Final Legislative Bulletin

From the Director

The Idaho Legislature wrapped up its work approving legislation on Friday. Legislators will remain in Boise until Wednesday, March 28th in the event that they need to take action on legislation vetoed by the Governor. As you may recall, one of the outcomes from last year’s Supreme Court decision on the Governor’s veto of the grocery tax exemption was that the Governor has five days (excluding Sunday) to take action on legislation transmitted to his office. Failure to sign or veto legislation within the five-day window will result in the legislation becoming law without his signature. This also requires the legislature to remain in session for those five days so it can override any gubernatorial veto. This has made for a lengthened legislative session without a lot of activity. To fill time, legislative interim committees are scheduled to hold organizational meetings; however, no decision making will occur.

Overall, IAC was successful in advocating for the membership’s legislative priorities. As of today, five of IAC’s legislative priorities have been signed by the Governor and will become law on July 1, 2018. The five IAC legislative priorities signed by the Governor include:

• House Bill 499 establishing new records retention requirements for body camera and other law enforcement media recordings,
• Senate Bill 1228 reducing the minimum age of poll workers from 17 to 16,
• Senate Bill 1229 allowing early voting plans to be submitted once a year rather than prior to each election,
• Senate Bill 1230 clarifying that delinquent tax payments must be applied to the most outstanding tax delinquency, and
• Senate Bill 1231 clarifying how late payments and interest are applied to missed and subsequent property rolls.

Additionally, IAC worked with stakeholders from the Association of Idaho Cities and the Administrative Office of the Court to secure nearly $9 million in ongoing funding for magistrate courts. The funding will be phased in over a five-year period and grow over time as state liquor fund revenues increase. IAC also worked jointly with the Idaho Sheriffs Association to secure additional state funding to house state inmates in county jails. The fee will increase from $45 a day to $55 a day for the first seven days and $75 a day for every day thereafter. The fee increase will result in over $6 million in increased funding from the state for county sheriffs’ offices.

Unfortunately, not all IAC priorities became law. House Bill 420 (allowing online public notice in lieu of newspaper public notice) and House Bill 555 (increasing the justice levy to .0025) failed to advance out of the House. IAC will continue to work with the membership and legislators in the interim to find a path forward for these two important priorities.