Legislative Update From John Mitchell

The end of the legislative session is near and it will prove to be a long upcoming week with many late nights. It seems that many important issues are decided during the last weeks of the session with the leadership of our state playing their hands as they attempt to implement their agenda.

Some of the most contentious issues have been the budget, school consolidation, financing of single payer health care, cell phone use while driving and minimum wage to name a few.

In an attempt to address skyrocketing property taxes the house passed a bill that would consolidate 270+ school districts into 45-50 new districts. The bill passed on a vote of 76-60 which was unusually close considering the composition of the body. I fully expect it will not be acted upon by the Senate due to its’ late passage and their resistance to embrace the changes called for in the bill. Our educational system of governance and financing is in dire need of revamping. The last consolidation statewide was done in 1892. Our financing system is not sustainable with only 35% of property owners without subsidies in paying their taxes. I am sure this will be carried into the next biennium and there will be much said about what was done (or not done in this case) this being an election year.

From my perspective this legislature and administration is not sensitive to business needs, nor is our atmosphere conducive to expansion. This session will see a substantial increase in the minimum wage, even though it was already indexed to the CPI a couple of years ago. We will have nearly the highest minimum wage in the country with the passage of the Senate’s bill, which is less than the House bill. Many businesses will see an increase in their Health Care Assessment fee after this session. Paid sick leave was attempted to be legislated and will be back next year for certain and there will be a study committee to assess the use of employee benefits. The use of employee benefits bill, in my opinion, is quite invasive in employer/employee relationships and government has no need to legislate this.
There are several other issues that will cost the taxpayer more money in a time when we should be looking to decrease spending. That will not happen with the current composition of the legislature. I encourage voters to really become aware of how you vote and for who based on their fiscal positions. We simply cannot be all things to all people and must begin to prioritize in a more sound fashion.