WEEK FOUR | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
January 29 - February 2, 2024
In the fourth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, we entered the second month of the session and marked the traditional one-third mark. The Senate has worked diligently to move confirmations of appointments through the process to save many hours later in session. This is a pragmatic and necessary approach to ensure they are not delayed hours or days later in session.
Meanwhile, the House floor saw long floor sessions this week that yielded the passage of HB 406 – Fentanyl Bill and HB 415 – Guns in Schools Bill, we anticipate this will be just the beginning of the election influencing major votes. While presentations continued this week in JFAC, a powder keg was lit Friday morning in the budget pre- meeting where members scurried through a massive pile of printed motion sheets. As the discussion continued in what is traditionally a very benign meeting, tension raised and a clear split in philosophy between the traditional process and the newly created process erupted. This resulted in a contentious and unique budget-setting meeting that technically didn’t break any rules but caused consternation with the chairmen and some committee members.
The result of the JFAC budget setting on Friday morning was a series of agency budgets being passed that mirrored the budgets from years past. However, this creates conflicts with the maintenance budgets the committee passed earlier this session. There are now nine budgets, with every agency’s base funding hanging on the floors of the Senate and House while the battle for control of JFAC and the state’s funding continues into next week.
This week also saw one of the major policies discussed ahead of the session be introduced. An attempt at an Idaho version of school vouchers was introduced this week in House Revenue and Taxation, HB 447 - the “Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit”. The committee voted to introduce the bill but several on the committee seem to be opposed to the bill. We will continue to see this bill gain a lot of attention as it was identified as a priority for Sen. Den Hartog (22) and several Senate chairmen sponsoring including Co-Chair Grow (14) and Chairman Ricks (34). In the House, Chairmen Monks (22) and Co-Chair Horman (32) sponsoring with support from the Speaker.
Many rules have been approved by one or both committees at this point. Many members of both the House and Senate have continued to raise technical questions, including possible issues with both bodies being required to approve rules, what happens if one side rejects a section, and how the Idaho Supreme Court (ISC) decision made on January 29, 2024, affects the process. These decisions are still being ironed out, and we don’t yet know the final outcome of the rules, but the Legislature has been working hard to approve and reject them as they used to. To read the entire ISC decision, click HERE.
The RS deadlines to introduce legislation for non-privileged committees are at the end of next week. As a result, legislators’ anxiety is growing with the number of bills they have been working on and are trying to get introduced before they need special permission. They will have many more long floor debates as bills make their way through the process and as bills work their way to the other side of the rotunda for consideration.
The horse-trading and political theatre are well underway. Leadership and others have been negotiating for weeks on the plan for income tax cuts, school facilities, and more. Through conversations, we believe the facilities funding, income tax, and other accountability measures will all be dealt with in one bill. Thus, it includes a little bit of what everyone wants and potentially forces the hand of all parties to get it across the finish line. This bill is expected next week. Marking the next major policy piece to be introduced as we continue towards the session’s conclusion in a very contentious election year. Make sure to keep current on legislation and visit our Bill Tracker.
