{"id":15659,"date":"2021-03-10T00:45:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T00:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15659"},"modified":"2021-03-10T18:35:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T18:35:26","slug":"bills-of-right-and-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/bills-of-right-and-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills Of Right And Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farmer, landlord, governor rights looked at by lawmakers<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Representative Greg Ferch (R-District 21). Photo credit: Idaho State Legislature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What follows is another summary of some recent higher profile bills being considered by Idaho lawmakers this session and where they stand in the lawmaking process.<\/p>\n

House Bill 45\u2014Renters Are Reeling<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA local governmental unit shall not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or resolution to regulate rent, fees, or deposits charged for leasing private residential property.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the crux of a bill in the House that isn\u2019t very renter friendly. It\u2019s not too different from existing law, which already prevents rent control, but it could make life harder on anyone seeking to rent. What it does is clearly add to the \u201cnot to be controlled\u201d list: security deposits and other fees. It would negate a resolution passed in 2019 that capped such tolls at $30 and limited them to only cover hard costs, such as background check fees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, local governments are only prohibited from controlling rent. This legislation would add \u2018fees and deposits\u2019 to the list of items local governments could not regulate or control. This language would also create uniformity across Idaho\u2019s 201 incorporated cities and 44 counties from having different laws and ordinances regulating such matters in a contract between two parties,\u201d says first-year Representative Greg Ferch (R-District 21) in the bill\u2019s statement of purpose and fiscal impact note.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s \u201cthe sky\u2019s the limit\u201d for landlords. In theory, the market will control rent prices. No one is going to pay exorbitant rents and fees if they can find another dwelling that is priced more fairly. But that\u2019s a big \u201cif\u201d when supply is low and demand is high. <\/span><\/p>\n

Status as of press deadline: Introduced, read and referred for printing, Jan. 26; Referred to Judiciary, Rules & Administration, Jan. 27. The full House and Senate must both pass the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

House Bill 126\u2014Hemp Day Some Day?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The purpose of this legislation is to legalize the production, processing, research, and transportation of industrial hemp in the state. That\u2019s something that\u2019s legal in 49 states, two territories, and more than 40 tribal areas. This legislation will allow Idaho farmers the opportunity to produce industrial hemp if they so choose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the bill was making its way through the House smoothly, the Agricultural Affairs Committee postponed a vote late last month. It was slated for a third reading on Monday, March 8. <\/span><\/p>\n

Industrial hemp is a type of cannabis with a concentration of less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive compound found in marijuana.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Bill 1054\u2014<\/b><\/span>Locking Down The Governor
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This legislation is another revision to existing law. Its aim is to clarify\u2014and limit\u2014the powers of the governor during emergencies. It provides limitations on the amount of time a governor may maintain an emergency declaration without the legislature\u2019s approval, broadens the rights of businesses to operate during emergencies, and maintains the rights of individuals to peaceably assemble and bear arms. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also states that the term \u201cextreme emergency\u201d shall be canceled. In its place shall be the term \u201cextreme peril.\u201d And rather than saying the governor \u201cshall have the power\u201d to declare extreme peril, the new law would only say he or she \u201cmay proclaim\u201d extreme peril.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some citizens and lawmakers deemed such revisions necessary after restrictive measures were put into place by Governor Brad Little during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the Senate has two joint resolutions on the docket ending Little\u2019s 2020 declarations of disaster emergency and isolation orders. <\/span><\/p>\n

All three measures have yet to be voted on by the full Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmer, landlord, governor rights looked at by lawmakers By Eric Valentine What follows is another summary of some recent higher profile bills being considered by Idaho lawmakers this session and where they stand in the lawmaking process. House Bill 45\u2014Renters Are Reeling \u201cA local governmental unit shall not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-idaho","8":"category-news","9":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15707,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659\/revisions\/15707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}