Lawmakers pass fleet of bills, but not ITD’s

BOISE — After leaving for a long Easter weekend, the Idaho Legislature returned Tuesday to pass a flurry of bills on a long day, although lawmakers left without a major budget bill needed to adjourn for the session.

The House, which has finished most of its business, passed a resolution to return today, then recess Thursday through next Tuesday.

Action on Tuesday included fixes to the school facilities bill, legislation targeting gender and pronouns, the Medicaid budget, judicial salaries — but notably not the Idaho Transportation Department budget — before finishing business around 8 p.m. MDT.

The House will return from its recess April 10, after Gov. Brad Little has a chance to consider signing or rejecting the legislation that hits his desk. The recess gives lawmakers a chance to return and try to override any potential veto before adjourning sine die, which would officially mark the end of the 2024 session.

Idaho Transportation Department

A major hurdle to adjournment is the Idaho Transportation Department budget. The budget approved by the budget-writing committee included language that would go back on a planned sale of the ITD campus on State Street.

The original budget passed the House by one vote, was at first removed from the Senate reading calendar before a vote because of opposition to the language, then returned to the Senate floor unchanged. Last week, senators voted 19-16 to kill the $592 million budget bill because of the language tanking the sale. Lawmakers cannot adjourn without passing all the state budgets.

But on Tuesday the budget writers on the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to approve the same budget with the same language. The three Democrats on the joint committee voted against the motion. There was no discussion during the afternoon JFAC meeting.

The Senate did not take up the ITD budget again during its long floor sessions Tuesday.

Senators had also previously rejected a budget for the Department of Administration, which would oversee the sale, that included similar language backing out of the transaction. Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon on Tuesday night asked unanimous consent to return this budget to the Senate Finance Committee, as it was still on the Senate’s third reading calendar due to a clerical error, he said.

JFAC is expected to take up the administration department budget this morning.

MEDICAID

Both chambers Tuesday also took action to pass the Medicaid budget, which totals $4.7 billion of state general, dedicated and federal funds from the “maintenance” and “enhancements” budgets.

The budget included $64 million in state general funds.

The Senate debated for about 40 minutes before voting 24-11 to pass SB 1456, which was the “enhancement” budget for the state’s Division of Medicaid. A baseline “maintenance” budget had been passed previously, and the enhancement included new spending and nondiscretionary funds.

The budget included 24.5 new full-time positions to help administer Medicaid, oversee compliance, look into cost containment and oversee vendors. These positions will cost $1.5 million in state general funds and $1.6 in federal funds. The agency had originally requested 60 new positions.

The budget also includes increases in the reimbursement rate for developmental disability services providers and an increase in the rate paid to residential providers licensed as Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.

Those who argued against it said the Medicaid budget had been growing over the past several years, and the only way to stop it was to reject the budget.

Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, argued that because the baseline maintenance budget had already been approved, there was no need to pass the additional budget.

“The only way I know to control Medicaid is on this floor,” Herndon said.

The enhancement budget did also include “nondiscretionary adjustments,” which are reimbursements to care covered under Medicaid.

Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, who co-chairs JFAC, noted that the budget total is less than 1% of an increase over the previous year.

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, also noted the general fund portion of the budget had stabilized over the past few years. She also underscored that the program primarily covers children, mothers and people with developmental disabilities.

Sen. Ben Adams, R-Nampa, said he opposed using “socialized health care,” but said the system comes from the federal government and “we have to pay our bills, and we cannot change it from the state level.”

The House didn’t debate for long before voting 39-30 with one absent to approve the budget.

GENDER, PRONOUN BILLS APPROVED

The Senate on Tuesday also took on two controversial bills that opponents say target transgender and nonbinary people.

In back-to-back votes, the Senate approved HB 421 and HB 538, which respectively amend definitions of male and female, and prohibit repercussions for state employees and teachers for misgendering or misnaming transgender coworkers and students.

The Senate State Affairs Committee narrowly passed both these bills after hearings last week.

Senators voted 26-8 to pass HB 421, which states there are “only two genders” and ties definitions of man and woman to reproductive functions. HB 538 passed in a 25-9 vote.

HB 521 TRAILER, JUDGE SALARIES

There have been at least eight proposed trailer bills to HB 521, the latest of which was HB 766 that was introduced and passed in the House Tuesday.

The wide-ranging school facilities bill HB 521 passed easily through both chambers, but many lawmakers expressed concerns over some aspects of it. HB 766 attempted to address many of those by requiring Senate confirmation of the governor’s pick for State Board of Education executive director, delaying implementation of HB 521’s restrictions on four-day school weeks, and providing money for charter school facilities. The bill would also claw back any potentially misused funds provided under the bill from school districts and distribute them to rural schools.

The Legislature also approved pay raises for judicial salaries in a bill that also provided a $25,000 retirement bonuses to judges who give one-year notice of their retirement and serve the remainder of their term.

The courts had opposed the way the bill tied pay raises to a policy change.

The Senate approved HB 746 in a late evening vote after a committee approved it earlier that day.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on X @EyeOnBoiseGuido.