Idaho House Speaker would like to see a change in initiative proposals

Idaho's Speaker of the House said property taxes, education, transportation surplus, and Medicaid expansion are expected to be the big issues for the state's 2020 Legislative session.

Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, visited with Todd Kunz Monday to give an overview of the upcoming session.

One area he hopes to be discussed is how initiatives are approved by voters.

Medicaid expansion was an initiative that was approved by voters in November 2018.

He said when voters approved the Medicaid expansion, the initiative didn't answer where the funding would come from.

"When citizens are going to act as if they were a legislative body, then should they not follow the same rules that the legislative body follows? In that, they've got to identify a funding source. They've got to identify how much this is going to cost, and make it fit in with the government and state laws that we already have, and fit into the process," said Bedke.

He said that the legislature should possibly revisit the initiative process and add a fiscal impact statement to the proposed legislation.

Bedke has been serving in the Legislature for 19 years and has been Speaker of the House for 8 years.