Representative Maxine Bell (R-Jerome) has served on the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee since the early 1990s.
Rep. Maxine Bell, a retired school librarian from Jerome, was first elected to the Idaho Legislature in 1988. She’s the longtime co-chair of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, which crafts the annual state budget. We spoke December 10.
Q: It seems clear that the personal property tax is going to be one of the defining issues this year. Do you think that’s right?
A: I can’t think that it cannot be. This is a perfect storm, as far as I’m concerned. There was a little tax relief last year. But this is a bigger issue than that.
I’ve not seen anything come out of Rev and Tax that was affordable at this point, but it’s the right thing to do. And frankly I don’t know how to do it, with the other issues that are facing us. I’m hoping that people who can figure this out come forth with something that we can all work with. Continue Reading →
11:00 a.m. Repealing the Personal Property Tax: A panel discussion including Idaho Association of Counties executive director Dan Chadwick, Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy director Mike Ferguson, and Attorney/CPA Rick Smith
You can follow our liveblog here at the StateImpact blog, and Idaho Public Television will have an audio stream of the event here.
As part of the Congressional “fiscal cliff” deal, unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployed will be extended through the end of the year at a cost of $30 billion.
The Idaho Department of Labor says the more than 6,000 Idahoans who have been receiving federal jobless benefits, won’t miss a check, and because of the “fiscal cliff” deal, payments won’t be interrupted. Continue Reading →
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today gave conditional approval to Idaho’s state-based health insurance exchange.
Here’s a news release from HHS:
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced that more states are on track to implement the health care law and establish health insurance marketplaces, or Exchanges, in their states. California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont and Utah are conditionally approved today to operate a State-based Exchange, and Arkansas is conditionally approved to operate a State Partnership Exchange. HHS is also providing more guidance to states today on marketplaces that will be operated in partnership with the federal government. Continue Reading →
Rep. Gary Collins has served on the Revenue and Taxation Committee for 12 years.
Rep. Gary Collins, a Republican from Nampa, heads the Revenue and Taxation Committee. It’s a powerful position, because all tax bills originate in the House. What’s more, there’s bound to be particular attention focused on the committee this session as the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, the state’s most powerful business lobby, pushes for a repeal of the personal property tax.
In Idaho, the personal property tax only applies to personal property used for business purposes. According to a recent estimate from the Idaho State Tax Commission, revenue from the personal property tax totaled $141 million in 2012. Nearly all of Idaho’s property tax revenue is collected and spent by local governments.
Collins began by talking about the possible courses of action with respect to the personal property tax when we met in mid-December. This interview is one of several conducted by StateImpact to preview the 2013 legislative session, which begins Monday. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s revenue estimating panel with a difficult-to-remember acronym meets this week in Boise. EORAC, the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee, meets to come up with a starting-point for Idaho’s annual state budget.
The 18-member legislative panel will spend tomorrow and part of Friday getting briefed on Idaho’s finances and economic condition. Then, lawmakers will regroup later this month to determine what they think Idaho’s revenue estimate (the basis for crafting how Idaho spends its money) should be for fiscal year 2014.
As we explained last year, the EORAC process isn’t an exact science, rather it’s more of a crystal-ball-method.
You can find the agenda for the Thursday and Friday meeting here. Plus, the meetings will be live web-streamed here.
Rep. Bedke (R-Oakley) is the newly elected Speaker of the House.
The Idaho Legislature convenes January 7. Over the last month, StateImpact sat down with lawmakers to discuss the most anticipated issues of the coming session.
Rep. Scott Bedke is a rancher from Oakley, Idaho. He was elected Speaker of the House in December, defeating Rep. Lawerence Denney, who had served in that post for three terms.
The new Speaker has said he seeks to be a consensus builder, and doesn’t want to lead the House in a top-down manner. That approach was on display last month, when we began by talking about the likelihood of a state-based health insurance exchange.  Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter had issued his cautious endorsement of a state-based exchange a day earlier.
Q: The governor says he favors a state-based health insurance exchange. How do you view that recommendation?
State Sen. John Goedde is a Republican from Coeur d’Alene. He’s chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee. It’s a panel that will be closely watched during the upcoming legislative session as lawmakers figure out what to do now that voters rejected three sweeping education laws.
We spoke with Goedde earlier this month to get his take on a few issues sure to be hot topics during the session; education, the personal property tax, and health care. Much as it is annual, Goedde says his number one focus will be watching the budget.
A: A huge part will be the budget. We’re not living up to our projections from our last budget session. We’re going to have to take a close look at what kind of growth we might expect this time around and be very, very careful. The worst thing we can do, and I understand that now from 12 years of experience, is to over-forecast and then have to do hold-backs mid-term. That’s terrible. We have to deal with the Affordable Care Act, which is Medicaid expansion or not. And the establishment of a state health exchange, or to accept by default a federal exchange. Those issues will be hotly debated, and it will take us a lot of time to get through that. Continue Reading →
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