Senator Melissa Wintrow
Senate Minority Leader
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WEEK 10 - LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
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NAVIGATING DARKNESS...
With the return of Daylight Savings time, my early arrivals at the Statehouse have me in the dark again -- which is fitting since most members are passing legislation to keep Idahoans in the dark or return to the Dark Ages.
- Last week, I heard a senator comparing businesses who may want to require a vaccine for safety sake as despotism.
- Defending another bathroom bill, a senator asserted that "we have had separate bathrooms for centuries, since Roman times...and that's the way it should be!"
- That same senator admitted, "maybe we are discriminating, but majority rules!" I had to remind the senate that just because the majority of people like something doesn't make it right -- slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, denying women the right to vote, etc.
- In Senate State Affairs, my colleagues printed a bill (that will have a hearing on Monday) to make brandishing a firearm legal.
- Senate Judiciary and Rules passed a bill that is on the Senate calendar to bring back the firing squad as a form of capital punishment.
- Finally on Friday afternoon, Senate Judiciary and Rules met to consider H71 that could outlaw gender affirming care for minors even when their parents consent to medical treatment that is many times, life saving.
I feel dismayed by the amount of time and number of bills introduced that infringe on Idahoan's privacy and our constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We are finally getting to the appropriation bills to fund our state agencies, so I hope our session end date is coming soon.
Thank you for all your support this session. I remain determined to continue to fight for our rights and what is best for our community.
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GENDER AND WHO YOU CAN BE
The Battle of the Decade
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There have been more than 20 bills introduced this session dealing with gender, reproductive health care, sex education, and censoring content about these topics.
Last session, the attacks were on "equity and inclusion" and "critical race theory," but the IFF, their GOP cronies, and Blaine Conzatti of the Family Policy Center have learned that it's a lot harder to defend racist attacks than it is to hide sexism and homophobia in good old traditional family values: heterosexual parents, with 2 kids, a dog, and a white picket fence.
The first attack on the LGBTQ community came with the 3rd bill introduced in the Senate: (S1003) a prohibition on multi-use bathrooms that passed both houses this week.
The bill is about more than a bathroom. It's about the fear and disdain for people who are transgender, gay and lesbian. In week 2 when Sen Herndon described the simplicity of the bill with a silver tongue, his constituent revealed the underlying attitudes and shared in his testimony his disdain for people who are gay or trans because he is a Christian.
I have seen open and proud discussions in the news from Blaine Conzatti and the IFF, who work with members of the legislature, about incorporating Christian Nationalism into law to preserve “a way of life” that is particular to a patriarchal religious tradition. A good example of this -- H202 that requires public schools to hang signs stating "In God We Trust" if they are donated by any outside organizations, overriding parent wishes or school board decisions or separation of church and state!
That bathroom bill set the tone for our session this year to deny rights and access to public services to a particular group of people. That’s discrimination in a place where we believe in justice for all. Next on the agenda is a bill outlawing public drag shows, which is so poorly written it would ban all theatrical and ballet performances among other things. I wrote an opinion piece that was published in the Idaho Statesman last fall which is still applicable.
Like previous efforts to expel people of color, people with disabilities, and others from communal space, these arguments for privacy just mask a fear of difference.
Click Here to Continue Reading....
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Joint Legislative Oversight Committee
Finally Meets After Political Delays
I was finally appointed as co-chair of the bipartisan Joint Legislative Oversight Committee (JLOC) after weeks of delay; Speaker Moyle finally appointed House Committee members after his bill to eliminate OPE seems to have died in the Senate.
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We met last week to release the much awaited report on the Direct Care Workforce which is in crisis according to the new report.
33,000 older adults and people with disabilities rely on the direct care workforce to maintain a healthy and independent life in Idaho.
23,000 direct care workers help with personal care, nursing, home maintenance, counseling, transportation, and many other services.
76% of direct care workers said that higher pay was the main factor that would keep them from leaving their job when responding to our survey.
The main problem that needs to be solved -- LOW WAGES. Providing in home and community based care services keeps people out of institutions (where there are no empty beds), keeps people in their homes, and saves the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Wages are so low because Idaho Medicaid rates are established through Legislative approval.
I have advocated for years for the Dept of Health and Welfare to establish a schedule for rate reviews and come back to the legislature every year with modifications. Director Jeppesen has finally created that schedule, but the governor must then put those rate recommendations in the budget for our consideration. What I have found is that the Governor's office doesn't always put the actual needs in the budget and the legislature is left to be lobbied by groups to get their rates added to the budget. This is not an effective way to do business and provide services for the most vulnerable Idahoans.
Stakeholders who attended the meeting were clear:
- There are thousands of elderly and disabled Idahoans who are not getting the care they need and people are becoming homeless and some are dying.
Idaho State Government must do our part to help our neighbors and fix these problems instead of continuing to attack Medicaid and other health care services.
Read the whole report here.
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THE GOOD NEWS
- Homeowners should see significant property tax relief in year one with H292.
THE BAD NEWS
- H292 REMOVES THE MARCH ELECTION DATE FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT BONDS/LEVIES which could have devastating impacts on school districts who need funding for schools that the legislature doesn't fund.
- Right now more than 85% of school levy elections take place in March, outside of the partisan May primary: it's partisan politics that are advancing voucher bills for private schools so you can imagine how a May levy election will go for public schools. And if forced to wait until November, they can't effectively build their budgets for the school year, losing teachers and other resources.
- SHORT TERM GAIN and LONG TERM PAIN. Long term modeling suggests that homeowners will start to see a decline in relief after year one and more declines over time.
- This bill does nothing to address the tax shift from commercial properties to residential properties after the homeowners exemption was capped in 2016 by GOP leadership; this contributes to the decline in returns for homeowners.
- Cities will see declines in revenue which impacts local services like police, water, emergency services, parks, etc.
- Local highway districts will see major declines because we take money from the Transportation Expansion and Congestion Mitigation Fund for tax relief.
THE UGLY NEWS
- The plan is so complicated that few people can explain it. The diagram has more arrows than an archery target.
- The on-going funding for relief comes from revenue that is susceptible to economic downturns which won't help homeowners.
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