Sine Die

My first legislative session was a wild ride, unusually long and full of conflict. It concluded last week as the longest session in Idaho's history. Instead of addressing the pandemic and the many issues that have been created or worsened by it, my colleagues in the supermajority spent their time attempting to strip power away from the Governor, local government, and the people, defunding education at all levels, and looking for problems that don’t exist. I learned a lot about our state and was able to do some good work, but I wish there was more focus on addressing the real issues.

The housing crisis and its effects were not addressed.

I ran for office to get our state legislature to recognize the seriousness of our housing crisis. My hope was to implement practical policies to keep homelessness from happening to our neighbors. My first piece of legislation would have brought Idaho Code up to the landlord industry’s best practice standards and was first aimed at ensuring fees are reasonable and transparent. Unfortunately, it did not pass the House. Nevertheless, we came close, and I’ll try to bring this bill back next year in even better form.

As the cost of housing skyrockets, the cases we are seeing at my nonprofit, Jesse Tree, are becoming more complex, with hundreds of tenants each month being priced out with nowhere to go. At the same time, there are structural barriers to ensuring basic fairness in rental contracts, including the fact that landlords can charge any amount of fees to tenants whey they can’t pay. Changes to our landlord-tenant code, as well as serious investment and reforms that allow our communities to provide critical supportive and legal services and financial aid to tenants as we boost housing supply – will be critical in years to come. I hope our Legislature is up to the task.

Property tax solutions did not come to fruition.

Property taxes are a big-ticket issue around the state, and increasing the homeowner's exemption and re-implementing indexing are supported on both sides of the aisle. Democrat and Republican bills to raise the cap, re-index the homeowner’s exemption, and expand the circuit breaker to more low-income families were denied hearings. Such moves would balance the shift from commercial to residential that's happened over the last several years.

Instead, the major solution proposed limited the growth of local government budgets, forcing cities to cut vital services like police and fire and limit new growth. Some cities have already said that they will need to pause growth of our housing stock in response to the bill. This is especially problematic as home values continue to rise in Idaho.

While most Idahoans will not see property tax relief in 2021, the income tax relief bill that passed provides significant relief to the top 1% of Idahoans making more than $450,000 per year, while low- and moderate-income Idahoans were provided minimal relief.

The ability of citizens to run ballot initiatives was limited.

The bill that will make it much more difficult to get a citizen-led initiative on the ballot passed. Our Constitution reserves the right of the people to propose laws, which was first added to our Constitution in 1912 during a time when the people decided they needed to find a way to overcome a recalcitrant legislature. Unfortunately, doing that became significantly more difficult. Citizens will now need 6% of the registered voters from all 35 counties, rather than the current 18, giving one district veto power over policy. Our initiative process is already one of the strictest in the country, and this change will further limit the power of Idaho’s people. Reclaim Idaho has already filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of this bill.

A major focus of the majority throughout session was taking away the emergency powers of the Governor.

Several pieces of legislation were passed in an effort to limit the Governor's powers and ability to act swiftly during an emergency. A loud minority of Idahoans are upset about a number of sometimes arbitrary, yet unenforced rules around social distancing and masks that were put forward last year, and pressured Republican legislators to put the Governor in check. I voted against all of these bills, as I believe the Governor – not 105 legislators – should have the ability to act during an emergency. After months of back-and-forth, the majority and Governor finally came to an agreement and passed some legislation, but not without much time wasted. An ongoing emergency is not a time to try to change how we respond to future emergencies; we have other major problems to tackle. The length of this session alone demonstrated that the Legislature is not the proper body to act during crisis.

Education struggled to get funded due to misinformation.

A far-right special interest group spread misinformation and fear about critical race theory being taught in schools, causing the House to struggle to pass three critical education budgets. The House defeated the budget for K-12 teacher salaries, a pre-K early learning grant, and the higher education budget. The K-12 and higher education budget - with a hefty cut - eventually passed. Democrats made a last-ditch effort to get early learning funded, which would have continued and expanded a program that coordinates early learning collaboratives around the state, to no avail. The majority's opposition to these critical budgets centered around concerns about social justice being taught in public schools, even though there is little evidence that support legislators' claims that teachers are using an “ultra-liberal curriculum” to “indoctrinate” kids.

This session was difficult, but I was honored for the opportunity to serve Idahoans. I still have some hope.

Instead of addressing the pandemic and efficiently appropriating state and federal funds, we spent many of our days pandering and playing politics. I am disappointed on the focus on topics that detracted from our need to address our health and economic crisis, and that Idahoans have reasonable property taxes, affordable housing opportunities, good-paying jobs, and access to public land.

Despite everything, I enjoyed my time in the Legislature and did my best to work on the issues that matter most. I built a strong foundation in the Senate, and I feel hopeful that I'll be able to do more work on real solutions. Over the coming year, I will be advocating for responsible investments with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, including investment in the Housing Trust Fund and real solutions for property tax relief.

Thank you again for electing me, and for all of your calls, emails, and encouraging words this session. I will continue to send my newsletter on a less frequent basis leading up to next year's session. Feel free reach out to me with any thoughts, questions, or concerns in the meantime, and I hope to see you in the neighborhood soon.