State issues of concern

Many readers may remember our area’s longest serving legislator Rep. Jim Stoicheff and his entertaining columns that would highlight various bills under consideration during the legislative session.

While I can’t claim to have Jim’s excellent writing skills or his sense of humor, I will endeavor to list some bills in front of us and the possible connection to our area.

Many people have communicated with us about H 45 which would allow tax credits currently in place but due to expire in January to continue permanently for those taxpayers who donate to educational foundations, libraries, museums and the Idaho Historical Society.

Locally, our libraries, museums and the Panhandle Alliance for Education are all organizations that donors can make a contribution to and receive a credit that reduces their income taxes paid to the state.

Former Rep. George Eskridge took the lead in 2010 to allow PAFE and other foundations like it across the state to participate in this tax credit program.

Former Rep. Eric Anderson and I were co-sponsors. All 3 of us believed, and continue to believe, that PAFE is an excellent organization that raises and provides funds to help assist our schools.

H45 is now H199 which accomplishes the goal of extension of the tax credit and adds some accountability measures that foundations like PAFE must meet.

Accountability is important and Rep. Scott from our district has taken the lead on making sure the accountability measures are in place. Hopefully H 199 will now make it through the rest of the process.

I’ll continue to support successful passage of extension of the tax credit.

H198 has been introduced by Rep. Mike Moyle to remove Idaho’s participation in daylight saving time. Many constituents have contacted me over the years with concerns about the time change and that we in northern Idaho are in a different time zone than southern Idaho.

Some legislators believe that H198 leaves out northern Idaho and as a result will then increase the time difference to two hours at certain times of the year.

I’m not certain that is the case but stay tuned for more debate on this one!

At the request of constituents here at home I introduced S1031 which, if passed reduces the time to become a ‘resident’ for purposes of obtaining Senior Fish & Game licenses from five years to six months. Currently, people who are 65 and over who are residents are eligible for the discounted senior licenses.

However if someone moves into Idaho who is 65 and would like to purchase the senior license they have to wait 5 years to be considered a ‘resident’. But, for regularly priced licenses one only has to live in the state for 6 months to be considered a resident.

This bill brings consistency to the definitions by changing the 5 year time span to 6 months.

The area now known as Boundary County was once a part of Kootenai County and then Bonner County until finally in January 1915 Boundary County was officially formed by the Idaho State Legislature.

SCR 112 recognizes and congratulates the good people in Boundary County on their Centennial anniversary. Rep. Scott, Rep. Dixon, and I are co-sponsors of this resolution.

We are in week 6 of the session and so far 454 bills have been introduced.

That is the lowest number of bills at this point in time in the last 5 years. Setting budgets for state agencies began last week with a targeted completion date of March 13.

Committee hearings and decisions on legislation on the House and Senate Floors are increasing.

To follow the activity check out www.legislature.idaho.gov And, Idaho Public Television provides a weekly analysis of the highlights with Idaho Reports which can be found here: http://idahoptv.org/idreports/ As always, I value your input and can be reached via skeough@senate.idaho.gov or via our message center at 1-800-626-0471.