Nothing Left But Details For Legislature Lawmakers Planning To Go Home By Friday
All that remains before the Idaho Legislature adjourns its 54th session is convincing a few balky lawmakers the die is cast on issues including abortion, tobacco, heavy trucks and child support.
Legislators should head home by Friday.
The House begins considering Senate amendments today to what started out as an Idaho Family Forum anti-abortion bill but ended up as a measure deemed unacceptable by the religious right.
It still would require parental consent for minors seeking abortions. But Idaho Family Forum’s Dennis Mansfield withdrew support after the Senate on Thursday eliminated extensive physician reporting requirements and penalties from the legislation. That got him nowhere with legislative leaders.
“They’re making a huge mistake,” House Speaker Michael Simpson said. “To me, it’s better than what we’ve got, and you get what you can get when you can get it.”
Some House members might object to the Senate changes, but Simpson said he was confident they would be accepted and that the amended bill would win final approval on Wednesday.
Gov. Phil Batt has not indicated whether he would sign it into law, or how he will receive another bill the Senate gave final legislative approval Friday. Sponsors contend it would ban only a particularly objectionable late-term abortion procedure, but critics cite court opinions in 13 other states indicating it actually would outlaw almost all abortions.
The House also will have to sign off early in the week on Senate amendments to a plan to put heavier trucks on Idaho highways.
The bill promoted heavily by Batt and agriculture and industry leaders left in the lurch by Union Pacific Railroad service problems sets up pilot routes in southern Idaho to test the safety and road damage aspects of increasing allowable truck weights from 105,500 pounds to 129,000 pounds. But the Senate stripped from the bill a provision that would have raised the weight limit on all Idaho roads if Congress raises it on the interstates.
The House is expected to accept that change and forward the measure to the governor, for whom it is a major political victory over intense lobbying by railroad interests.
Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to quickly accept House amendments to its plan for making it more difficult for minors to get tobacco products.
Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs said the House changes maintain the most important elements of the legislation, including provisions outlawing cigarette vending machines and requiring twice-a-year inspections of retailers to ensure they are keeping juveniles away from tobacco.
“The tobacco industry has hired some very, very good lobbyists over the years, and they have done a good job of writing our laws,” Twiggs said. “That’s part of the reason we’re in the problem we’re in today.”
But this year Caryn Esplin of the Idaho Parent-Teacher Association has led the charge for a measure that Twiggs and Simpson agree is needed to end Idaho’s dubious distinction as the state doing the least to prevent tobacco sales to young people.
“She has done a tremendous job,” Simpson said. “She’s compromised on those things that she can compromise on, and they’ve kept the integrity of the bill together.”
The House passed the amended version Friday, and the Senate should quickly follow suit despite what has been a dogged fight by retailers and tobacco interests. Again, its fate with Batt is uncertain.
There is no doubt Batt will sign a package of legislation to meet a requirement that the state improve child support enforcement or risk losing more than $43 million. Seven House-passed bills underwent extensive work before being sent to the Senate. But lawmakers there are expected to easily adopt the measures.
More work might be needed in the Senate on a House-passed plan for raising the pay for governor and the state’s other top elected officials.
The House rejected a Senate proposal to increase the governor’s salary to $103,000, opting instead for 3-percent annual raises that would top out in 2002 at $95,668. Twiggs and Simpson agreed that a compromise probably could be reached indexing the 3-percent annual increases to a higher base salary for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, controller and schools superintendent.
That would put the governor’s current $85,000 salary through the six-figure barrier lawmakers have been reluctant to break.
But the Senate will have to act fast to win House concurrence with any changes it makes before the Legislature adjourns for the year because the salaries cannot be adjusted during the officials’ terms. So the next time a raise would be possible is 2002.