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2/1/2022

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Happening Now in Idaho

The most important legislative items affecting nonprofits in Idaho:

H0442: Amends existing law to provide that a local governmental unit shall not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or a resolution that regulates rent, fees, or deposits charged for leasing private residential property.
- Nonprofit impact: Nonprofits working on housing issues may ultimately be financially overburdened by helping cover client deposits or fees if local municipalities cannot enact local controls on fees and deposits.

H0450: Legislation will provide employers (including nonprofits) with unemployment insurance tax rate stability and consistency by extending the 2021 unemployment insurance base tax rate over a period of two years.
- Nonprofit impact: Would provide budget stability for many nonprofits’ unemployment insurance rates
H0464: This legislation specifies that injuries, arising from employer mandated vaccinations, shall be compensable under the Idaho workers compensation laws of Idaho.
- Nonprofit impact: Could potentially raise workers compensation rates for nonprofit employers. We will continue to monitor to better assess potential impact.

H0497: Repeals and adds to existing law to provide for an adjustment of the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 in a two-step process beginning with a $2.75 increase effective July 1, 2022.
- Nonprofit impact: Nonprofit employers, like all Idaho employers, are beholden to minimum wage laws. We will continue to monitor this bill.

H0503: Amends existing law to provide for electrical, plumbing, and HVAC installations by non-profit groups and volunteers in single family residences without the need to subcontract work to licensed individuals.
- Nonprofit impact: Would apply to nonprofits and their volunteers engaged in work building housing units.

S1240: This bill will allow homeowners or tenants to update a housing covenant in compliance with federal law under The Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
- Nonprofit impact: Nonprofits engaged in fair housing and housing development work should continue to monitor.

Idaho Nonprofit Center Bill Tracker
Track the status of all bills mentioned in the Legislative Watch as they make their way through the legislation using the online 2022 Bill Tracker.

Find the status of all bills mentioned in our 2022 bill tracker

Federal Updates

OSHA Withdraws COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard
On Tuesday, January 25th, OSHA withdrew its Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard; the agency has stated it has plans to focus on prioritizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard. The withdrawal of this Emergency Temporary Standard means that the mandatory vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing of businesses with 100 or more employees is no longer being enforced, but “the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule.”

If your organization wishes to implement vaccination or testing requirements independently, OSHA has released sample policy templates for Mandatory Vaccination or Testing here.

The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program (ARPA)
The SLFRF program provides state and local governments with resources to respond to the far-reaching public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, by supporting the health of communities, and helping households, small businesses, impacted industries, nonprofits, and the public sector recover from economic impact, as well as replace lost public sector revenue, invest in infrastructure, and replace lost public sector revenue.

It is important to note that in the final Treasury Rule, nonprofits are eligible recipients of these funds; however, fund distribution priorities are at the discretion of state, municipal, and county policy makers.

Call to action: Contact your city and county elected officials and advocate that an equitable portion of your city or county’s allocation be set aside for nonprofit services in your community.

See our Op-Ed in the Idaho Business Review here on why nonprofits should be recipients of these funds.

Idaho Legislature is Back in Session!

To stay up to date on what is happening in the 2022 Legislation and for more information, visit legislature.idaho.gov.

Find the House Committee Agendas here
Find the Senate Committee Agendas here
You can access live audio/video streaming of sessions here

We will be hard at work tracking and educating on each bill that is relevant to nonprofits. Stay tuned!

Stay Connected with the Idaho Legislature: Idaho in Session & Idaho Reports

Idaho Public Television offers Idaho In Session, a gavel-to-gavel service that includes live on-air and online coverage of the Idaho Legislature. Meetings of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) and all other committees will be available online at idahoptv.org/insession.

Now in its 50th season, Idaho Reports, IdahoPTV’s weekly legislative news show, continues to bring viewers state government news and analysis, including updates on education, taxes and voter initiatives, and the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic each Friday at 8 PM. Look for Idaho Reports in audio form wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and read breaking news updates on the Idaho Reports blog at blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org.

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