Senate Democratic Leader Melissa Wintrow said:

 “Across-the-board cuts like this punish Idaho communities and hide the real bill until later. These cuts don’t eliminate costs, they dump them onto county budgets, property taxpayers, law enforcement, emergency rooms, and courts.

“Make no mistake about why this is happening. Republicans have spent years pushing repeated income tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Idahoans, and they just doubled down with the most recent federal tax conformity decision that further reduced state revenue. They shrank the revenue base again and again, with no long-term plan to protect schools, public safety, or health care.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Janie Ward-Engelking said:

“When we shortchange health and human services, we undercut Idaho’s crisis response and put suicide prevention, foster care, and mental health services for children and families at risk. When we cut proven reentry and rehabilitation efforts, we increase the odds people cycle back into prison, driving up corrections costs and making our communities less safe.

“The ripple effects hit everywhere. Smaller budgets mean fewer staff, slower services, delayed inspections, and less oversight. That creates backlogs, increases risk, and drives up long-term costs, from environmental cleanup to emergency response, while creating bottlenecks for workers, businesses, and communities.”

Assistant Senate Democratic Leader James Ruchti said: 

“A responsible budget doesn’t save pennies today only to spend millions tomorrow. Idaho is growing, and our needs are growing with it. Senate Democrats oppose these reckless, blunt cuts and will keep fighting for a budget that is targeted, honest, and responsible, one that protects services and respects taxpayers.”

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IDAHO CAPITOL – House and Senate Democrats will analyze the 2023 Legislative Session including the bills that were passed, the bills that were killed and those that were vetoed.

Lawmakers will discuss the two divergent paths we saw in this year’s legislature. The first is a hopeful pathway of compromise and cooperation that was behind bills like the Launch bill or the Clean Slate bill. The second path leads us to bills that victimize trans kids, their parents and doctors and bills that threaten our community and school libraries.

Idaho is at a crossroads and this year’s legislative session showed us clearly the two directions we can go.

Press members are welcome to join in-person or follow the live Facebook broadcast on the Idaho Democratic Legislative Caucus Committee page.

Questions from in-person reporters will be welcome.

WHAT: Democratic lawmakers Sine Die press conference

WHERE: Minority House caucus room – fourth floor

WHEN: Thursday April 6, 2 p.m. or upon adjournment

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IDAHO CAPITOL – House and Senate Democrats are deeply disappointed that their Republican colleagues are unwilling to fight for meaningful property tax relief that does not have disastrous side effects. Legislators were presented with legislation that provided greater property tax cuts without jeopardizing school and infrastructure funding in the form of HB 198aaS, which was killed by House Republicans on a party-line vote.

“Idahoans asked us to address property taxes and restore education funding,” House Democratic Leader Ilana Rubel said. “The supermajority was only willing to deliver property tax cuts that come at the expense of long-term school facilities and operational funding.”

The Senate delivered a superior property tax bill to HB 292, but political infighting prevailed over Idahoans’ best interests and it was killed by House Republicans.

Every House Democrat voted in favor of concurring with the Senate amendments on HB 198aaS, which largely mirrored HB 292, but with greater benefits for property taxpayers and without the technical errors and collateral damage to schools in HB 292. HB 198aaS had the following features:

• Provided $76 million MORE in property tax reduction over the next five years
• Preserved bonding for transportation projects
• Ensured increased funding for local roads and bridges
• Preserved the March election date that school districts rely on
• Preserved escalating funding for public defense to keep up with the need
• Did not cut needed funding for ambulance, fire, flood control, and water districts

Ideally, schools would receive adequate, reliable state funding and would never need levies and bonds. Sadly, levy reliance has become the norm. Eighty percent of Idaho’s districts require supplemental levies for day-to-day costs like teacher salaries, supplies and utilities. The March election date allows schools to make timely salary offers to retain their staff for the following school year.

There are multiple “trailer bills” in play to try to correct the errors of HB 292, but none address the damage to schools caused by eliminating their March election date. One of those bills, HB 376, will actually reduce the amount of property tax relief for Idahoans, potentially by $6 million in the first year.

Senate Democratic Leader Melissa Wintrow, said “We knew our constituents expected us to enact sensible property tax reform this session. It’s unfortunate that the best, simple solutions, like reindexing the homeowner’s exemption and significantly increasing property tax assistance for seniors, fell by the wayside in favor of an overly complicated approach with harmful side effects.”

After months of wasting time on culture wars and attacks on librarians, the GOP supermajority finally turned its attention to property taxes in the final days of session, only to emerge with a flawed HB 292. The Governor wisely vetoed it due to the threats it posed to highway construction funding and schools’ ability to raise funds without critical March election dates. Unfortunately, rather than seize this opportunity to pass a clean property tax bill that does not contain a poison pill for Idaho schools, Republican legislators overrode his veto and pushed forward with an inferior bill.

