Legislators testily pass school bill

BOISE — The Idaho Senate on Thursday passed HB 521, a multifaceted school facilities funding bill, despite many concerns that it doesn’t comply with the state constitutional requirement for legislation to address only a single subject.

Senators voted 23-11, with one member absent, after a long debate, with several expressing deep frustration with a recent pattern of taking up late-session, complex “going home” bills that tackle top priority issues while adding on several other aspects.

“It makes it impossible to contemplate and consider the implications of each of these changes separately, which is how I believe we should be making policy,” Sen. Ali Rabe, D-Boise, said. “... We’ve been doing things this way for a few years, and I am just tired of it, so I wanted to say something. I believe it’s time for us to take a stand on this type of lawmaking.”

The 30-page bill diverts $125 million in sales tax revenue to go out for a bond and make available $1 billion for school districts to use for facility maintenance, adds some funds to an existing property tax relief fund, reduces individual and corporate income taxes, eliminates the August election date for school district bonds and levies, places restrictions and requirements around using a four-day school week, makes changes to the way school board leaders are chosen, and more.

Everyone who spoke during the nearly 1½-hour debate agreed that there is a desperate need to address deferred maintenance and to build new schools, but there was a split on who thought the bill did enough good to offset what they thought were “poison pills.”

Rabe had several concerns about the bill, including the income tax reduction from 5.8% to 5.695%. The cut is expected to reduce state revenue by $60 million annually. She said with the flat tax rate, most Idahoans would see about a $50 cut. She said the permanent and ongoing cut to revenue would threaten the state’s budget in the future.

Sen. Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls, who chairs the Senate Education committee, said there was a lot to be gained in the legislation, even if it doesn’t solve the entire issue.

“Let’s not be too quick here to sell this short, this is progress,” Lent said. “This is not going to be the end of how we fund facilities. We’ll have more discussions, there’ll be more laws, we’ll continue laws, because it doesn’t end here, but certainly this is a giant step forward.”

A number of senators also had concerns that districts that operate on a five-day school week would have to attest that they won’t drop to a four-day week if they want to receive the new funding. Districts already operating on a four-day week would need to comply with new minimum instruction and contract days that the Idaho State Board of Education would be tasked with creating.

The morning of Thursday’s floor debate, Lent introduced trailer bills designed to follow HB 521 and make changes, including either extending the timeline to implement the restrictions on the four-day week or to repeal that area of the bill.

Bill sponsor House Speaker Mike Moyle said he hadn’t seen the trailer bills yet but noted that there had been enough concerns voiced about the four-day week restrictions that there will likely be legislation moved soon to address it.

Sen. Chris Trakel, R-Caldwell, had concerns about sending additional money to public schools without better academic performance. He noted test scores from Vallivue School District and said there hasn’t been much improvement despite large increases in funding toward schools the past few years.

“Passing out this money in the hundreds of millions of dollars to these districts without demanding that we see something in return just isn’t right ... I just can’t continue throwing money at a program that is not giving us a good product back,” Trakel said.

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, said the money that will get distributed to many schools will be inadequate to address existing needs, but said she would support it. She also expressed frustration with the nature of complex bill coming in the last couple weeks of the session.

“I really hope that this is the last time that the body across the rotunda gets to force these omnibus bills upon us,” Ward-Engelking said, referencing the House, where the bill originated.

Last year, the biggest bill of the session was a sweeping property tax relief bill, HB 292, which was also sponsored by Moyle. The bill was introduced March 7, 2023. It passed both chambers but was vetoed by the governor over concerns that the way it was written would endanger transportation bonds.

Gov. Brad Little, in his statement about the veto, said the bill was a “hodgepodge of policy items intermingled with property tax relief.”

The Legislature voted to override the video and passed a trailer bill that addressed the bonding concerns.

In 2021, Moyle again led the charge on HB 389, another wide-ranging large property tax bill.

Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, seemingly alluded to Moyle in his debate, although he did not name the House speaker.

“There is a personality that brings us to this place all the time, that’s my frustration,” Ruchti said. “But I’m not going to mention that personality, that wouldn’t be appropriate in debate, but that’s the reason we have these behemoth bills with these Christmas tree lights. That’s the problem that has to be fixed.”

Moyle on Thursday dismissed the single-subject concerns.

“It’s a tax bill, there’s nothing wrong, it’s a single subject,” Moyle said. “It’s got sales tax, got income tax, sales tax is used to bond for building ... it’s all taxes.”

School facility funding had been targeted by Little as his top priority of the session.

Shortly after the Senate approved HB 521, Little released an emailed statement lauding its passage.

“In my State of the State, I called on the Idaho Legislature to make addressing funding for critical school maintenance priority number one,” Little said. “Together, we delivered. Together, we secured the largest-ever investment in school facilities funding in state history while giving families back more of their hard-earned money with property and income tax relief.”

Senate Sponsor Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, said he appreciated the “robust, lively debate” that he thought displayed the chamber’s passion for education. He said there’s “room for improvement” on the bill, and some of the concerns could be addressed later.

“This is a big step,” Ricks said. “It’s not a cure-all to the needs for local funding in the school districts. We know that there is more needs out there, but this is a big, big step in the direction for the state to help out in that.”

The bill heads to the governor’s desk for a signature.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on X @EyeOnBoiseGuido.