The House Ways & Means Committee, which met briefly on adjournment of the House today to introduce three new bills, is meeting in the JFAC room now because that room has audio streaming to allow the public to listen in. Lobbyist Bill Roden, an attorney, was presenting a bill, and was invited to sit at the central desk by the microphone to address the committee. “The last time I was in this room at this spot I was appearing  before the Supreme Court years ago, and it seems strange to be here,” he commented with a smile. The JFAC room is the former Idaho Supreme Court chamber; the court sat there until it moved to the current Idaho Supreme Court building in 1970.

Roden’s legislation, on behalf of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, is an effort to clear up an unintended consequence of a state Tax Commission rule issued in 2011 that inadvertently changed the withholding status of tribal members who are working on different reservations from the one where they’re enrolled. Roden said he’s working with the Tax Commission on the issue. “It is the intent of the state Tax Commission not to enforce this rule, but for tax preparers … they need something in writing,” he said. “They will come back to you next year.”

The committee voted unanimously to introduce the resolution; it also introduced two others measures, one from Rep. Rich Wills to have Idaho joint the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children; and one from Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, to have the speaker designate a custodian of public records for the House, for purposes of responding to public record requests. The Senate has a similar rule in the works.