End date of Idaho's legislation in sight; Here is what has happened so far

MP Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, sponsored HB 83, and the Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, sponsored SB 1039. Anthon said on Friday that the changes should consolidate their bills.

Idaho's legislators have also discussed the introduction of legal provisions in order to oblige employers to use a system called E-Verify to check the immigration status. No invoice has yet been introduced in this session.

Invoices to make the governor's desk

Governor Little had received 12 bills by Thursday and signed 10, according to the latest available tracking sheet.

One of those he had signed was HB 7, an invoice to create a mandatory minimum penalty of 300 US dollars for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The legislation was confronted in the committee of a group of veterans against the legalization of medical marijuana.

A legislative template that is still on his desk on a signature is HB 32, which forbids governments, health districts and schools to implement mask mandates of the masks in order to slow down the spread of infectious diseases.

A few Republicans of the Republicans and a Republican senator voted against the bill and referred the presentation of local control. All Democrats who were present to vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected the law.

Budgets, what is left?

While the legislators have to take hundreds of invoices into account during the approximately three -month session, the only measure for which they are taken constitutionally under the session before the session before the session is to fully finance a balanced budget.

The budget replacement of the joint financial and appropriate finance committee (JFAC) had a rocky start when the members did not appreciate an income projection against which the budget was set in a meeting in mid-January.

The members approved an ongoing projection of the financial year, but a number 2026 was not set.

The legislator is obliged to approve a balanced budget. It is therefore unclear which balance does not give a projection against. Keith Bybee, manager of the legislative budget, said the Lewiston Tribune said that he did not go through a session in which an income number was not specified.

The members initially did not agree on adaptations of the employee allowance in two attempts before they approved a salary increase in early February, reported the Idaho Capital Sun.

The budget authors have approved the agency's “maintenance budgets” that do not contain any new expenses. There were also several budgets that contained new inquiries that came out of JFAC.

New expenses in the largest budgets – public schools and medicaid – have not yet appeared.

If the majority of the house or the Senate rejects one of the budgets on the ground, the budget seters have to return and try again.

The target for the session is March 21.

Guido covers Idaho's policy for the Lewiston Tribune, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and the Idaho Press from Nampa. She can be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @Eyeonboiseguido.