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IDAHO CAPITOL – Idaho Democratic lawmakers are saddened but not surprised by the announcement that Bonner General Health has made the “emotional and difficult decision to discontinue providing Obstetrical services at Bonner General Health…”

Democratic House Leader Ilana Rubel: 

“This is what happens when pregnancy care is criminalized. Democrats have been warning about it for years. Many of the big-government, heavy-hand laws were passed during a time where GOP lawmakers could hide behind the protections of Roe v. Wade. With those protections removed, the consequences of bad laws are being felt and will continue to be felt by Idahoans until the political pain becomes so severe that GOP lawmakers start writing laws to help Idahaons instead of catering to extremists.”

Democratic Senate Leader Melissa Wintrow: 

“Pregnancy is complex and the laws banning basic reproductive health care create collateral damage. It is a lesson to us that we should not be legislating health care. These issues are private matters. Self determination of our bodies and the pursuit of happiness depend on the ability to control our bodies. When we allow politicians to practice medicine, everyone loses.”

House Assistant Democratic Leader Lauren Necochea: 

“We already have a shortage of healthcare providers in Idaho. With 45% of obstetric gynecologists considering or exploring relocation out of Idaho, this is only the beginning of a crisis. All patients will suffer.”

Senate Assistant Democratic Leader James Ruchti:

“Idaho lawmakers regularly talk about creating a family friendly environment that will encourage our children to raise their own families here. However, Idaho’s near total abortion ban and the subsequent impact on our health care system does the opposite. Starting a family requires pregnancy, which has its own set of risks. As we see in Bonner County, Idaho’s family unfriendly laws drive away competent health care providers, needlessly increasing the health risks from pregnancy and discouraging young families from laying down roots here.”

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IDAHO CAPITOL – Democrats on the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee support Senate Bill 1111, with some reservations.

S1111 creates a discount on property tax bills for homeowners, while raising applicant income limits and easing home value restrictions for circuit breaker eligibility. The circuit breaker is a property tax reduction program primarily benefiting low-income seniors and veterans. This move will help older Idahoans remain in their homes as property taxes rise.

“It was extremely disheartening to see the legislature take much-needed property tax assistance away from low-income seniors with House Bill 389 in 2021,” said Senator Rick Just (D-Boise), a member of the Senate Local Government and Tax Committee. “S111 undoes a great deal of that harm by allowing more seniors to access that assistance once again.”

“After years of the Republican supermajority expanding corporate property tax exemptions while the homeowner’s exemption was capped, a different approach is long overdue. I appreciate that homeowners are finally being prioritized,” continued Just. “People in my district are being priced out of their homes simply because their property tax bill outpaces their income.”

“This legislation could go further and undo the underlying tax shift, which is the major cause of rising property taxes for homeowners,” says Senator Ali Rabe (D-Garden City) who is also on the Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee.

Commercial interests are benefitting from this ongoing tax shift, which stems from a 2016 GOP law capping the homeowner’s exemption, which used to rise automatically with home values. According to the State Tax Commission, among the properties that were in existence in 2016, homeowners have seen a 20.5% increase in property taxes and commercial properties have seen a 24.1% decrease.

Senators Just and Rabe support House Bill 78, a bipartisan proposal to restore an index based on the sales price of Idaho homes to adjust the maximum homeowner’s exemption each year. It was introduced on Feb. 2 and hasn’t moved since. The bill would rebalance the tax load between commercial and residential property taxes by restoring the homeowner’s exemption to the level it would be at today if Republican legislators had not capped it in 2016.

Rabe continued, “Although S1111 isn’t perfect, it will help homeowners. As a Democrat, I support legislation that benefits Idaho’s working families. When it comes to property taxes, the Legislature has catered to special interests for too long.”

Idaho Democrats’ priority is an economy that works for all Idahoans, including affordable housing. In order for families to thrive, they need a stable place to call home.

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House Bill 22 would “This bill withholds sales and use tax revenue distributions to city or county

governments that take actions, such as proclamations, to refuse to enforce any felony listed in Idaho criminal code,” according to its statement of purpose.

Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa), the bill’s sponsor, said the bill targeted one city’s resolution to deprioritize investigations and the use of police resources related to abortion investigations.

Committee member Rep. Lauren Necochea (D-Boise) explained that cash-strapped law enforcement departments ought to be able to differentiate between types of crimes to focus their resources, saying dealing fentanyl should probably take priority over the possession of marijuana and investigating rape should be prioritized over abortion.

“I suspect law enforcement all over this state already prioritizes the crimes that pose the biggest threats to public safety,” she said, “Cities and counties ought to be able to make these priorities explicit without the state defunding their police department. This bill is about taking away local control and removing discretion for local law enforcement.”

Necochea said while she doesn’t believe abortion care should ever be criminalized, she said those who do believe people should go to prison over abortions should think through the practical impact of the bill.

“A zealous neighbor could report to the police that they had heard their neighbor was pregnant and is no longer,” she said. “The intent of this bill is to require that the local police force are sent out to investigate what could have been a miscarriage or pregnancy complication or a legal abortion in a neighboring state.”

She said the current near-total abortion ban has such strict penalties for doctors and nurses, it is dissuading medical professionals from practicing in Idaho at all. With this effective deterrent, police investigations are not only unnecessary, but harmful.

“Idaho doesn’t need the force of local police officers and detectives showing up on doorsteps to do pregnancy investigations,” she said. “Pregnancy investigations are invasive and cruel and have no place in our state.”

The bill passed 12-2 on a party-line vote. It will go to the House Floor.

IDAHO STATE CAPITOL – Democratic House Leader Ilana Rubel and Democratic Senate Leader Melissa Wintrow responded to Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address today. The following are excerpts from them.

Rep. Rubel
“At the highest level, we Democrats were happy with what we heard today from the Governor’s proposed budget. This budget is true to HB1 passed during the special session, to the work done by hundreds of Reclaim Idaho volunteers and tens of thousands of Idahoans who worked to certify the Quality Education Act, and to the overwhelming support of the advisory question on last November’s ballot. Voters spoke clearly that they support bringing $410 million in desperately needed new money to our public K-12 and higher ed schools.
“The pay increases proposed for teachers and other school personnel offer us a chance to recruit and retain the educators our children need and to finally pull Idaho out of last place in America in education funding.
“We strongly support the proposed investments in infrastructure, broadband, mental health, water quality and outdoor recreation. Democrats have championed public lands and outdoor recreation, as our beautiful outdoors are the bedrock of our quality of life and are a huge draw to bring a skilled workforce to Idaho. Last year we supported record investments in our parks and clean water, and we will proudly do so again.
“Overall, we share the Governor’s emphasis on funding schools, fixing our roads and bridges, supporting mental health and investing in public lands and clean water. However, we know that it is far from a given that this budget will survive the Republican supermajority in the legislature. We know that there will be many attempts to divert funds away from public schools into dangerous voucher / ESA schemes, and to withhold the funds proposed for infrastructure and other needs in order to further balloon income tax cuts that will bestow money overwhelmingly on the wealthiest. Democrats will work hard to protect the investments proposed in the Governor’s budget and ensure they become a reality. Frankly, without the work and support of Democrats in the Legislature, it is doubtful that we could accomplish any of the investments outlined in the Governor’s plan. Time after time, we have brought the critical votes necessary to save these budgets.
“Other objectives of our caucus include repeal of the grocery tax, establishing school facilities funding mechanisms to lower property taxes, allowing new mothers to remain on Medicaid for a year after giving birth, improving reimbursement rates for Medicaid caregivers so that seniors and those with serious medical needs can remain in their homes, improving support for victims of domestic violence, Clean Slate legislation to allow minor nonviolent offenders to reenter the workforce, and improving access to affordable housing.

Sen. Melissa Wintrow
“If our state is going to thrive, we have to have an economy that thrives…that economy includes high quality schools to ensure a well-educated and trained workforce, strong health care systems, infrastructure including broadband access, and a climate that promotes opportunities for all kinds of workers not policies to gov;t that tells us what we can read, who we pray to, who we love, and forces pregnancy and violates privacy of patients with their doctors.

Idahoans are being taxed out of their homes. I was pleased to hear the governor mention it in his address. The elderly, veterans and middle-class families can no longer afford their annual tax fee. Property tax reduction is a top priority for Democrats and here are five easy ways to solve this problem.
Update the homeowners exemption and index it. I would be worth $224,000 by now
Use impact fees on new growth so building schools for new folks on their dime not long time residents bearing the burden
Create a building fund for facility maintenance
Expand the circuit breaker – we kicked off folks who should be taken care of
Increase public funding for schools…gov said it to the press on thursday…if we pay the bills on other things it reduces burdens on locals and that would reduce property taxes

“As the governor said, ‘Hundreds of schooling options are available to Idaho families.’ In fact we’re ranked number three for school choice. We have school choice in the state. Vouchers aren’t going to create choice, they are going to starve our public schools which are already running on lean budgets. Protecting our public schools is a top priority for Democrats.

“I recently read an op ed from a former gop legislator that called on folks not to be duped. I want to reiterate that message. There are special interest groups who have a lot to gain by attacking the Idaho way of doing things. Vouchers are not our way and would only hurt schools, especially those smaller schools in rural areas. We can’t be duped by specters that are intentionally meant to play on fears instead of promoting high quality of life.”

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