2017 session: What Idaho lawmakers accomplished

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho Legislature finished their 2017 session Wednesday, passing nearly 300 bills and resolutions over the past 80 days.

Lawmakers took action on cutting taxes, boosting transportation funding and repealing legally questionable anti-abortion laws. Here’s a look at some of the key issues addressed this year:

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TAXES

Legislative leadership kicked off the session with hopes of slashing Idaho’s top income and corporate tax rates. However, that dream got hijacked by unhappy lawmakers - fed up with being ignored by the Statehouse’s top leaders - who successfully turned the proposal into repealing the 6 percent sales tax on groceries. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is expected to veto the bill, likely leaving Idahoans without tax relief this year.

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TRANSPORTATION

A long, harsh winter destroyed Idaho’s roads and wiped out several already crumbling bridges. Lawmakers knew they had to find a way to repair and rebuild the state’s aging infrastructure, but it wasn’t until the final days of the session that they were able to push through a roughly $320 million transportation plan. The plan is primarily to pay for new road project with bonds that would be repaid with future federal highway payments. The plan also includes allowing leftover state general funds to be used for transportation projects and funneling 1 percent of the state’s sales tax revenue to other road projects. On top of that, state budget writers also funneled an additional $52 million in emergency transportation funding to help pay for the damage Mother Nature wrecked across Idaho.

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SIGN LANGUAGE

Two years ago, Otter vetoed a proposal requiring sign language interpreters to get a professional license from a state board. The action was a blow to the deaf community who spent the next two years pleading with lawmakers that unqualified interpreters have caused miscommunications in important situations, like emergency rooms or legal proceedings. That led to a new version that not only once again won over the Legislature this year, but this time was promised to win the governor’s signature. Attempting or offering to interpret sign language without a license is now a misdemeanor.

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ALCOHOL AND NUDITY

After being hit with a lawsuit last year, Idaho’s conservatively-dominant Statehouse begrudgingly approved legislation repealing the ban on nudity and explicit live performances at certain businesses licensed to serve alcohol. The proposal is part of a legal settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho and the state attorney general’s office. The exemption requires that such performances would have to be held at venues like a theater, concert hall or some other form of businesses that do not primarily derive their business from explicit live adult entertainment. That means businesses like strip clubs would still be banned from serving alcohol. Yet, in a Legislature where many are Mormon, lawmakers made sure to include a footnote in the bill stating that crime increases and property values depreciate when alcohol is involved around sexually-charged entertainment.

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ABORTION

In a rare move, the Idaho Legislature’s only action regarding abortion was to slightly loosen restrictions rather than tighten. Earlier this year, a federal judge agreed to give the Idaho Legislature time to repeal two laws banning women from receiving abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine. Those laws would have been deemed unconstitutional if lawmakers hadn’t taken them off the books this session.

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FISH AND GAME FEES

For the first time since 2004, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will see a fee increase. Agency officials have warned lawmakers for years that they’ve had to cut services and live on a shoe-string budget because revenue from licenses, tags and permits has not been enough to cover operational costs. Under the new law, signed by Otter on Monday, resident hunting and fishing fees will increase 20 percent starting in 2018. However, those who buy a license every year could avoid the increase through a so-called “price lock” component.

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CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE

Lawmakers agreed to change laws regarding when police can take a citizen’s property, despite warnings from critics that doing so means the Legislature is softening its stance on crime. The legislation would forbid police officers from seizing cash or property simply because it was in close proximity to an illegal substance. It would also ban seizing vehicles unless they are in connection with trafficking offenses, while creating reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies on forfeited property. Currently, a person doesn’t need to be charged with a crime in order to have property seized.