[Vision2020] Republicans Deny Hearings on Bills

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 31, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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As Republicans deny hearings, Idaho Dems stall session in protest

BOISE – The Idaho Legislature slowed to a near-standstill Wednesday, as
House Democrats made good on a threat to stall the session in protest
until majority Republicans allow hearings on two bills.

The Democrats want hearings on a proposed $1.25 increase in Idaho’s
57-cent-per-pack cigarette tax, which has been hanging since before the
session started but hasn’t been introduced, and a measure calling for an
advisory vote of the people on state schools Superintendent Tom Luna’s
controversial school reform package.

House Assistant Minority Leader Elfreda Higgins, D-Garden City, said, “It
is an outrage that the Legislature refuses to listen to the people. The
people of Idaho have clearly voiced their support for a tobacco tax
increase and their unrelenting opposition to the education bills. We are
prepared to fight to get these bills heard.”

But House Speaker Lawerence Denney said Wednesday he’s not inclined to
allow hearings on the two measures, even after practically the entire
morning House session was spent on the reading of one 25-page bill after
Democrats refused to waive the constitutional requirement for full
reading.

“I don’t think I’d say ‘under no circumstances,’ but I don’t see any value
right now,” said Denney, R-Midvale.

House Minority Leader John Rusche, a physician, said Idaho would benefit
greatly from increasing its cigarette tax, both in deterring people from
smoking and in garnering $50 million to boost its Medicaid program.
Lawmakers have been receiving numerous calls and emails supporting the
proposed increase.

“There are really good public policy reasons to consider this, and not to
be able to present this is really a perversion of the process,” said
Rusche, D-Lewiston.

He also decried the introduction Wednesday morning of two bills to add
emergency clauses to the already-passed school reform bills. The move
would prevent a referendum campaign from blocking the reforms from taking
effect, though if successful, a referendum still could overturn them in
November 2012. The bills removed most collective bargaining rights from
Idaho teachers and imposed a new merit-pay plan; a third bill, now
awaiting House approval, would pay for the merit bonuses and big new
technology investments by cutting teacher salary funds.

House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, who introduced the
emergency clause bills along with Senate Education Chairman John Goedde,
R-Coeur d’Alene, said he doesn’t think Idahoans oppose the school reform
bills. “I don’t see this overwhelming outcry to do anything – I’m hearing
good support up home,” Nonini said.

He said the new emergency clause bills “take care of the business we need
to take care of.”

Rusche, however, said they appear designed to “speed things up to subvert
legal recourse and popular opinion.”

The cigarette tax bill, which would have raised an additional $50 million
for the state’s Medicaid program, was sponsored by House Tax Chairman
Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, and a coalition of health care groups. But Lake
never introduced the bill, saying there wasn’t enough support among
Republicans on the House Tax Committee to move it out of committee.

House Republican leaders called a press conference Wednesday afternoon to
decry the Democrats’ tactics and insist they won’t hold hearings on the
two bills. Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said, “The
legislative process has been used and found that there’s not support for
those hearings.” But neither of those bills has been introduced, and he
couldn’t point to what legislative process had determined the lack of
support.

Idaho lawmakers are hoping to wrap up this year’s legislative session
within the next week and a half.

Denney vowed to continue. “It’s certainly their prerogative to make us
read bills, and we’ll do that,” he said. “We will work late, and we will
probably work Saturday and Sunday if that’s what it takes.”

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Idaho House Speaker Lawerence Denney says he’s not swayed by stalling
tactics by House Democrats.

http://tinyurl.com/House-Speaker-Lawerence-Denney

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown