Idaho House overrides Gov. Little’s veto of property tax bill

Vetoed bill heads next to the Idaho Senate as late session property tax showdown looms

By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun

The Idaho House of Representatives voted March 28 to override Gov. Brad Little’s veto of a property tax bill, setting up a late-session showdown between the two chambers of the Idaho Legislature and Little.

During its morning floor session, the Idaho House also voted to reject the Senate’s new property tax counterproposal, which killed the Senate’s attempt to answer Little’s veto.

It all started on March 27, when Little vetoed House Bill 292 after saying he opposed a section of the bill that removed the March election date that school districts use for bond and levy elections. Little also said House Bill 292 jeopardized transportation funding.

On the afternoon of March 28, the Idaho House responded by voting 58-12 to override Little’s veto, exceeding the two-thirds majority needed to successfully override a gubernatorial veto.

“This was good legislation when we started, when we had overwhelming support,” Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, told legislators as they prepared to vote to override the veto. “It’s still good legislation today. I would hope that you could support me in helping to override so we can get this particular legislation passed and tax relief to the people.”

Next up, House Bill 292 heads back to the Idaho Senate for a possible override. It would take two-thirds of the senators present to override the veto. If all 35 senators are present for a floor vote, it would take 24 votes to override Little’s veto. The Senate originally voted 32-3 to pass House Bill 292 on March 20.

If the Senate votes to override the bill, it will become law.

Idaho House pushes to keep vetoed property tax bill alive

Throughout the day March 28, Republicans in the Idaho House made it clear that they hadn’t given up on House Bill 292.

“I urge us to have unity as a body and to stand up for what we passed before and to follow through on the mandate that we received from our constituents and the people of Idaho,” Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot, said on the House floor.

The House also introduced and passed a new bill, House Bill 376, that was described as a “trailer bill” to House Bill 292.The new bill was designed to address Little’s concerns over transportation bonding and funding by specifying a set amount of funding is continuously appropriated for the Transportation Expansion and Congestion Mitigation fund.

The new trailer bill also is intended to address Little’s concerns about shifting the priorities for sales tax revenues. The bill does not address Little’s concern about removing the March election date for school districts. House Bill 376 is called a trailer bill because it follows behind House Bill 292.

Earlier on March 28, the House voted to reject a new property tax bill that the Idaho Senate had put forward the day before: House Bill 198a. The House voted 59-11 to reject the Senate amendments to House Bill 198a. On March 27, Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, took House Bill 198 and replaced it with a totally different bill that he referred to as a “clean” property tax bill that Little had vetoed.

With the House rejecting the Senate amendments to the property tax bill, House Bill 198a is now dead for the session.

A moment before the vote, Cannon stood on the House floor and made it clear how House Republicans felt about the Senate gutting House Bill 198a. Cannon referred to the Senate’s changes as “hostile amendments” and called the move an attempt to sidestep the Idaho Constitution.

“We are the House of Representatives,” Cannon said. “We have a voice. We are not here to be subservient to the body across the rotunda and we are not here to be subservient to [Little].”

March 28 was the 79th day of the 2023 legislative session, which Republican leaders had originally hoped to wrap up March 24. However, the public school budgets and Medicaid budget have yet to pass both chambers of the Legislature. Lawmakers cannot adjourn for the year until they set a balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1.

The property tax showdown represents a new obstacle to adjourning. Property tax reductions were one of the top priorities Idahoans identified in a recent Boise State University public policy survey. Little called for property tax reductions in his Jan. 9 State of the State address and reiterated his support for property tax reductions in a letter written to legislators March 27 to accompany his veto.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com

Bouquets:

•When you take out the trash, do you ever think about how incredibly convenient it is to have such a messy problem taken care of so easily? There have been strikes in France the past three weeks over pension reforms by the French government. Along with thousands of other essential workers, sanitation employees have been on strike the entire time, leaving a literal wall of trash lining French city streets. The stench must be overwhelming. I was thinking about these essential workers the other day at the curb, thankful that we have people who pick up our trash every week and whisk it away so we never have to think about it again. I’m thankful for these hard-working sanitation workers in our community. You can help make their jobs easier by not overloading trash cans, placing your refuse in sturdy bags instead of loose in the can and positioning your cans on the curb instead of having them scattered around.

Barbs:

• I was hopeful when the Bonner County Board of Commissioners welcomed two new faces to replace outgoing Commissioners Dan McDonald and Jeff Connolly. Unfortunately, after watching their weekly meetings devolve into shouting matches, most of my hope for an orderly county government has been dashed. Commissioner Steve Bradshaw receives the extra Barb this week for his increasingly profane and cantankerous rhetoric toward the public. My advice to the commissioners? Stop with the shouting and nonsense and do the work. Nobody is interested in watching a weekly carnival.

•Finally, a Barb for tiny yapper dogs. Why? Because they’re annoying and never shut up. As Ron Swanson once said, “Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat and cats are pointless.”

Dear editor,

Thank you for the excellent coverage of the Bonner General Health shutdown of its maternity ward and OB-GYN services in your March 23 edition [News, “Area hospitals pledge support as Bonner General announces end to maternity services,” March 23, 2023].

I have been a resident of Sandpoint for 36 years; I was born and raised in the Northwest and spent summers on Lake Pend Oreille. I was a patient of Dr. Margaret Bowden of Women’s Health until her retirement, and had on several occasions been admitted to BGH. The closure of the maternity ward and the obvious demise of women’s health is tragic — not only to women living in Sandpoint, but to the community as a whole.

As “Lumberjill” pointed out [Perspectives, “The Lumberjill: BGH and other casualties of Idaho’s abortion ban,” March 23, 2023], it will be an ongoing house of cards with doctors and nurses fleeing, and I predict hospitals closing. Who would want to move here to work in the medical field? That Gov. Little and the Idaho Supreme Court signed and upheld a poorly written and ambiguous anti-abortion law that restricts doctors from practicing their medical specialty is a travesty of common sense.

Not only are doctors and young people fearing the strict abortions laws leaving, I have friends that are seriously planning to leave. Young and old alike have had it — the shutting of the maternity ward at BGH and exit of OB doctors is the tipping point.

Other factors are too-high property taxes with no relief in sight, neglected public education and the radical political climate.

I was about at my tipping point when extremist and misogynistic lawmakers like Scott Herndon — who simply want to expand their own extremist and often unconstitutional interests and control women — were elected to the state Legislature and other state offices.

At this point I’m nearly over the edge.

Beth F. Allen Sandpoint

Dear editor,

After watching the March 21, 2023 Bonner County commissioners’ board meeting, in which Commissioner Steve Bradshaw was belligerent to both a citizen and Sheriff Wheeler, I was appalled at his display of arrogance, lack of respect, and attempt to bully both the citizen and Sheriff.

Commissioners earn $84,000 per year, paid by our tax dollars, yet Bradshaw does not seem to realize who pays his salary. Additionally, a sheriff who is upholding our First Amendment rights and protecting our citizens and their property should receive the utmost respect from Commissioner Bradshaw, all the county employees and citizens.

Sandra Kasnick Priest River

Dear editor,

Time for term limits for Congress. Limit Congress to two terms: one term in office, one term in jail.

Pete Merritt Sandpoint

Dear editor, Fentanyl is here. It is real. Think it won’t affect you? I didn’t, then it did. It killed my brother. It will affect you in some way.

Fentanyl is not Democratic or Republican. It does not discriminate.

We all must stop this indiscriminate killer. Put an end to this scourge before it puts an end to you, your brother, your sister, your cousin, your son, your daughter, your neighbor, your friend.

Sandy Lange Sandpoint

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist