by Representative Heather Scott - District 1
Act 1 Setting the Stage
Right on que, the night before the session started, a tent city appeared on the lawn across from the Capitol. Why? It’s unclear why but it interesting that local news outlets began parroting the housing problems statewide. There is obviously a legislative agenda by someone, and time will tell. One wonders if these are paid “campers” or real homeless people.
While I can’t imagine any legislator at the capitol who doesn’t have compassion or a heart for the homeless, the tactics used by the agenda-driven special interest groups is pathetic if not shameful. These types of agendas frequently create rushed and poor legislation, yet legislators who vote against these agendas will be labeled homeless haters.
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Act 2 The Governor, the Money, the Cronies and the Pittance for The Little Guy.
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Idaho government is flush with cash. There is an extra $1.9 billion dollars of collected tax dollars from the citizens. On the first day of session, Governor Brad Little shared his legislative and budget plans in the annual State of the State address. Here is a short summary: |
- There is a $1.9 billion in surplus. This is 40 % more money than was expected.
- The governor wants the majority of this money to be spent to grow government by 17% mainly in the areas of education and infrastructure.
- A pittance would be returned to the people in the form of income/corporate tax relief.
- There was no mention of ending mask or vax mandates, property or grocery tax relief, or stopping the critical race theory agendas being implemented through Idaho schools.
- The governor also failed to mention that the Friday before session, (January 7th) he proclaimed another emergency order, extending the emergency to over 680 days now! This is in order to continue to take money that will federalize our state completely.
The legislature has the opportunity to create and pass their own budget. Unfortunately, the chances of that are slim. Remember, the funding of every bad or good policy has to be voted on by the legislature. Sadly, the majority of legislators usually vote to fund most everything on the executive office’s wish list. The governor gets what he wants, and the circus continues.
You can watch his State of the State address with his spending plans at this (LINK)
Act 3 The Corporate Lobbyists
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Your Senators and Representatives (legislators) are supposed to be working for your interests. Its critical you spend some time researching who is giving each of them large amounts of money to try to influence the decisions they will be making over the next three months. Is it a variety of your local citizens or a variety of special interests’ groups? A good question you may want to ask yourself should be “are my legislators interested in my concerns and do I rank equally important as the lobbyists and their big campaign donors?” You can view all campaign donations HERE
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If you are not aware yet, you soon will be as there is a bit of the “Great Reset” agenda going on right now in Idaho with efforts being put forth to shut down mom and pop businesses, destroy families, and to facilitate the “teaming” of large corporations and government in legislative policies for the “betterment of society and greater good for all.” They are pushing a global agenda. No one bothers to ask or care what the citizens or small businesses want. Many will be forced into compliance and foot the bill for it. Please educate yourself before it is too late.
Act 4 The Legislature
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Even though the first two weeks of session were slow due to the annual cold and flu season sweeping the capitol, there were a few bad bills introduced and some good bills denied to be heard.
HB 441 authorizes county clerks to send authorized designees to help residents of nursing or assisted living facilities complete their absentee ballot. (What could go wrong with this brilliant idea?) This bill violates the constitution and enacts a form of state-sponsored ballot harvesting by sending government volunteers to these facilities.
HB 436 passed the House on a mostly (all but 1) party line vote. It will reduce Idaho's personal and corporate income tax rates and also provide for a one-time tax rebate check to taxpayers. It creates four income tax brackets (instead of five) and lowers the top bracket from 6.5% to 6%.
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When a single committee chairman (who usually does not represent your district) makes a decision to not put a bill idea on their agenda, the only other way your representative has to share that bill idea is to run it as “personal bill” to get a bill number. The Speaker of the House diverts all personal bills to his “kill committee” (Ways and Means). As you view bill ideas throughout the session, please take note what committee they are being put in. “W/M” means it will most likely never see the light of day.
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HB 448 was one of those bills diverted to the kill committee. This legislation would repeal the sales tax on food sold for human consumption, excluding prepared food. To offset the reduction in sales tax revenue sharing amount to local units of government, the bill increases the revenue sharing percentage to the units and saves $13 million which would have been transferred to transportation in revenue sharing. While this bill would benefit all Idahoans, the Speaker of the House diverted it to his magical committee that makes bills disappear! |
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I will end here for now and share some personal thoughts. While I tried to make light of the state of our state with the circus theme in my newsletter, this is no laughing matter. There is a heaviness on my heart for Idahoans and the direction we are headed as a state. The toll that the continued state of emergency proclaimed by Governor Little every 30 days for the past 679 days and counting, has been devastating. The ongoing detrimental effects on our citizens are mounting. Small businesses have closed, elderly are dying alone, government run school curriculums are out-of- control, children and adults are committing suicide, hospitals are refusing treatment, citizens are depressed, drugs and alcohol use is rampant and sexual abuse on children is up 85.7% (see memo below). Our state is now “living on” more federal money than state money. If we do not put an end to this madness soon, we are doomed as a free Idaho society.
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Some legislators are doing all they can to promote the will of the individual but they are outnumbered, ignored and attacked. A group of over 30 legislators have united around a conservative agenda and are hopeful that some relief will make it through the system to help the citizens. The problem is, that is not enough to kill bad bills or pass legislation to help citizens. I encourage you to what your legislators are doing and please get involved any way you can!
In Liberty,
Rep. Heather Scott
www.repheatherscott.com
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