Idaho Bills

Relates to the appropriation to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for fiscal year 2021.

This is the FY 2021 original appropriation bill for the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It appropriates a total of $37,841,000 and caps the number of authorized full-time equivalent positions at 124.00. For benefit costs, the bill maintains the current appropriated amount for health insurance at $11,650 per eligible FTP and temporarily removes funding for the employer's sick leave contribution rate. Funding for replacement items includes $169,200 for network servers and switches; UPS backup systems; software; and miscellaneous equipment. The bill also provides funding for the equivalent of a 2% change in employee compensation for permanent state employees, with an additional 2% increase for those in the 20 job classifications most in need of equity adjustments. The bill funds three line items: line item 1 removes $100,000 for unspent online class portal funds; line item 2 nets to zero across the appropriation, moving $26,176,300 out of the program titled "State Dept. of Education - Administration" and into a new program titled "Student Services;" and line item 3 removes 18.00 FTP and $2,714,800 to move IT and data management to the Office of the State Board of Education. Also included are adjustments to pay the Office of Information Technology Services. Lastly, the ongoing General Fund appropriation is reduced by 2%.

Amends existing law to clarify the consent necessary for the adoption of an adult.

This bill clarifies the consent necessary for the adoption of an adult. Nationwide standard for an adult adoption is to require consent of the adult adoptee and the adoptee's spouse if any. Currently, a termination of parental rights is required in an adult adoption in Idaho. This legislation will remove that requirement because the adult adoptee is over the age of 18, and thus there are no parental rights.

Amends and adds to existing law to provide for the establishment of Medicaid reimbursement payment methods and to provide for a temporary reduction in certain reimbursements.

This legislation reduces net reimbursements to hospitals and nursing facilities in SFY 2020 and SFY 2021 to help achieve the Medicaid general fund needs of a 1% overall reduction in SFY 2020 and a 2% reduction in SFY 2021. It directs the Department of Health and Welfare to work collaborative with hospital and nursing facility providers to update reimbursement methods. For hospitals it involves a statewide move to value-based payment and the establishment of a quality payment program. For both hospitals and nursing facilities, the legislation will move Medicaid payment methods away from cost-based reimbursement to allow better control of Medicaid expenditures as well as incentivize and promote quality care and better health outcomes.

Relates to the appropriation to the Division of Human Resources for fiscal year 2021.

This is the FY 2021 original appropriation bill for the Division of Human Resources. It appropriates a total of $2,514,200 and caps the number of authorized full-time equivalent positions at 17.00. For benefit costs, the bill maintains the current appropriated amount for health insurance at $11,650 per eligible FTP and temporarily removes funding for the employer's sick leave contribution rate. Funding for replacement items includes $16,600 for 11 laptop computers, one desktop computer, and two monitors. The bill also provides funding for the equivalent of a 2% change in employee compensation for permanent state employees, with an additional 2% increase for those in the 20 job classifications most in need of equity adjustments. Funding for a 3% upward shift in the compensation schedule is also included. The bill funds two line items, which provide $25,000 for executive management training and 1.00 FTP and $79,200 for a personnel complaint line. Also included are adjustments to pay the Office of Information Technology Services for security software and data center office space located at the Chinden Campus; and software licensing, server infrastructure, and storage to expand system capabilities on core systems and to maintain agency-specific software.

Adds to existing law to establish the Fairness in Women's Sports Act.

This bill will ensure that opportunities continue for girls and women competing in athletics. Boys and men will not be allowed to participate on girls or women's teams, as defined by their inherent differences that are physiological, chromosomal, and hormonal.

Adds to existing law to provide for an occupational and professional licensure review committee, to provide for universal licensure, to provide that a person with a criminal conviction may inquire about the potential to become licensed in a profession or occupation, and to provide for evaluation of criminal convictions and language regarding persons with criminal convictions.

This legislation comes from the work of the Occupational Licensing Reform Interim Committee. This legislation seeks to enhance competition and apply standards to evaluate new proposed regulation in the form of new licensure or registration of occupations. As a three year pilot, the legislation establishes a licensing review committee. Those proposing new regulation via licensure will be required to demonstrate the following to that committee: 1) Why new licensing is necessary for health, safety and welfare; 2) why the proposed licensure or regulation is the least restrictive means to protect health, safety and welfare; 3) why the public cannot be protected by other means; 4) whether the overall costs and economic impacts are outweighed by the benefits of the proposed regulation; and 5) whether the proposed regulation will have a negative impact on job creation, retention or wages or place an unreasonable restriction on the ability of an individual to practice their profession. The committee is compromised of legislators that will review all new proposed regulation/licensure and make a non-binding recommendation to the House and Senate. It provides for a universal licensure process to facilitate the efficient transfer of licenses between states to help fill needed positions in Idaho. The bill provides that a criminal conviction must be relevant to the occupation and license requested. This provides an individual with an opportunity to inquire in advance, based on current and accurate information, whether their criminal conviction may disqualify them from obtaining a license, registration etc. Finally the legislation removes blanket felony exclusions and old ambiguous terms regarding crimes of "moral character" or "moral turpitude" as disqualifiers for licensure and replaces those outdated terms with the criminal relevancy analysis under the Occupational Licensing Reform Act.

