Week 13: Final Legislative Update

As the 2025 Legislative Session winds down and the Legislature (hopefully) adjourns this afternoon, I want to thank the IAC Legislative Committee, IAC membership, and IAC staff for their thought, deliberation, and action during the Session. The IAC Legislative Committee in particular, spent countless hours reviewing proposed legislation, analyzing the impacts on counties, and directing IAC staff in its advocacy efforts this year. The Session stretched longer this year with a record number of bills. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Throughout the session, the following IAC member adopted resolutions were introduced as legislation:

– House Bill 130 (nonprofit hospital property tax exemption): House Bill 130 was introduced by Representative Josh Tanner and sponsored by Senator Ben Toews in the Senate. House Bill 130, as amended by the Senate, limits the nonprofit hospital property tax exemption to only hospitals and medical clinics as defined in Chapter 13, Title 19, Idaho Code, and nonprofit critical access hospitals and nonprofit rural emergency hospitals. With the definitional change, hospital acute care, outreach, outpatient, ancillary, and support facilities are no longer included within the definition of a nonprofit hospital. The legislation also requires nonprofit hospitals to provide additional audited information to the county to be used in determining eligibility for the nonprofit hospital property tax exemption. House Bill 130  has passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the Governor. If allowed to become law by the Governor, the bill will take effect on January 1, 2025. IAC thanks Representative Tanner and Senator Toews for their leadership in successfully advancing House Bill 130.

– House Bill 143 (solid waste disposal): House Bill 143 was sponsored by Representative Doug Pickett and sought to establish a process through which counties could implement waste flow control measures. House Bill 143 was introduced but did not receive a hearing at IAC’s request.

– House Bill 166 (online public notice): House Bill 166 was introduced by Representative Jeff Ehlers. The bill would have authorized the online publication of public notices. While the bill passed the House with broad support, it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate.

– House Bill 206 and House Bill 207: House Bills 206 and 207 move the state EMS Bureau from the Department of Health and Welfare to the Office of Emergency Management and provide greater flexibility in how state provided EMS funds can be used by local jurisdictions. Both bills were sponsored by Representative Mark Sauter and Senator Karl Bjerke. Both bills have passed the Legislature and have been signed by the Governor.

– House Bill 277 (emergency communications): House Bill 211, sponsored by Representative Josh Wheeler, sought to standardize the process for carriers to provide emergency communication fee payments to counties. The bill did not receive a hearing.

– House Bill 278 (election dates and deadlines): House Bill 278, sponsored by Representative Brandon Mitchell and Representative Wendy Horman, standardizes the dates and deadlines that county clerks follow in preparing and implementing elections, limits the filing period for state and federal races to one week, and limits early voting to no earlier than three weeks prior to an election. House Bill 278 passed the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Little.

– House Bill 388 (county tourism tax): House Bill 388, sponsored by Representative Kevin Andrus, sought to establish a county option lodging tax of up to 3%. House Bill 388 was introduced but did not receive a hearing. 

– Senate Bill 1101 (county coroners): Senate Bill 1101 updates county coroner roles and responsibilities, definitions, and standards. Senate Bill 1101 was sponsored by Senator Melissa Wintrow. The bill has passed the Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor.

– Senate Bill 1118 (local government procurement thresholds): Senate Bill 1118 raises the minimum procurement threshold for competitive bidding to $100,000 across all procurement types. Senate Bill 1118 was cosponsored by Representative Mark Sauter and Senator Jim Guthrie. The bill passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Little.

– Senate  Bill 1181 (state public defender): Senate Bill 1181, cosponsored by Senator Todd Lakey and Representatives Dustin Manwaring and Jon Webber, makes a number of changes related to public defense. Some of the changes were supported by IAC, including strengthening language regarding the roles and responsibilities of judicial district public defenders, further limiting county responsibilities in provide non criminal indigent defense (like private termination of parental rights), replacing ABA standards with Idaho based indigent defense standards, and moving up the date to begin transitioning state public defenders out of county provided office space. Unfortunately, the bill also included language requiring counties to cover facility costs related to utilities, cleaning, snow removal, and building maintenance. IAC offered up amendments to further limit county obligations for utilities and cleaning services; however, the amendments were not accepted. Senate Bill 1181 passed both the House and Senate and awaits action by the Governor.

IAC was also involved in other key pieces of legislation late in the Legislative Session benefiting counties, including Senate Bill 1218 which includes $110 million in funding for county roads and bridges, highway districts, and city streets; Senate Bill 1187, a trailer bill to Senate Bill 1133, providing the BOCC with flexibility in processing APA applications; amendments to House Bill 180 which excludes broadband facility applications requiring a special use permit or variance from the application processing shotclock; House Bill 354, allowing for the proration of homestead exemptions; and preventing attempts to narrow the assessment ratio 95-105% of market value. 

To learn more about these and other bills impacting counties, please plan on attending one of our upcoming Spring County Official Institutes scheduled throughout the state. You can register for the upcoming COIs by clicking here. As always, thank you to the IAC membership for all you do to make Idaho the great state that it is!