Legislative Update--Senator Mark Harris

Dear friends and neighbors —

We are getting close to ending this Legislative Session. The Idaho State Constitution requires the Legislature to stay in Session until the budgets are passed. The Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee (JFAC), which sets these budgets, finished its work this week and has declared itself only in session “Subject to Call of the Chair”. This means they will only go back into session as a committee if the Chair calls them back. Unfortunately, they will have to go back a few times as the House has been killing budget bills as they come up for a vote on the House floor. This means the budgets need to go back to JFAC for reviewing and rewriting. This has become the norm so it is not unexpected, but these setbacks should not keep us here too much longer once the budgets come to their respective floors to be heard and debated.  

Governor Little signed House Bill 304 (H304) into law this week. This is the property tax reduction bill passed by the Senate last week. This bill provides $50 million to go towards homeowners directly and another $50 million will go to school districts because of House Bill 292 that was passed in the 2023 Legislative Session. This money will go towards paying down school bonds and levies, thereby providing property tax relief to all taxpayers. With H304, and both H40 and H 231 passed earlier this Session, the Legislature and the Governor have secured close to $400 million in total tax relief during this Legislative Session.

One bill I carried on the Senate floor this week was House Bill 389 (H389). This is an interesting bill as it helps the State of Idaho in fighting wildfires. Currently, the Idaho Department of Lands has the mission to put out fires as quickly as possible. The federal government, for the most part, has the mission to manage wildfires but not necessarily put them out quickly. H389 gives the Governor the authority to declare an emergency regarding fires so that he may direct State agencies to go onto federally controlled land to put out fires without waiting for permission. The bill also directs the Attorney General to recover the cost in a civil action against the federal government. 

Last year, a total of 996,000 acres of Idaho burned. Half the National Forests in Idaho have either burned or are at a very high risk of burning to the point where our forests are now classified as carbon emitters. We have heard from many federal land fire eyewitnesses that firefighters were told to “stand down” regarding trying to protect private property. Many of these fires started with a single lightning strike and could have been fought while they were still small and manageable. Inaction by our federal partners ended up with huge out-of-control fires that cost millions of dollars to fight. H389 will give the Governor another tool to help fight fires before they get too big. 

As this Session begins winding down, I wish to express my gratitude for the opportunity to represent District 35 and serve you in the Idaho State Senate. I welcome your thoughts, concerns, and any questions you have about the Legislature or State government in general. You can email me at
[email protected] or call me at 208-332-1308.