Legislative Updates - Week Three
Senator Mark Harris, LD35
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The Future Farmers of America (FFA) were in Boise at the beginning of this week. It is always exciting to see these great kids and spend time with them. I had the privilege of showing Mrs. Cassidy Dutton and five FFA students from Teton High School around the Capitol and sharing with them what we do here. They are great kids and our future is bright because of them.
County officials were also in Boise for meetings, and I had the opportunity to hear from various county commissioners, sheriffs, clerks and prosecutors from our area. It is a tight budget year on the state level and unfortunately, our local governments suffer as well, making it harder to provide services at the local level. We appreciate our county leaders and all they do to ensure that the issues they deal with will make life better for all of us.
The Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee (JFAC) continues to wrestle with the budget shortfall assuring Idaho can have a balanced budget. The Legislature must consider legislation to conform with federal tax code. We refer to this as the conformity bill. The current issue with this bill is what provisions we will agree on and how they will affect our state revenues. One of the provisions of the bill is a retroactive provision that provides tax relief for 2025. The Governor does not want to agree to that provision while the legislature is leaning more to support providing tax relief for fiscal year 25. The unknown is what the cost to the state will be. Once we get this conformity bill issue figured out, it will be easier for JFAC to start setting budgets. I am hopeful this issue will be resolved by next week.
Another issue that we are dealing with is coming from the Utah Legislature. The Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives has a plan to tax the oil refineries in Salt Lake and use the revenue to reduce the tax Utahns’ pay for gas. The problem is, this plan will raise the gas tax for drivers in Idaho and Nevada, possibly up to .28 -.30 cents per gallon. This would be catastrophic for Idaho residents, truck drivers, farmers and other businesses. The attorneys we talked with all agree this is a violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and that it goes against President Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” Executive Order. The Idaho Governor, legislative leaders and others have been meeting to find options and ideas to deal with this issue and persuade the Utah Legislature to abandon this idea. The state of Washington tried a similar stunt a few years ago which we were successful in stopping. Hopefully we can do the same with this threat.
Rep. Josh Wheeler
As we move through the third week of the legislative session, we’re starting to see real momentum. Bills are beginning to move through committee hearings, discussions are getting more substantive, and the work is shifting from broad priorities to practical solutions.
I’m continuing to adapt to my new role as Vice Chair of the Business Committee, where we’re spending a great deal of time on issues that directly affect Idaho’s economy and workforce. Many of the bills before us deal with licensure updates, insurance matters, and efforts to streamline permitting and inspection processes. The goal is simple: reduce unnecessary friction while still protecting public safety and consumer confidence.
A significant portion of this week has continued to involve budget conversations, particularly around Health & Welfare funding. I’ve been encouraged by the thoughtful feedback we’ve received from constituents and from program administrators. That input has been invaluable in helping us tune more responsible and realistic solutions to the budgeting questions in front of us. It has also made clear that this year is a time to make use of our budget stabilization funds to get us through this temporary budget crunch.
One of the highlights of the week was seeing so many county and city officials at the Capitol. It’s always helpful to stay closely connected with the people doing the day-to-day work in our communities. I was especially grateful to be present for the celebration of Idaho becoming the first JustServe state in the nation, thanks to the efforts of people like Ben Fuhriman, Brandon Mitchell, and many dedicated volunteers across the state. It was a powerful reminder of how service-oriented Idaho truly is.
It was also encouraging to see new mayors from Idaho Falls and Ammon working collaboratively. That spirit of cooperation at the local level is exactly what helps communities thrive, and it’s good to see those relationships starting strong.
Looking ahead, I’m preparing to introduce several bills next week dealing with prior authorizations, foster child safety, and cardiac arrest emergency plans. I’m looking forward to sharing more details as those proposals come forward. As always, I appreciate the feedback and engagement from constituents—it genuinely helps shape the work we’re doing here.
Sincerely,
Josh Wheeler
Idaho State Representative,
District 35B
Representative Mike Veile
Monday of this week started with the state FFA (Future Farmers Of America) Cenarrusa FFA Day on the Hill/Legislative Luncheon. We were able to meet with a number of FFA students from Teton Valley High School as well as some from Bonneville districts 91 and 93. These students show great promise and leadership and exemplify the future.
The Idaho Association of Counties held their convention in Boise this week. We had events with Teton, Bonneville, Bannock and Caribou county officials. The counties are concerned with the budget challenges this year as funding pulled from Idaho Department of Transportation directly reduces county road funding. This has significant impacts to the county road budgets as these values range between $1m and $3.5m per county. State budget balancing must be done with full awareness of the impacts to local budget impacts. Taxes are taxes and paying less to one entity while paying more to another is not a tax cut.
Rep Wheeler and Senator Harris and myself have been concerned with the Teton Valley Hospital cash flow situation. The hospital is down 46% from last year in billable services. Additionally, payments from various insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid are lagging resulting in a cash flow issue. The hospital was forced to initiate layoffs a week ago today. We have each spoken with insurance companies asking their flexibility and urgency in facilitating payments. We are also discussing other potential longer term remedies such as initiating an emergency fund for rural hospitals. We will continue to follow this.
The association of Idaho Cities was also in Boise this week and we met with City officials from Tetonia, Driggs, Soda Springs and Ammon. There is a potential issue arising dealing with short-term rentals and City ordinances. While it has not been published yet, there may be legislation limiting Cities ability to restrict short term rentals. As this proposed legislation emerges my hope is that the entities can sit down and work to a compromise versus having legislation be applied.
There remains uncertainty on the final budget impacts to various state budgets such as Medicaid and some education funding, particularly online education. Again, a driver of the budget balancing conundrum is the One Big Beautiful Bill, and the subsequent state tax cuts from conforming to the federal tax cuts. The bottom line is how to balance the budget without eliminating critical services that simply direct costs to the counties, for example. This remains dynamic and is not settled yet.
Lastly, a simple bill I am running through the Transportation and Defense committee is to eliminate the need to replace your license plate every 10 years. This would allow you to keep your license plate as long as it is readable.
Please let me know if you have any concerns or input into legislation that is pending. I specifically look for District 35 residents when I review my emails so please let me know where you’re from when communicating.
