs the Senate Transportation Committee; and six-term Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, who served one term in the Idaho House and chairs the Senate Education Committee.

When the session gets started Monday, two North Idaho representatives will come to Boise with pending or possible new legal issues.

Rep. John O. Green, a Kootenai County Republican, may miss a few days this session if his federal trial in Texas takes place. A Fort Worth grand jury charged Green, an attorney, and two of his clients, Thomas and Michelle Selgas, with tax evasion in July 2018.

The indictment alleges that the Selgases deposited the proceeds from the sale of gold coins and other income into Green’s lawyer trust account, rather than accounts in their own name. It alleges that they then had their personal expenses paid from Green’s account to evade paying their federal income taxes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release issued at the time.

The trial is set to start Monday, the same day the Legislature convenes.

Green also has indicated that he is running for Kootenai County sheriff this year.

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, made the news last month after the Washington Legislature released an investigative report on whether one of its members, Rep. Matt Shea, a Republican from Spokane Valley, engaged in, planned or promoted political violence.

Investigators found that “Shea, as a leader in the Patriot movement, planned, engaged in and promoted” three armed conflicts between 2014 and 2016: in Bunkerville, Nevada; in Priest River, Idaho; and at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, an armed takeover that captured the nation’s attention in January and February 2016.

Scott, who is in her third term, is referenced by name throughout the report for her involvement at the Oregon and Idaho armed conflicts.

The Washington Legislature has turned the report over to federal authorities.

Bedke, who rides herd on the House and keeps its members in check, has refrained from publicly commenting on Scott and the specifics of the report. On Friday he said there are “a lot of charges thrown around” in the report.

“I am not condoning any of the actions one way or the other, but if they were true, would it not follow that they would be charged? I mean, these were serious allegations,” Bedke said.

“I am a big proponent of due process. If federal laws have been violated and the report is properly in the hands of those authorities, I believe on both sides of the (state) line, then we will wait and see.”

During the 2017 session, Bedke temporarily removed Scott from her committees due to her comments that female lawmakers advance in leadership only through sexual favors.

When asked Friday whether he was going to do the same based on Scott’s actions detailed in the Shea report, Bedke responded, “I have no plans to take those same steps at this point.”