2020 Legislative Session

This past fall, the Idaho legislature created the 2019 Property Tax Working Group, “to study the current property tax structure…develop strategies to provide Idahoans with property tax relief…and answer the concerns over rising property taxes.” Today, the Idaho House Tax and Revenue Committee heard four bills, including one bill to freeze property taxes statewide. Senator Michelle Stennett’s newsletter provides excellent context for this legislative push, including how it could actually end up causing higher taxes at the local level. Likewise, Representative Sally Toone expressed her concerns in today’s Idaho Mountain Express over Governor Little’s proposal to reduce payments to counties that house state prison inmates in their jails because state prisons are full.

The legislature also took action that affects our right to vote this week. House Bill 322 would require all Idaho voters to affiliate with a political party 90 days before the Presidential Primary. Idaho’s upcoming Presidential Primary is March 10 . If the legislation passes later this week or early next, voters will have approximately two weeks to declare their affiliation with a political party. Stay tuned!

Ask Your Legislator

The 2020 Idaho State Legislative session is in full swing and early next month legislators return to the district to update us on the latest developments. Senator Michelle Stennett, Representative Sally Toone and Representative Muffy Davis will speak at two Blaine County locations, as well as other locations in the district, on everything from Medicaid Expansion to public school funding and property taxes. These informal gatherings are excellent opportunities to learn about how you can get involved and what is coming later on in the session.

Bring your questions about your issues of concern!

Schedule of 2020 February Town Hall Meetings

Ketchum, February 7, 6:00-7:30 pm at Ketchum City Hall, 480 E Ave. N

Hailey, February 8, 8:00-9:30 am at Croy St. Exchange, 16 W Croy St.

Shoshone, February 8, 10:30-11:30 am, Lincoln County Community Center, 201 S Beverly St.

Gooding, February 8, 12:15-1:30 pm, Zeppes, 215 Main St.

Hagerman, February 8, 3:00-4:30 pm, Hagerman City Hall, 191 N State St.

Fairfield, February 21, 6:00-7:00 pm, Camas County Senior Center, 129 Willow St.

Keep Families Together!

Immigration and agriculture in Idaho and across the country are inextricably linked. This week, we can support an important bill co-sponsored by Congressman Mike Simpson to address pressing immigration issues related to farm work in Idaho and beyond—and keep families together.

Crafted over 8 months, with input from agricultural groups like the United Farm Workers and Agricultural Workers Coalition, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act has broad bi-partisan support, with 26 U.S. House Democrats and 24 U.S. House Republicans signed on. Hundreds of organizations and businesses support it nationally, 40 of which are in Idaho, including Chobani, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts, and the Idaho Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

If passed, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act makes possible legal work status for current improperly documented workers and protection from deportation for immediate family members. Agricultural workers would be able to obtain five year visas under a newly created “Certified Agricultural Worker” status. With longer employment history and an additional fee, workers could obtain permanent legal residency through a green card. Learn more…

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed out of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and proponents expect the bill to reach the floor of the U.S. House the week of December 2, 2019.

Idaho’s congressional delegation needs to hear from you this week! Please call all four elected officials to express your support for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

During your call, simply state your support and ask for each U.S. Rep. or Senator to support the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. The tally of supportive calls can make the difference. Even if you are not asked, be sure to give your name and zip code to show you are an Idaho resident.

Congressman Russ Fulcher
Phone: 202-225-6611

Congressman Mike Simpson
Phone: 202-225-5531

Senator James Risch
Phone: 202-224-2752

Senator Mike Crapo
Phone: 202-224-6142

Photo credit: <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/travel">Travel photo created by kstudio - www.freepik.com</a>

Take Action Against the Paperwork Penalty!

Your comments are needed to stop the paperwork penalty for Idaho’s Medicaid Expansion. See below! This is a sample comment from Reclaim Idaho, the organization that worked diligently to put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot in 2018. Please use this to make your comment personal. Note that these comments are going to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, not legislators.

“Paperwork Restrictions” – Sample Comment

To:Idaho State Department of Health and Welfare

Idaho’s State Legislature recently passed a law seeking to restrict access to Medicaid Expansion in our state despite the fact that 61-percent of the voters passed a “clean” Medicaid Expansion bill via initiative. I believe the “Sec. 1115 waiver” being sought is flawed for the following reasons:

1.     The purpose of Medicaid Expansion is to provide healthcare access to low-income Idahoans. Many of these people have not seen a doctor in their adult lives. Providing healthcare access to these people is going to make them more productive at work and at home, which will make their communities and our state stronger. Making these working families fill out paperwork on a regular basis puts this objective at risk.

a.    Perhaps personalize this point with a story.

