[Vision2020] Legislative update V from Rep. Trail

Donovan Arnold donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 3 12:25:03 PST 2007


Tom,
   
  Thanks for the update. Three points;
   
  1) What are you doing to try and fix the LHS problem?
   
  2) I think the plan by Rep. Jim Clark is the best regarding groceries. An increase in the tax credit doesn't help most the poor because it provides a reemurstment for money they don't have to began with--they need the money when they are hungry, not all at once months down the road. Second, many poor people don't/cannot file taxes. 
   
  3) I agree with the Governor on the Capitol building. That was a waste of taxpayer monies. 
   
  Thanks,
   
  Donovan J Arnold

ttrail at moscow.com wrote:
  LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER V -- JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 2, 2007

Constituents:

Boise continues to be in a deep freeze. Temperatures have been at 
least 10 degrees below normal during January and there has been no
additional snow in the mountains. We are finally getting some traction in
the legislative process. The word is that we should be out of Dodge by
March 23rd. JFAC will set the final budgets on March 9th. There may be a
few fights looming between the Legislature and the Governor. The
restoration of the Capitol and the building of two underground wings may be
the battleground. The Legislature worked for five years to come up with a
plan to build two underground wings and to restore the Capitol. The
legislation passed this last session and was funded by taxing smokers.
The Capitol Commission took charge and the bonding has already been
approved. The Governor got into the act and said we didn't need the two
wings but could restore the old Ada County Courthouse. A compromise was
recently reached to build only one story of the two new wings; however,
there is a lot of resentment in the Legislature, and since we have to vote
to approve any compromise, there is a good chance we may turn it down.
That and other issues could lead to a longer session. Here are other items
of interest.

1. Minimum Wage -- two versions of minimum wage bills will be up for a
print hearing this coming week. One version would simply support whatever
minimum wage legislation is passed at the national level. The current
bills would move the minimum wage up to $7.25/hr over a two year level. 
Senator Schroeder, Representative Ringo, and I are supporting another
version which calls for $7.25/hr with a CPI (Consumer Price Index)
included. This would automatically adjust for inflation. At least 14
states already have this in place as law.

2. Reducing the Grocery Tax -- there are several versions being proposed.
a) Gov. Otter -- His plan increases the state's grocery tax credit from
the current $20/year to $90 and limits the availability of that credit
based on income.
b) Representative Bayer's proposal would increase the grocery tax credit
from $20 to $50 for individuals under 65 yrs of age and to $70 for seniors.
c) Representative Jaquet's proposal would remove 50% of the sales tax
on food. This would impact the state budget by $90 million.
d) Representative. Jim Clark and others propose eliminating the tax on
food over a four year period. There will be a great amount of discussion
and debate on the subject.

3. Public School Budget -- Superintendent Luna presented the public
school budget to the House Education Committee this week. The budget
received a generally good reading by the Committee. The most troublesome
part of the budget is teacher and staff compensation. Mr.. Luna is
prosposing a 3% increase over the base with the state picking up medical
insurance increases. The Governor proposed a 5% merit increase with
employees picking up a greater share of the insurance costs. The rate of
inflation this past year was 3.8% so it appears that teachers and staff
will not be making any major salary gains. There were some good proposals:

a. Classroom Supplies -- Supt. Luna recommends that the Legislature
$5.1 million to pay for textbooks. This would be about $350/teacher.
b. Textbook Allowance -- there is a common complaint about outdated
and worn textbooks. The recommendation is to fund $10 million to buy new
textbooks. This will be about $50/student.
c. Remediation--currently technology and remediation funds are tied
together causing districts to choose between the two items. About $9.5
million will be budgeted for technology and an additional $6 million
targeted to the roughly 20,000 students who fail the ISAT.
d. Dual Credit Class Enrollment--increasingly, states are offering
more opportunities for high school students to begin their college
education whill stilll enrolled in at the secondary level. Access to these
dual enrollment credit classes can be limited by student or parental
ability to pay for these classes. $3.5 million is budgeted.

4. Human Rights/Dogfighting Felony/Legalization of Industrial Hemp 
-- My resolution on Human Rights was passed unanimiously by the State
Affairs Committee. The Dogfighting/Felony bill was held in committee. 
Conservative committee members want to see some "hard" evidence that
organized dog fighting is a problem in the state. Industrial hemp will
now be grown this year in N. Dakota under the watchful eyes of DEA. 
Committee members want to see how this experiment works out before moving
forward with any more legislation.

5. Extending the School Year -- All of the states generally offer
about 180 days of school. This time has been encroached upon by
increasing demands by both state and federal mandates. Increased testing
has taken away from class contact time. Teachers would also like to spend
more time with parents and also confering with other teachers about how to
assist individual students. There is an increasing clamor that we need to
prepare our students more effectively to compete with their counterparts as
we move forward toward globalization. Canada, Ireland, the European
countries, Japan, Singapore, and other countries generally have 42-44 weeks
of school time as contrasted to our 36 weeks. Some research indicates that
providing for more school time improves academic performance. In reality,
the secret is how one organizes that extra time. The bill has generated a
lot of interest, and it will be up for a hearing next week. The price tag
of $133 million is enough to stop the bill from going further, but it will
be worth it to bring up some of these important issues to debate.

I'd appreciate your comments. 

My e mail is ttrail at house.idaho.gov and phone 208-332-1260

Representative Tom Trail


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