Next year's issues already on the table; Tax breaks, day cares, highway funding among things to tackle

If the Idaho Legislature were an all-you-can-eat buffet, lawmakers spent this year loading their plates. Next year, they'll sit down to eat.

Republicans place two tax breaks - one for citizens and one for businesses - at the top of next year's agenda. Democrats will renew a push to set basic safety standards for day cares, help local governments raise money and set higher ethical standards for lobbyists and lawmakers.

The 2007 legislative session ended just over a week ago and state leaders are already debating next year's issues.

Ranking highest among items that didn't see debate this session will be an election-year effort to raise fuel taxes or car fees.

A year ago, the Idaho Transportation Board warned that the state's highways are coming up short by $200 million a year. That means a need for new revenue. Fuel taxes used to jump 3 cents to 4 cents every five years. But the last time lawmakers passed an increase was 1996.

"We're leaning toward an increase in registration fees and potentially a gas tax increase," said Rep. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly. "It's going to cost money to maintain these roads."

As a member of a conservative House leadership team, all three of whom sit on the House Revenue and Taxation Committee where all tax bills are born, the way Roberts leans carries weight.

That issue is one of several main courses.

Lawmakers chewed over and spit out a grocery tax credit that gave Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter enough indigestion to veto it. Also, the powerful business group, Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (of which the Tribune Publishing Company is a member), pushed, and failed, to cut personal property taxes.

"I think we've got a strong support for both of those proposals in the Legislature but at the moment there are 105 ideas on exactly how the details should be structured," said Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston.

As a member of Senate leadership and the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee, Stegner has a big say on tax issues that churn out of the House. Stegner also expects to sit on an interim committee this summer to study Idaho's tax system and examine the validity of sales tax exemptions.

A return of volatile social issues also is expected to spice up the session.

House conservatives soundly rejected efforts to set basic standards for child care and early childhood learning centers - a step toward communism and away from personal responsibility, they called it.

"As opposed to years past where everything just kind of disintegrated, we're gong to be trying to work on some of those things as a caucus over the summer," said Rep. John Rusche, D-Lewiston.

Rusche, as a member of House minority leadership, is in the thick of it with a revitalized, but still small group of Democrats. They want to let communities raise local taxes for transportation and other infrastructure. And they'll press for ethics reforms, reminding voters how House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, used his position to influence a private company's choice of a lobbyist.

And next year is an election year, a presidential election year at that.

When Republicans and Democrats belly up to the table with a hot, heaping helping of issues, leaders may have to work hard to keep food fights from breaking out.

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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson@lmtribune.com or at (208) 743-9600, ext. 274.