As the Idaho State Legislature gets closer to the approximate April 3 end of the 2015 session there have been some high profile fights over legislation covering carrying concealed firearms and over banning certain types of abortions.

While those topics are definitely of concern to Teton Valley residents, other bills will have a more direct impact on Teton County citizens.

Education

One bill would raise starting teacher pay across the state. Teton County District 401 has to compete with Jackson, Wyoming’s Teton County School District One, which receives much more money from the state to pay its teachers.

On average, the Teton County, Wyo. school district receives $66,317 from the state for each of its teachers.  This was for the 2012-13 school year, the most recent data that the Wyoming Department of Education has available.

In Idaho, the amount each school receives is reported differently than in Wyoming. Schools receive a base index amount for each teacher based on years on the job and their education level. That amount is adjusted using a complicated funding formula to arrive at the final reimbursement. Just looking at that, the base index figure, which is the same across the state, Teton School District #401 receives $31,750 for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree who has been at the school for nine years. The district actually pays that teacher $40,621.

Because of the crash in state funding when Idaho changed how it funded schools in 2007, district #401 has had to turn to supplemental levies, asking the community to pay higher taxes to help cover the shortfall.

Using data from the National Education Association from the 2012-13 school year (the most recent the organization has available), Idaho ($31,159) has the sixth lowest starting salary in the country. Wyoming ($43,269) was fourth highest out of the fifty states and the District of Columbia.

A plan currently being considered by the Idaho House would replace the state’s current funding grid with a career ladder. The new funding scheme would raise starting teacher pay from the current $31,750 minimum to $37,00 when it would go into effect for the 2019-20 school year.

Idaho Education News reported that some Democratic lawmakers are unsure of whether to support the $125 million measure because they feel it does not go far enough. Another teacher pay reform plan supported by the Idaho State Board of Education would cost $175 million and boost starting teacher pay to $40,000 by 2020.

The bill came up for debate in the House Education Committee on Tuesday. IEN reported that of the 50 people who spoke at the committee meeting, around 40 were against the proposal.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra released a statement Tuesday critical of some parts of the career ladder proposal.

“I would like to put together a cabinet to further review the evaluation tools we currently have in place so we make sure evaluations are applied fairly and with equity,” her statement read.

The committee made no decisions after hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday. IEN reported that lawmakers are trying to make changes to the proposal and introduce it sometime soon. After no deal was reached the Joint-Finance-Appropriations Committee said it was delaying setting this session’s full education budget.

Roads

Roads are a yearly source of debate in Teton County, so much so that the county held a road summit last year and formed a eight-person road committee to help identify ways the road and bridge department could better serve the county.

The county receives around $3,000 per mile from the state for its roads. That money is meant to be spent on maintenance with Teton County having to pay for improvements. In May of 2014, Teton County voters passed another two-year road levy, which provides an additional $1 million a year for road improvements.

At the time of the 2014 road summit, then-county engineer Jay Mazalewski said with both state and local funds, the county spends $5,567 per mile of road, while Madison County spends $6,737 per mile, and Fremont county $6,125.

In 2010, a state task force identified a massive shortfall in what Idaho should be spending on both road maintenance and road improvements. It said Idaho needs to spend $262 million ever year to maintain its roads and over that amount for road improvements.

A proposal working through the Idaho house would provide an additional $40 million for road maintenance but would not address the problem as a whole.

Chair of the House Transportation and Defense Committee, Republican Rep. Joe Palmer, told the Associated Press that an across-the-board road deal is possible but not likely.

“You’re not going to see a big [bill] at this point,” he said.

Currently there are two separate Republican plans to generate more money for roads. One from Majority Caucus Chair Rep. John Vander Woude includes a tax on some people from out of state buying vehicles and trailers in Idaho and a new tax on people who power their vehicles with fuel in gas form rather than as a liquid.

A separate plan would divert more money from the state’s general fund to roads and would put a new registration fee on hybrid and electric cars.

None of the plans have a come up for a vote yet and time is running out to bring them to the floor. Especially since, as the Associated Press reported, GOP leaders are pushing to end the legislative session even earlier than planned on March 27.

Resort Liquor Licenses

Idaho gives out liquor licenses to towns based on population. That means that population and not the high demand for restaurants and lounges limit the number of licenses in resort towns.

Driggs, for example has two liquor licenses. One is held by the Royal Wolf and the other by O’Rourke’s Sports Bar and Grill. There are more outside of area towns, like at Huntsman Springs and Teton Springs.

A house panel held the bill on Tuesday. It would have given more licenses to businesses in these towns. Its sponsor Rep. Steve Miller, R-Fairfield, told the Idaho Mountain Express that the legislation was written specifically with the resort towns of Ketchum and Driggs in mind.

The AP reports the panel voted the bill down because of some lawmakers’ fears of what it would do to businesses in the area around the Tamarack Resort. The legislation would have allowed businesses to be allocated some of the resorts’ unused liquor licenses. Though the state gave Tamarack a total of 12 licenses, it currently uses two.

In 2013, District 32 Representative (which includes Driggs) Marc Gibbs also introduced legislation to allow more licenses in resort towns. That bill also died in committee.

“This is not really about consumption,” said Gibbs at the time, acknowledging he’s not a drinker. “This is about serving liquor of the consumer’s choice. This is more for the people who live in Driggs or the tourists that come there.”

As of Wednesday morning, Miller said though the bill was held in committee there was some talk of a plan B.

This article appeared in the Teton Valley News on March 12, 2015.