Rep. Heather Scott -2023 Legislative Summary
2023 Idaho Legislation Passed
The 2023 Idaho legislative session is over and there were numerous highlights as well as drama and floor debates. Never a dull moment! I was very busy this session working on legislation, trying to increase transparency and expose corruption, serving as the vice-chairman for the Judicial & Rules Committee and helping new liberty legislators learn the legislative process. All the while trusting that God had a plan every step of the way.
Becoming a better legislator takes time and persistence. Over the past few sessions, I focused on learning the interworking’s of government, growing personally from hard learned lessons, developing and test strategies and building of a coalition of conservative legislators and policy influencers. This momentum of the past eight years has helped me grow into stronger mentor and better leadership roles allowing me to guide newly elected legislators towards conservative thinking, preservation of liberties and freedoms and working to reduce government’s heavy hand on citizens. Whether it was being the Committee Chair and managing debate on one of the most controversial bills of session or working with House and Senate members to kill bad legislation, I am proud of my endeavors to improve the lives of Idahoans and promote and protect individual freedoms.
There were over 550 pieces of legislation introduced and over 300 bills that were signed into law during the 2023 session. Below are a few highlights of bills destined to become law. All bills and their status can be found by going to the Idaho Legislature website.
Bills were passed to:
• Make it illegal to perform sex change surgeries (physically or chemically) on children. (H71-Vulnerabel Child Protection Act)
• Define the word “abstinence” for sex education in schools -because many were defining it as any type of sex act that one participates in in which you can’t get pregnant. (H228)
• Expand parental rights in education (H163) and expand choice in public school enrollment. (S1125)
• Disallow the Chinese App Tic Tok ….
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There were many voter integrity bills that passed to ensure safe, fair and honest elections including:
H001, H011, H124, H138, H179, H340 and several others. These bills addressed post-election audits, state employees accepting private money for election administration, the use of student IDs for voting, consolidation of elections, voter identification documents, and prohibiting ranked choice voting in Idaho. Several of these bills were carried by Freedom Caucus members including Joe Alfieri, Tina Lambert, and Dale Hawkins.
Idaho Property Tax Relief was finally addressed in a modest way.
Property taxes are high because of local spending. Spending by your county commissioners, fire districts, local schools, library districts, water districts and many other local taxing districts all add to the total cost of your tax bill. If you don’t participate in these local budget hearing meetings and encourage them to stop spending so much money, property taxes will continue to rise.
Beyond your local governments, the state can address property taxes by shifting these taxes to others like businesses or farmers, capping the local spending allowed by each taxing district, or subsidizing local governments with state money that ultimately still comes from your income tax or other state taxes. None of these seem as prudent as reigning local spending.
This year the legislature passed a real property tax relief bill that aims to…..
READ MORE ABOUT the PROPERTY TAX BILL HERE
Here are bills I worked on or carried on the House floor that passed:
HCR2 Electoral college – Declared the importance of the electoral college and raised awareness against the efforts to repeal or nullify it by the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. (Scott/ Zuiderveld)
S1051 Idaho Outfitters and Guides liability -This law clarifies that outfitter and guide businesses have protection from liability unless they are negligent or reckless. (Scott/Lakey)
H97 Transparency MOU/MOA Agreements -This transparency law requires government agencies and officers to register all agreements with the state controller. Did you know that there are over 5,600 agreements that bureaucrats have entered Idaho into agreements with? Some of these agreements involve data sharing, which was my original concern and the reason for the legislation. (Scott/Herndon)
S1010 Slow Moving Vehicles -Clarifies that there must be a safe and reasonable place for a slow-moving vehicle to turn off to before a vehicle is required to pull over to let traffic by. (Scott/Herndon)
S1030 Immigration bill -Prevents…
An issue that needs to be addressed in Idaho:
Although Idaho is considered a Republican State, it is not very conservative. Last year, Idaho dropped in nationwide status as the most conservative state from #6 to #23. I imagine this year things may get worse. Blue republikans (or Rinos), continue to vote with democrats to kill good bills and pass bad bills. Because of Rinos, many of the good bills above that passed, were sadly watered down from their original intent so that enough votes were gained to get them passed.
A perfect example of a good bill killed by blue republikans, was my bill, HB 91, which would have stopped using 7 million dollars of your tax money to pay for membership fees and dues for state employees. This bill was killed on the House floor with a vote of 31-38-1. The defeat was successful when Democrats and blue republikans teamed up against this good bill to reduce government spending.
A blue republikan House Education chairman refused to allow S1071 to be heard, which would have protected our youngest children from racial gender theory and oversexualization in grade school.
A blue Senate republikan State Affairs chairman refused to allow H265 to be heard in committee which would have protected minors from exposure to sexual performances.
And the blue republicans killed famous HB314, a bill to keep sexually explicit materials out of the hands of children under 18 years old in our libraries. The original vote was 40-30.
The blue RINO republikans above (in bold) voted with Democrats to try to kill this bill. Even though the bill passed, it ultimately was killed when the House did not have the votes to override the veto because of Rinos! Many of these same legislators voted with democrats against protecting minors from sexual performances (H265).
These should be no-brainer issues for real republicans who strive to protect families and children and to honor the party platform, yet once again families lose in Idaho due to RINO republikans. Conservative and liberty Republicans also have not had the votes needed to address Idaho’s spending problem to rein in overreaching government. Spending statewide is out of control, and I will address this in my next update.
See other bad democrat bills that passed with the help of Rinos HERE
But please don’t be discouraged and continue to stay engaged! Good things are happening across the state. Grass roots Republican Central Committees are censoring RINO legislators and warning them with votes of no confidence and censorship. So far, the following legislators have been put on notice with votes of no confidence:
Lori McCann District 6: Nez Perce & Lewis County Counties
Julie Yamamoto District 11: Canyon County
Matt Bundy District 23: Boise, Custer, Valley and Elmore Counties
Mark Sauter District 1: Bonner County
Kenny Wroten District 13: Canyon County -censured
The worse things get, the more citizens wake up. And although there are many ups and downs in today’s world, the one thing, we must remember is that God has the final say, and those who stand with Him will always win. That does not mean that we get to sit back and cruise all day and say God is in control. No, we still must take a stance and choose to do what is right. With every journey I make as your state representative, I couldn’t do it without God’s righteous hand guiding my way.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my righteous right hand.
We still have much work to do to ensure Idaho protects and promotes its conservative ideals. Thank you for joining me in this battle and spreading the word.
In Liberty,
Rep. Heather Scott – Idaho District 2A
© Heather Scott
P.O. Box 134, Blanchard, Idaho, 83804, United States
208.920.3120