Appropriates and transfers $129,300 from the General Fund to the Pest Control Deficiency Fund for fiscal year 2020.

This legislation reimburses the Department of Agriculture for prior fiscal year costs to survey and control pests on state and private lands. Idaho Code authorizes the use of deficiency warrants under certain circumstances. The agencies pay the bills and return to the Legislature during the next legislative session for the cash to reimburse those costs.

Amends existing law to revise provisions regarding fees for modular buildings.

Consistent with the Red Tape Reduction Act, this bill seeks to lessen the burden of restrictions. Specifically, this legislation will allow the Division of Building Safety and Factory Built Structures Advisory Board to pass permit fee savings on to modular building manufacturers through a reduction of the permit fees provided in rule. The factory built structures dedicated fund balance has been growing at a greater rate than is necessary to administer the modular building program. This legislation will allow the Division and the Board to curtail the ongoing buildup of funds in the factory built structures dedicated fund while retaining a reserve balance that is sufficient to fund the modular building program in excess of two (2) years. The Division and Board were unable to accomplish the permit fee reduction through rulemaking during the past year because Idaho Code section 39-4303(1)(a) requires modular building permit fees to be "based on the 1997 Uniform Building Code Table 1-A."

Amends existing law to revise the process for renewal and issuance of licenses and to revise provisions regarding land survey monument establishment and rehabilitation.

The proposal improves the process for renewal and reissuance of licenses. It removes unnecessary language. The amendment better defines and clarifies when land survey monuments are required.

Amends existing law to revise provisions regarding excision and annexation of territory.

This legislation will allow all of the electors in the district in which there is a petition to excise and all the electors in the district in which the area proposed to be annexed to vote on the proposed annexation. It also increases the time period so that the local board of trustees has sufficient time to research the impact of the petition and get input from district patrons. Currently, only those electors in the area that is being excised are given the ability to vote on the excision. Allowing all district taxpayers in both districts the opportunity to vote in an excision/annexation election will protect all taxpayers from having their taxes increased without their permission. The potential excision of real property in the taxpayers' district would reduce property value in the excision district and would automatically cause the remaining district taxpayers' taxes to be increased.

Amends existing law to revise a provision regarding the classification and standardization of certain items.

This legislation amends Section 67-3508, Idaho Code, by changing the criteria for some items to be coded to capital outlay from the current useful life of more than two years to those items that meet the State Controller's fiscal policy for inventoriable capital assets.

Amends existing law to clarify a definition, to modify provisions regarding board members, to move fee provisions to administrative rules, to clarify insurance requirements, and to revise requirements to qualify as a driving business instructor.

This bill is an overall cleanup of the State Driving Businesses Licensure Board enabling act. The amendments include clarifying the definition of a driving business, modifying the qualifications for the public board member, moving the fees to administrative rule, and clarifying insurance requirements. Consistent with the Governor's Licensing Freedom Act, the proposed legislation also would reduce the apprenticeship training hour requirement to qualify for driving business instructor licensure from 60 to 30 hours of classroom instruction and 108 to 50 hours of behind-the-wheel training. The bill also includes amendments to reduce duplicative language.

Stating findings of the Legislature, opposing the removal or breaching of the dams on the Columbia-Snake River System and its tributaries, and recognizing certain benefits provided by the Port of Lewiston.

ThisJointMemorialstatesthattheIdahoLegislaturerecognizesandsupportstheinternationalcompetitiveness, multimodal transportation, and economic development benefits provided by the Port of Lewiston and the Columbia-Snake River System. Idaho has sovereignty of its water resources and benefits from the multiuse system that provides transportation of commodities, fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, hydropower, flood control, and irrigation. This Memorial also states that Idaho opposes the removal or breaching of the dams on the Columbia-Snake River System and its tributaries.

Amends existing law to revise provisions regarding local improvement district liens for delinquent assessments.

The purpose of this legislation is to clarify an ambiguity between existing statutes with regard to how delinquent local improvement district (LID) assessment installments are treated once those delinquencies have been certified to the county tax collector for collection. This legislation affirms and makes clear that once delinquent LID assessment installments are certified by a district to the county tax collector under the Local Improvement District Code, Idaho Code 50-1701 et seq., the county tax collector shall then follow the usual and customary collection process for the collection of delinquent property taxes under chapter 10, title 63, Idaho Code with respect to such delinquent assessments. All provisions of chapter 10, title 63, Idaho Code, specifically including those governing collection, satisfaction and extinguishment of delinquent amounts, are intended to apply to such delinquent assessments in the same manner and to the same effect as delinquent property taxes.