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On Monday House and
Senate Republicans announced a new Regulatory Reform Joint Subcommittee. Its
focus will be streamlining and
updating rules and regulations of state boards that issue licenses. The goal is
to make our state government more efficient and to lift unnecessary burdens
from business owners. I have included a news story on this topic at the end of
my comments.
At the start of the
legislative session in January, We spearheaded a much-needed unemployment
insurance tax cut for Idaho's employers. Without the cut, employers' taxes
would have gone up. The governor has signed the bill into law.
More tax items are on
the agenda: As a result of changes at the federal level, particularly the
Trump/Republican tax cuts, Idaho will update its own tax code. We favor
reducing your taxes, while there are naturally some differences of opinion. In
fact, Idaho is able to lower the tax burden on citizens and still deliver
necessary services because we know how to run an efficient, effective
government.
 Lawmakers launch push to examine Idaho’s occupational licensing rules
Eye on Boise - Feb. 5, 2018
By Betsy Russell
More than a dozen GOP lawmakers, including two senators, held a news conference today in the Capitol to announce that they’re forming a “Regulatory Reform Joint Subcommittee” to examine the rules and regulations of state licensing boards and look for ways to streamline them. The panel, to be co-chaired by Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, and Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, will be a subcommittee of the House Business Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee.
Click Here for the full story.
The
amazing economy continues to be of interest and some concern. We had
additional revenues in January with the assumption that taxpayers were paying
their 2017 taxes ahead and would be needing a refund in April. This
scenario is still happening. Again, January tax returns exceeded the estimation
by about 88 million. The assumption is still that the taxes are being
prepaid because of the changes coming from the federal taxes. Along with
that, the refunds in April could wipe out the overage. What the cause may
be is still not clear, there is room for caution as we try to set the next 18
months spending plan.
The activity here is beginning to build. The long-expected
tax “cut” bill hit the house floor on Wednesday. The benefit of the
federal tax change was included in the 200 million in tax adjustments.
That old adage about the devil being in the details works very well for this
activity. We still do not know the extent of the federal tax adjustment,
and our tax cut effort is receiving very different reviews as to the effectiveness.
I suppose only time will tell. It has not passed both houses at this
reading.
 We
finish the budget hearings the first of next week with the next step, funding
decisions. Each year, we come back to a problem that we did not address
or did not have last session. The State Library is going to lose the
funding or most of it for the Reading Books Service for those with impaired
vision. The governor did not include this funding in his recommendation,
however, the committee feels there is great value in this service, so the
effort has begun to fill this gap. One of the budgets with very
successful activity comes from the Department of Lands. Timber prices are
good, we had less forest fires, and the cooperative effort with the federal
neighbors (whose land is just next door) is paying off in healthy
forests. We have 2.4 million acres of state endowment land. There
are nine beneficiaries who receive the assets with public schools being the
main one. The funds from grazing permits, minerals, timber, and cottage
sites sales brought 78.2 million to share in 2019. The average annual
returns have been 6.3 percent investment. One of the lesser known programs
is for payments from the endowment fund is the School Bond program which can
reduce interest rates on general obligation bonds for school districts.
Our week of budget hearings ended on several more sober notes.
We have been able to have the money to better fund our schools this past several
years. Along with a healthy economy, we have had a very flat prison
population, and very slow Medicaid growth. The report from corrections is
exploding population with a request for a larger budget. The other
troubling increase in budgets is with those who need extra help from the state,
children, elderly, blind and disabled. This could be more cases or the
medical cost much more. I don’t have an answer at this time for the cost
of the need to lock some folks up, however, a bill from the Department of
Insurance and Department of Welfare has been passed in committee. Should that
bill clear the entire process, it will give us an opportunity to seek some
waivers and place some of the very ill in our society on Medicaid. More
about that later.
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Federal Tax Reform—Idaho Impact
This week the House passed HB 463, making substantial
changes to Idaho’s Tax Code.
The potential effect of federal tax reform for Idaho in HB
463 includes provisions that will impact Idaho taxpayers in both 2017 and 2018. Those provisions will require careful
consideration by the 2018 Idaho Legislature to determine the effect on Idaho
taxpayers.
One incentive for reducing taxes this
year is to offset the increase in revenue that conformity – aligning our state
tax code with recent federal changes – will bring. If Idaho chooses to conform,
the state will collect additional revenue in the range of $82 million to $97.4
million. This means that some Idahoans – particularly those with
multiple children - will pay more in state taxes.
The
proposal would make four specific changes to Idaho’s tax system:
·
Conform the
Idaho income tax code to changes made to the Internal Revenue Code that affect
the 2018 taxable year. The major
provisions include: increasing the standard deduction and eliminating the
personal and dependent exemptions. These
and most other Internal Revenue Code changes are temporary and will expire or
phase-out after 2025 unless Congress acts.
·
Reduce the
individual income tax rates for all brackets by a .475 of a percentage point.
·
Reduce the
corporate tax rate by .475 of a percentage point.
·
Create a
nonrefundable state child tax credit of $130 per child.
For a more comprehensive look at the tax implications go to
Associated Taxpayers of Idaho website www.ati-taxinfo.com
 This week the Association of Idaho Counties (IAC) had their winter
meeting. I had good visits with
officials from Jerome and Twin Falls Counties.
One issue of interest was overcrowded jails at both the County and State
level. Counties are holding, and housing
State inmates and the news today is that the State is sending up to 250 inmates
to Texas. Inmates will be held at the Karnes County
Correctional Center until the department can reach a long-term agreement with a
bed provider somewhere out-of-state. Sending inmates out of state is expensive and
Idaho needs to explore different means of housing inmates. More prisons?
Lighter sentences? I would be
interested in your thoughts.
This week I also met with the Idaho Cattle Assn, the Nez Perce Tribe,
Idaho Assn. of Realtors, Representatives from the Council of State Governments
West, Idaho Economic Development Assn., Idaho Mining Assn., Idaho Assn. of
Counties, AARP and the Coeur d’ Alene Tribe.
Thank you for the honor to serve as your Dist. 25 Representative.
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 Young
children, parents and teachers gathered in the rotunda this week and shared the
interactive BLOCK Fest® program with legislators and the public.
BLOCK
Fest® was developed and piloted by the University of Idaho in 2005. It is
a research-based program that helps raise awareness of early math and science
learning by offering a hands-on block play experience for young children,
parents, preschool teachers and the community.
Click
Here to learn more about the BLOCK Fest® program.
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