Area lawmakers talk 2022 session

Idaho’s potential surplus in general funds was a major topic of discussion as lawmakers from across north central Idaho attended the Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce’s legislative send-off luncheon Monday, offering their thoughts on the upcoming 2022 session.

The two vice-chairs of the Legislature’s joint budget committee — Sen. Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville, and Rep. Caroline Troy, R-Genesee — said deciding how to use a potential $1.6 billion in surplus general fund revenue will be a top priority among lawmakers in the coming session.

“We have a tremendous amount of money we didn’t expect to have — we think as a result of good financial management and good luck to go with it,” Crabtree said. “So, what do we do with that? First of all, I think we need to be very, very careful. This is the time when we can get ourselves into trouble. We can obligate ourselves to ongoing expenditures, like increased salaries and benefits — which is a great thing to do, but then you have to sustain it.”

Crabtree predicted that the joint budget committee will be more likely use the money for things like increasing state savings, paying down debt or investing in long-term capital improvements like bridge repairs.

More than 100 people attended Monday’s luncheon. However, rather than get the scoop from three local lawmakers, as has been typical in the past, they got to hear from seven senators and representatives, as well as one temporary substitute.

In addition to Crabtree, the others senators who attended include Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, and Leland farmer Robert Blair, who will be substituting this session for Lewiston Senator and Mayor-elect Dan Johnson.

Joining Rep. Troy were Reps. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow; Charlie Shepherd, R-Pollock; Lori McCann, R-Lewiston; and Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston.

The increased attendance stems from the recent work of the Idaho Citizen Commission for Reapportionment, which proposed that Nez Perce County be split between two new legislative districts.

The new 6th Legislative District would include Latah and Lewis counties, along with the northern/eastern portion of Nez Perce County and a small part of Lewiston. The new 7th District would include most of Lewiston and the southern/western portion of the county, along with all of Idaho and Adams counties.

The redistricting plan is currently the subject of several lawsuits. If it holds up in court, though, any one of the seven incumbents who attended Monday’s luncheon could end up representing some part of Nez Perce County.

As the newcomer on the block, Blair said he’s just hoping to avoid so-called “foot-in-mouth disease” during his time in Boise.

“But seriously, I’m looking to represent and serve our area and district as best I can,” he said.

He’ll also be sitting down to discuss legislation Johnson is working on to help students with dyslexia, and may help advance that issue.

In keeping with his interest in behavioral health issues and addiction treatment, Kingsley said he’s hoping to introduce legislation allowing local recovery centers to dispense test strips that let people test whether the drugs they’re using are laced with fentynal, a powerful opiate that has contributed to a sharp increase in overdose deaths.

“I call it a poison,” he said. “People are literally being poisoned by fentynal. People who are using it don’t even know what they’re taking.”

Allowing recovery centers to disperse the test strips would help prevent fentynal overdoses, Kingsley said, while bringing people into a place where they can get help with their addiction.

McCann listed several education issues she hopes to work on this session, including providing state funding for all-day kindergarten. She’s also concerned about ongoing efforts by far-right lawmakers to strip funding from colleges and universities over allegations that they’re teaching critical race theory.

Rep. Shepherd said one major focus for him this session will be to try and steer more transportation funding to northern Idaho, rather than having it all go to the Treasure Valley.

Rep. Mitchell said he’s continuing to work on his voter integrity bill, which would tighten up some requirements for voter identification.

“Currently, we have a hole in our system,” he said. “With same-day registration, I can actually walk in and register with my old high school ID and an Amazon box. I have a little concern with that because I can ship an Amazon box anywhere.”

He’s also working on several proposals related to military personnel, including possibly offering higher education tuition discounts for veterans.

Troy has multiple bills in the hopper, including one measure brought to her by some University of Idaho students that would make it illegal to text unsolicited sexual photos to someone.

“Right now, there’s no law against it,” she said.

Troy also wants to raise the standards for fiscal notes on policy bills, to clarify whether the legislation imposes unfunded mandates on local governments.

Sen. Nelson said he’ll continue to focus on education and transportation issues. He’d also like to use a portion of any general fund surplus to address systemic problems, such as out-of-control property tax increase.

“One idea I’ve been pushing is to allocate, say, $100 to $200 million per year to K-12 schools in discretionary funding, with the requirement that they reduce their supplemental levies by 80 percent of the money they receive,” he said. “That would save us property taxes, it would give a little incremental funding to schools that have been able to pass supplemental levies — and for schools that have no supplemental levy, it would be 100 percent money to help those schools.”

The 2022 session begins Jan. 10.

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168.