2.     As you well know, the vast majority of people in the “gap” population work. As such, this restriction is not a “work requirement” but rather a paperwork penalty. We saw disastrous results in Arkansas where nearly 18,000 people lost coverage last year because they failed to fill out forms correctly. Nearly 90-percent of those people were still without coverage in early 2019. If you apply those same percentages to Idaho’s working poor, more than 21,000 Idahoans could lose coverage under this penalty for failing to fill out paperwork correctly – or for not knowing about it in the first place – even if they meet the so-called “work requirements” mandated under state law.

3.     Because of this, Idaho’s paperwork restrictions will create a “second gap” of thousands of people who lose healthcare coverage for their failure to submit paperwork correctly/timely. As a result, they will be forced to seek expensive emergency room care. This will only increase costs to Idaho taxpayers, provide inefficient healthcare to recipients, and defeat the whole purpose of expanding Medicaid.

For the reasons set forth above, I would encourage you to deny this restriction to Medicaid Expansion in the State of Idaho. A federal judge has already done so in three states. There is no reason to believe he will do any differently in Idaho’s case. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

_________, Idaho

Legislature Adjourns

Our legislators are headed back home now that the legislative session has come to an end. Advocates and supporters of Idaho’s democratic process scored a victory with the successful veto of SB 1159 and HB 296, the two controversial bills to silence our votes by virtually ending grassroots citizen initiatives. One of the most important aspects of Governor Little’s veto was the legal challenges those bills were sure to face. But Governor Little also indicated some support for additional changes to the rules of our initiative process in his transmittal letter to the Senate. And Representatives in the House brought forward 4 other bills based on SB 1159 and HB 296 in the final hours of the session. These bills were printed in a last-minute push that left citizens out of the process and skirted public hearings—and it showed. The Senate killed the only one of the four bills that passed the House, HB 303, but this issue is not done yet. We will need to watch carefully what the supermajority during the interim and prepare to oppose future efforts to silence our voices.

Although he did veto the anti-initiative bills SB 1159 and HB 296, Governor Little chose not to veto the amended SB 1204, which places costly work requirements and other restrictions on Medicaid Expansion. The Idaho House of Representatives finally followed the Senate’s lead and passed a funding bill for Medicaid Expansion, so despite the work requirements that go against what the people voted for, tens of thousands of Idahoans will have access to health care in January 2020. While the Expansion is moving forward, there are many components of SB 1204 that leave Idaho in murky legal territory—which will likely end up costing taxpayers in court defending this law. A federal judge struck down the legality of work programs in Arkansas and Kentucky; Idaho’s law is similar to Arkansas and Kentucky. When someone fails to comply with work requirements (which can include simply failing to submit paperwork even if they are working), the Idaho law allows the state to kick them off Medicaid or require a co-pay. All of these provisions will likely be tested in the courts at taxpayer expense.

Many other bills passed this session, and both good bills and bad bills failed to see the light of day or move forward far enough to become law. Education, for example, saw some progress with literacy programs and raises to first-year teacher pay, but the legislative kicked the can down the road when it came to fully addressing the funding formula for public schools.

Doubling Down on The Veto

The Governor’s desk is the last stop for both the bills that will move Idaho’s citizen initiative process out of reach for grassroots campaigns by the people. Both bills make Idaho the toughest place in our nation for citizens to use the ballot, silencing the people and taking away our constitutional right to make a law. And the Idaho Legislature’s 2019 session continues to drag on with no end yet in sight.

So, as far as these initiative bills go, what now? It’s up to us to maintain the pressure on Idaho’s top executive! Governor Little must feel our outrage at these threats to our democracy and our rights. Ask the Governor to veto BOTH the original bill placing insurmountable restrictions on initiatives, SB 1159, AND HB 296, the “trailer” bill that poses as a compromise. Keep calling the Governor’s office at 208-334-2100 and email him your reasons for your opposition. If you haven’t yet contacted the Governor about HB 296, call and email today. Then ask three friends to do the same. We The People can do this!

And If you haven’t been following the votes on these bills, take note that the initiative bills have received real bipartisan opposition, including this letter to the editor from one of the Idaho House’s most conservative members.

