Health care and education funding were the focus of a discussion with district five legislators at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce Saturday morning.
The legislators each gave an update to the constituents in attendance about what they have been working on in their respective legislative bodies during the past two weeks.
Sen. David Nelson, a Moscow Democrat, highlighted two issues he had been most concerned with recently.
Nelson said there was a hearing Friday in the Idaho House of Representatives on a bill meant to expand Medicaid coverage. He hopes to see that bill passed in the Idaho Senate soon because the 2019 legislative session is anticipated to end in two to three weeks.
Nelson also mentioned a bill addressing the high rate of maternal mortality in Idaho compared to other states. Nelson said the bill passed unanimously in the House and will be on the Senate floor soon. The bill, if passed, will establish a review board that will examine maternal deaths in the state in the hopes of understanding why the rate is abnormally high and finding ways to reverse that trend.
Rep. Bill Goesling, a Moscow Republican, spoke about the new K-12 funding program that is being debated on the floor in the house.
Goesling said the current funding model has raised concerns for small school districts like the one in Moscow. Goesling said the Moscow school district was going receive about $207,000 less than they had in the previous fiscal year.
However, after debate in the House Education Committee, Goesling said the funding model has been changed to be more considerate of small school districts. Goesling said the Moscow school district should be getting around $619,000 more in the coming fiscal year if the current iteration of this funding model is passed.
Goesling mentioned the proposition two draft bill to expand Medicaid is on the table in the house. He said he supports it and wants to make sure the population in Idaho is healthy, but he also assured those in attendance that he was making fiscal responsibility a priority.
Goesling added that the discussion on proposition two is only in its first stages.
“We got proposition two on the table and we started the discussion,” Goesling said. “It is going to take a while, but these are two important bills that need to be addressed.”
State Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee, speaks with constituents Saturday.
Gavin Green | Argonaut
Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy , a Republican from Genesee, was absent for a week during this legislative session. Kay Maurin sat in for her. Troy was conducting a feasibility study, in Anchorage, Alaska for a fundraiser being put on by the nonprofit Iditarod Foundation. Troy said she did her best to make sure all of her work was taken care of before she had to leave.
Troy said she had promised to support the will of the citizens during her campaign last year and she said she has followed through by supporting proposition two and working on the health and welfare budget to fund full expansion of Medicaid. She did say that despite that effort, she isn’t sure if a full expansion with no modifications to the bill will make it through the House.
She said some changes can be positive. The example she provided was adding a provision for behavioral healthcare, something that wasn’t considered in the original bill.
There will be another opportunity to hear from these legislators 9 a.m. March 23 at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.
Gavin Green can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @gavingreenphoto