Guest opinion: Legislators should represent the people — or lose their next election
Our Idaho Legislature is dysfunctional. The legislature’s purpose is to represent the citizens who elected them, not the lobbyists for businesses or social organizations or a political party, but Idaho Citizens. This fact seems to be forgotten when they enter the Capitol Building and are placed in committees headed by chairpersons with the power to kill any bill that comes before them without asking the committee if they agree.
A few years back Idaho citizens, tired of the legislature never accomplishing anything, ran an statewide initiative to require term limits. It was approved in the November election only to be killed in the upcoming session by the legislature. The “Reason”? “Legislative memory”. They didn’t believe a large body of newly elected individuals would have the guidance of experienced legislators to effectively run the government. But the truth was, they wanted to protect their seats. This event panicked them, and they set about restricting the time and distribution for gathering signatures for an issue to the point it is nearly impossible for an initiative to be approved.
This year at the legislature’s halfway point, the energy is aimed at restricting the gubernatorial powers. The number one issue and concern during this past year other than the Pandemic was the outrageous increase in residential property taxes. But even with a sanctioned Interim Committee to resolve this problem during the summer and fall, the only bills to resolve this problem were from the Democratic members of the committee and none of them were allowed to be heard. This committee became aware and were told that no effort would be made to stop the increase in property taxes.
As we had been studying the issue since the last session failed to correct the issue, we combined our efforts with the Canyon County Assessor Brian Stender, the County Clerk Chris Yamamoto’s office and staff. Nampa’ Mayor Debbie Kling and her staff partnered to develop a bill that would permanently correct this problem. To ensure this would correct the tax transfer we also engaged the Idaho Tax Commission’s Alan Dornfest. When the bill was complete, we asked the legislative delegation from Districts 11-13 in a meeting to carry this bill forward. None offered to do so stating it had to be approved by either the Senate’s Local Government and Taxation Chaired by Senator Rice or would the House’s Revenue and Taxation committee chaired by Representative Steven Harris from Meridian. Rice who stopped the house bill last session and provided a bill that would have done more damage than good, would have actually increased residential property tax.
At this point there is no sponsor so you can expect your homes taxes to increase in Nampa around $4 million and the county taxes by $5 million. Residences have increased 32% this year.
It is time to ensure our Senators and Representatives represent us, or fire them in next year’s election. You need to contact each of your contingent and demand why they did not act on property tax relief this year. Do not accept, “It wasn’t a committee I was on. They represent you and should press your concerns not the Lobbyists.
The legislature should prevent any chairman from being able to prevent any bill from a hearing. You can find their email addresses and names at this site. https://legislature.idaho.gov/legislators/
We urge citizens to investigate and identify your legislative districts and Representative and Senators. If they won’t give you straight answers do not vote for them again. You can use the $300-$1,000 you’d save in taxes.
This article originally ran on idahopress.com.
