Notes From the Floor

Democratic Conclusions

Democrats came to the Capitol ready to make progress on issues of
importance to the people of Idaho. We listened to the Governor’s state
of the state speech, set our own budget priorities and gave our own
response in which we said we agreed with many of the goals set by the
Governor, not necessarily the means toward them.

They ignored the advice of several statewide coalitions and
working groups. They ignored "Moving Idaho Forward" which came offering
public transit solutions. They stood in the way of the Farm, Ranch, and
Forest Preservation working group which came ready to save Idaho lands
from development. They set aside the principles developed by the
legislative interim committee on tax exemptions.

• They chose this year to fly on a private airplane to a fund raising
  dinner, fly back to Boise, and the next day vote to pass a bill
  that is bad for working people but favorable to the owner of the airplane.
• This year again they catered to special interests at the
  expense of ordinary Idahoans, nearly shifting over $100 million dollars
  in big industry taxes onto the sales tax which families pay.
• They have opposed reforms that would clean up politics at the state
  level including ethics legislation that would end lobbyists’ revolving door to politics.

As the majority party since 1990,
Republicans chair every legislative committee in both houses. This year
when we challenged Republican leadership to hold hearings and discuss
issues; when we called for real cooperation and consideration of
sound solutions, they refused.

• We worked to start removal of the sales tax on food at the register; Republican leaders opposed it.
• We crafted legislation to limit how much health insurance companies
  could raise premiums on Idaho families and small businesses;
  Republicans refused to hear the bill.
• We supported conservation easements to protect Idaho’s vanishing working farms and forests; Republicans killed that bill too.
• We supported systematically reviewing special interest tax exemptions; Republicans would not consider it.
• We supported affordable housing legislation; Republicans would not consider it.
• We
  proposed residential sales price disclosure to put more accountability
  into how we set property taxes; House Republicans would not hold a
  hearing.
• We wanted to provide Idaho’s teachers with the needed level of pay
  increases; The Governor’s plan for education penalized Idaho’s teachers
  and included disastrous proposals like Tom Luna’s iSTARS. 
• We supported creating treatment focused alternatives to mandatory
  minimum sentences to make communities safer and prisons less costly and
  crowded; Republican committee chairs would not give this bill a
  hearing.
• We supported adequate and reasonable state employee pay increases;
  Republicans ignored the needs of state employees and their families and
  took a hatchet to retirement benefits.
• We supported protecting children in child care by requiring
  criminal background checks on child care providers; Republicans refused
  to hold a hearing on this bill.
• We supported early childhood education programs to improve quality of life
  and success for Idaho’s kids; Republicans opposed this effort to
  strengthen families and improve education.
• We supported measures to expand children’s health insurance;
  Republicans opposed providing 6000 children in need with essential
  medical care.
• We led bipartisan efforts for human rights, successfully
  introducing fair employment policies for gays and lesbians and
  strategies for divesting state funds from companies supporting genocide
  in Darfur; Key Republican leaders blocked consideration of
  these measures in Senate.
• We supported building energy efficient schools and public buildings
  to save money, energy and prevent climate change. We encouraged the use
  of global climate change studies to protect Idahoans health and our
  precious resources. Senate Republican Leadership killed or watered down
  these measures one after another.
• We supported open, deliberative and inclusive politics and decision
  making; Republicans at the end of the session proposed a 93 page bill
  on election consolidation and another on closing Idaho primaries
  without including input from voters or dialog with the county clerks. 
• We supported local option sales taxes to allow local people to vote
  to fund urgent local needs including public transit and roads;
  Republicans derailed the process and stood in the way with a
  restrictive and unnecessary constitutional amendment.
• We proposed providing a $50,000 exemption to the personal property
  tax to help small business; until their special interest version of the
  bill nearly died, House Republican Leaders would not consider our proposal.
• We supported lowering property taxes by making growth pay for
  itself and by allowing local governments to more easily charge impact
  fees on new development; Republicans would not even consider the bill.

The bottom line is, Democrats worked hard this session to provide
solutions and make progress on issues of importance to ordinary
Idahoans. We continually seek to protect the interests of our citizens,
and have stood up to the special interests who seek to warp the state’s
democratic processes. We are committed to standing up for Idaho’s
middle class and small businesses, preserving Idahos quality of life
and access to public lands. We support transparency and ethics in
government.   

The Republican Majority has been an obstacle to
progress on those same issues. They have pursued their own ideological
goals and partnered with special interests to rob Idahoans of the kind
of representation they deserve. Under current Republican leadership and
with government so very unbalanced, the changes that Idahoans care
about will never be accomplished.

However, we will not give up. We will not stop laboring to make sure your voice is heard.

With
your help, we will continue to make progress issue by issue. And, with
your help, we will make progress this year by electing more Democrats
to the legislature. Our goal in 2008 is to bring democracy, balance and
better policy to the Idaho Legislature by winning more seats in both
the House and the Senate. No matter where in Idaho you live, you can
help us.  http://www.idaho-democrats.org/

Competing Motions

…

Minority Leadership approaches the Speaker’s desk to debate whether a motion by the Minority will be allowed. The motion was not allowed on a party line vote of 13 to 37. 20 members were missing since House State Affairs Committee was in meetings.

The Speaker moved the bill to the Rev & Tax Committee where we voted 6 to 10 to not concur with the Senate amendments and instead go into a conference committee. Sadly, the conference committee gives IACI cover to kill the bill or amend it to start the elimination of the whole $120 million personal property tax. The House will vote on the move to send the bill to the joint house and senate conference committee when we re-convene at 1:15 PM.