Aside from the bills to silence our votes, the legislature is still debating funding for Medicaid Expansion, which we all knew was on the legislature’s docket from day one. We The People already made the law with the 61% approval of Proposition 2. Today brought another amended bill (SB 1204a) with costly mandatory work requirements added back in, as well as a family planning referral requirement. This means, for example, women will need a referral from their general practitioner to see an obstetrician or a gynocologist, including for an annual wellness check. The bill passed the House today on a 40-20 vote. It moves to the Senate next for a vote on concurrence, before it can go to the Governor.

Despite the dramatic dueling Medicaid Expansion bills, the legislature actually needs only to pass a budget bill to fund the law. And the on-going debate about work requirements continues to cost us on a daily basis. Every single day the legislature is in session costs us, the taxpayers, the equivalent of an average year’s salary for an Idaho teacher. Contact members of the Senate to express your concerns about the wasteful work requirements in this latest bill!

Veto:Going Once,Going Twice

It’s time for people power! In the last two days, proponents of the bill to silence the voters, SB 1159, have taken a turn toward secrecy, degrading the democratic process at the legislature. Thursday, Repbulican lawmakers hastily crafted a “trailer” bill to alter SB 1159, doing an end run around an open and public process. Proponents of this bill brought it (HB 296) to the floor of the Idaho House without a public hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. Both bills passed today. 

 SB 1159 heads to the Governor’s desk. HB 296 goes to the Senate. If it passes, HB 296 will modify the terms of SB 1159, but regardless of those modifications our ability to qualify a citizens’ initiative is still beyond the reach of grassroots groups. 

 So! Contact the Governor and ask him to veto SB 1159! Call the Governor at 208-334-2100. Email him. Motivate your friends to do the same. Triple your impact by contacting 3 people and asking them to call and email today. Scroll down for some talking points. If the Senate passes HB 296, we will need to ask the Governor to veto that bill, too.

 Now, for the good news! HB 277, the bill to gut Medicaid Expansion with work requirements, failed in committee due to a federal judge’s ruling against work requirements in Arkansas and Alabama. Nearly all the testimony was against the bill and the committee voted 7-2 to hold the bill. Now, Medicaid funding is being considered in the Senate with SB 1204, a bill that seeks to strike a better balance and won’t cost taxpayers nearly as much.

Talking points on SB 1159 Veto (and HB 296 if it passes).

• These bills would almost uniformly prohibit grassroots initiatives from successfully qualifying for the ballot. Only big money interests would be able to meet the requirements. Silencing citizens is not the Idaho way.

• If the legislature actually wanted an initiative process with more citizen involvement, they would have included more people in the discussion.

• It is far more difficult to gather signatures in rural Idaho. These bills are not a way to include rural Idahoans because the timeframe to collect signatures is shortened; these bills make it harder to gather signatures successfully in rural areas.

• These bills will likely end up in court, costing us, the taxpayers, millions. This is financially irresponsible.

• Please stand with Idahoans to protect our constitutional right to citizens’ initiatives and stop this terrible waste of our tax dollars.

Tell The Governor: VETO!

Two very bad bills continue to make progress in the state legislature and they both deserve opposition every step of the way. We must send emails and make some phone calls (again)!

The Revenge Against the Voters Act, SB 1159, passed out of committee, amidst an overwhelming wave of opposition, including a representative from the ACLU of Idaho. Please contact members of the House of Representatives and tell them to vote against the bill. Call the Governor and ask him to stand up for our constitutional right to make a law and ask him to VETO the bill. Governor Little must see strong opposition at every turn as this process unfolds if he is to use his veto power.

HB 277, the bill to gut Medicaid Expansion by imposing costly work requirements and creating a second “gap” population of working Idahoans without access to healthcare, is up for a committee hearing tomorrow, March 27 at 1 pm. This bill not only excludes thousands of Idahoans from the expansion, it’s outrageously expensive. The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy’s report on the costs of this bill: $32 million per year.

Please contact every member of the Senate Health and Welfare committee by email and also email the committee’s secretary, Margaret Major, at shel@senate.idaho.gov with your comments. Put “Public Testimony, March 27th Senate Health and Welfare hearing” in the subject line to ensure it’s part of the record. Sen. Fred Martin’s bill to fund Medicaid is a much better option, without mandatory work requirements (much lower costs to taxpayers, no secondary gap) and it is moving in the Senate. Then call the Governor at 208-334-2100 and send him an email!