BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Lawmakers are gearing up for Idaho's 67th legislative session that starts next week.
Rep. Ilana Rubel, House minority leader and Rep. Megan Blanksma House majority leader both bracing themselves for new members in the Idaho legislature.
"A lot of un-knows because we have so many new legislators. That's what's on everyone's mind, we have to get to know who these new people are and find out what their priorities are," Rubel said.
For Blanksma it's a fresh new playing field.
"Folks that are coming in look to be very interested and very serious about doing a good job and I'm excited for that," she said.
Nearly a third of Idaho's legislature is made up of new faces this year. Lawmakers will determine how to spend a record surplus and both lawmakers agree. education is a big priority.
"We have money on our bottom line that we could be allocating to not have the lowest funded schools in America. We have money to maybe make college more affordable or reducing property taxes or even removing the grocery tax," Rubel said.
Education funding a contentious issues in years past.
"I believe we're going to look at education funding I think that is going to be seriously scrutinized, whether it's k-12 or beyond," Blanksma said.
Last year's session saw several social bills proposed such as abortion, and transgender legislation by Idaho lawmakers CBS2 asked whether we could see more of that this year. Rubel believes that may be the case.
"We've certainly heard a lot of talk, that they want to ban pride parades, possibly go after birth control, invitro fertilization," Rubel said. "A bunch of things that will make life harder for all Idahoans."
"I know that there's always discussion about these topics, but it depends on whether it comes to fruition," Blanksma said.
Lawmakers sharing, what makes a productive legislative session.
"A good session to me would be if we could really address property taxes, bring them down and put some of the money from the budget into our schools in a big way," Rubel said. She believes our schoold could use more funding.
For Blanksma, it's about balancing the budget and recognizing that the Idaho legislature is part time.
"Hopefully that we get in here, we do the people's business we do our constitutional duty, we follow the rules and do the budget for the state of Idaho and we get out of here and don't waste time," she said.
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