Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Lawmaker reflects mid-session

Environment bills don?t get far in House committee


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Wendy Jaquet

It's about half way through the state's annual legislative session, and state lawmakers are looking at a possible early- to mid-March departure date.

House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said Friday was the last day to have bills submitted to afternoon committees and also said the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee is scheduled to begin budget setting on Monday, Feb. 18, and finish around March 7.

In most sessions, setting the budget determines the approximate departure date.

There are, however, a lot of bills on which to work.

"I think we spent a fair bit of time lobbing our bills around and getting them in shape before we introduced them," Jaquet said. "We have more bills now than we anticipated. We've only debated one bill on the House floor so far. We need to move our bills across to the Senate, or none of them will be heard over there."

Jaquet, interviewed Tuesday afternoon, said she just had another bill killed in the House Resources & Conservation Committee.

"They just killed this bill that I described as motherhood and apple pie," she said. "It was a party-line vote. They were determined to kill it."

The energy-related bill, one of three energy-related bills Jaquet is floating this year, would have established a committee to work on greenhouse gas emissions. As with last year, the bill was not given a hearing.

Another environment-related bill Jaquet floated was also denied a hearing earlier in the session. That bill would have diversified the state's renewable energy portfolio. The bill, patterned after a Nevada bill, would have required the Public Utilities Commission to purchase 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources—like fuel cells, low-impact hydropower, wind, geothermal or solar, by 2020.

"It's just really frustrating," she said. "The comments (from lawmakers on Tuesday) indicated they don't agree with it. They say fires are because we're not logging enough, not because of global warming. We should be planning for our grandchildren. The data is clear."

Jaquet said she and the Democratic Caucus will meet with Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter today, Feb. 13, to discuss issues ranging from highway construction funding to teacher pay. Also, she said they will ask for leadership from the governor concerning local option taxation legislation for transit.

"Right now we're at an impasse, and I'd really like to see some leadership from the governor," she said.

Jaquet and Rep. Donna Pence, D-Gooding, both noted that tax revenues for January appear to be coming in $37 million lower than anticipated.

"This year it doesn't look so good nationally," she said. "I think we should be more conservative than we were last year. They (fellow lawmakers) love to use these kinds of things as a way of shrinking government."

For example, she said she's not interested in building a new prison, but she is interested in building community treatment organizations that would help keep people out of prison. In that regard, the state should still spend.

"If this trend continues it will not bode well for agency budgets and establishment or continuation of programs," Pence said. "Bare bones budgets are hard on all concerned."

Jaquet said it is the sixth week of the session and looking back she believes it is about the time she always begins to "hit the wall and bounce back."

"I can feel myself bouncing back," she said.

In a general sense, she said it is noticeable during this winter's legislative session that Idaho is changing.

"And folks here are not so representative of how the state is changing, and they're really trying to maintain the status quo," she said. "We have to move forward. We have people who are concerned about sprawl. We have people who are concerned about gridlock, issues of transit.

"These are not issues that are facing our rural areas. So we do have this urban-rural divide, and our community (Blaine County) really represents that well. I am aware of the issues facing our state, and we need to move forward."

Jaquet represents legislative District 25 along with Pence and Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.




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