END OF SESSION LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

OUT LIKE A LION

• Failed to fix horrible abortion ban that is driving physicians out of state and jeopardizing women's health and lives but entire practices are leaving Idaho. 
• Killed the maternal mortality committee that is supposed to investigate why we have such a high rate of pregnant women dying 
• Killed funding to prevent teenage pregnancy
• Killed funding to provide menstrual products for girls in schools 
• Denied funding to extend Medicaid funding beyond 2 months for maternal postpartum care

IDAHO AT A CROSSROADS...

Our state is at a crossroads, where we face two different versions of what Idaho could be or what it is becoming – an Idaho that honors human rights and dignity and respects our individuality, or an Idaho where extremist views have captured the majority party and dictate what you can believe and how you can live your life.

This session casts a dreary shadow on Idaho’s future; members of the majority party introduced a record number of bills that restricted individual rights, interfered with businesses and health care organizations, violated the founders’ intent to separate church and state, criminalized physicians for providing medical care, attempted to constrict access to the ballot, and relentlessly attacked the LGBTQ community.

These bills were introduced within a larger context of a growing Christian Nationalist movement in our country and in Idaho, a movement adopted by the Republican party and their chair, Dorothy Moon, out of fear that their “way of life” is being challenged and eroded.

This fear has evolved over the past decade, a small group of extreme conservatives initially chipping away at affirmative action and Title IX law with a fledgling Idaho Freedom Foundation supporting them. What started out as an annoyance, has evolved into an all-out assault on diversity and inclusion, women’s rights, and individual freedoms.  

In 2020, after George Floyd was murdered and white Americans began to acknowledge the effects of institutional racism, the GOP spun tall tales about Critical Race Theory being taught in schools and introduced numerous bills to censor teaching of race and racism. They attacked the first amendment and tried to limit a teacher’s ability to teach about the real impacts of racism in America.

And most notably, they used this dog whistle to attack funding public schools and higher education, the ultimate goal being to destabilize public education and free thought.

Two years later, their dog whistle CRT obsession has shifted to the topic of gender with drastic and hateful attacks on people who are gay, trans, women, and anyone who doesn’t conform to traditional gender roles.

This GOP legislation works to silence, censor, and erase anyone who doesn’t conform to traditional patriarchy, where straight, white males are in control of work life, school curriculum, and family life. We saw bills to:

• Ridiculously codify that there are “only 2 sexes” and control individual behavior from bathroom and locker room use (S1100) to banning “drag show” performances (H265) to outlawing care for teens who have gender dysphoria  (H71);
• Mandate public schools to receive private donations of placards to post in schools that say, "In God we trust," (H202) violating the separation of church and state;
• Limit opportunities for accurate sex education for students and to reinforce specific religious values in code instead science and research (H272, S1099, H288);
• Harass libraries and their staff enacting punitive civil bounties to pressure censorship of content and ban books, especially books with LGBTQ content (H314, S1187, S1188);
• Criminalize interstate travel for teens to access abortion care even in the case of rape and incest (H242);
• Reinforce Idaho’s total abortion ban that has criminalized doctors for basic miscarriage management and emergency treatment for high-risk pregnancies (H374);
• Reject legislation to continue a valuable maternal mortality commission that would shed light on why we have so many maternal deaths (H81);
• Refuse to extend Medicaid benefits for mothers and their infants 12 months postpartum (H201);
• Reject a bill to provide free menstrual products for girls in public schools (H313).

Idaho’s Republican party has joined the national backlash to a social movement that has worked to create more inclusive opportunities for people to get involved in public life and for kids to feel like they belong in school; a movement where we have worked to include people who have been historically pushed to the margins and experienced discrimination while we seek justice in social systems. When did justice become a bad thing to Republicans?

CLICK HERE TO FINISH READING...

DEMOCRATS MADE THE DIFFERENCE

Property Tax Relief -- Finally!

After a very long three months, the first property tax bill made it to Governor Little’s desk H292, but it was overly complicated, hurt local taxing districts, schools, and local elections; and so the Governor rightfully vetoed this bill. 

The Senate then passed legislation addressing property tax relief which addressed all of these shortcomings of the House bill AND provided more monetary relief to homeowners, but that bill failed to pass the House of Representatives. 

Both chambers then voted to override the Governor’s veto of H292 and then applied a "trailer bill" to fix some of the problems that got it vetoed in the first place. 

• I voted to sustain the Governor's original veto because of the damage it does to schools by eliminating the March levy election dates that have funded our schools when the legislature has dismally fell short in the past. 

The "trailer bill" did fix problems with local highway transportation districts and taxing districts that fund emergency services, but the final bill still eliminated school levy elections in March.  

I voted for the final property tax bill because we need relief! 

But let's not forget, the easiest way for us to get quick, direct relief is to increase the homeowners exemption and fix the circuit breaker.

Instead, my colleagues drafted one of the most complicated bills (in the history of the planet) that hides the fact that the benefits homeowners receive will decrease over time and it will harm city and county budgets AND we will still need to make fixes for local transportation districts and other special taxing districts.  So this was ONLY A TEMPORARY fix. 

As your Senator, I will continue to advocate for real property tax relief instead of stop-gap measures that mostly benefit the well-heeled and well-connected.  But for now, we needed the relief!

Education and Budgets

H24 - This was the governor’s proposal to make available $8,500 for high school graduates to use for workforce training. After hours of debate, the bill passed 20-15 with a majority of Republicans voting against it. If it weren’t for the Democrats, this important program would be in the Senate trash bin.

S1176 - The budgets for Idaho universities and colleges would have failed in the Senate had it not been for Democratic senators. With a 22-13 vote and all Democrats voting in favor of funding our institutions of higher education, we pulled this budget to the finish line.

DEFEATED S1038 - This deeply flawed bill would have started a voucher program in Idaho where millions of public dollars would be funneled into private and religious schools with absolutely no accountability. This really bad bill failed 12-23. Just under half of Senate Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Every Democrat voted to protect our public schools from these types of attacks.  

S1178 - This is the budget for the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a non-partisan state agency. Providing services to the Hispanic Community and serving as a liaison between the community and government entities. The bill passed the Senate 22-13, with the Democrats unanimously voting in favor of it. It wouldn’t have passed without Democrats.

DEFEATED Senate Joint Resolution 101 - Not one Democrat voted for this terrible bill. SJR101 makes the initiative process virtually impossible by mandating signatures from 6 percent of voters in all 35 legislative districts. A similar bill was found unconstitutional by the Idaho Supreme Court. Proponents appear to believe they can trick voters into taking away their own constitutional rights.

Local news resources to stay updated on the legislature:

• Idaho Legislature (bills)
• Eye on Boise (Idaho Press)
• Idaho Capitol Sun
• Idaho Education News
• James Dawson - KBSU radio
• Idaho Reports (Idaho Public Television)
• Idaho In Session - Video and audio recording of proceedings at the State Capitol. NOTE: You will have to do some navigating to find what you're looking for.