Chief Allan, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, was sitting in the audience as the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously today to introduce legislation proposed by the tribe regarding cooperation with tribal law enforcement agencies. “I know there has been a lot of misinformation out there, and now we have a chance to really separate the facts from the fiction,” Allan said. “I think … at the end of the day, they’ll do the right thing.”

The legislation encourages Idaho tribes and county sheriffs to negotiate and reach cooperative agreements for law enforcement within reservations; if an agreement isn’t reached after six months of negotiations, tribal police officers could begin enforcing state laws on the reservation if they meet certain requirements, including being state-certified, sending all cases to state courts, and that the tribe carry liability insurance and waive its sovereign immunity so it can be sued in cases of officer wrongdoing. Opponents have bombarded lawmakers with messages saying the move would subject non-tribal members to tribal courts and remove sheriffs’ authority. The measure doesn’t require cross-deputization, and it also provides that tribal police agencies bear all their own costs, and don’t collect a share of fines from their arrests of non-tribal members for state offenses. “We had opposition, but they were just misinformed, because they were flooded with so much misinformation,” Allan said. “But now the real work starts. … We’re not all the same color, but we all want the same thing: Public safety. … That’s been our policy from Day 1.”

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe had cross-deputization agreements with both Kootenai and Benewah counties, but the Benewah County sheriff revoked that county’s agreement in 2007. Now, the tribe contends criminals are going free because its officers on the Benewah County portion of its reservation are stopping drunken drivers and being called to crime scenes, but can’t make arrests of non-tribal members, and sheriff’s officers aren’t showing up to make the arrests for them.

The House Judiciary Committee has voted unanimously to introduce legislation proposed by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe regarding cooperative agreements between tribal police and local sheriffs. “I’m in the dark here on how all this works, and I would like to know more about that,” said Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, “and I think a discussion of this issue would enlighten a whole lot of us in this arena. Doesn’t mean I’d vote for this bill in the final analysis, but you’ve enlightened my curiosity.” The next step for the bill, which was presented to the committee by the tribe’s lobbyist, Bill Roden, is a full committee hearing.

The Idaho AARP has released a strongly worded statement condemning today’s House vote in favor of HB 391, the “Idaho Health Freedom Act,” headed, “Idaho House moves state closer to health care disaster.” In its statement, the group said the bill could cost Idaho millions in federal health care funding and thousands of jobs, and called it “irresponsible.” “A vote for this bill is a vote against the people of Idaho,” Jim Wordelman, state director for AARP in Idaho, said in the release; click below to read it in full.

David Irwin, communications director for AARP Idaho, said after the vote, “It is very unfortunate to us with this issue that it has to fall right along party lines. … Our lawmakers continue to politicize this issue.” Irwin also disputed Rep. Jim Clark’s contention that AARP is the “largest insurance company in the country,” which Irwin dubbed “inaccurate.” AARP doesn’t underwrite insurance, but does sell insurance products to its members. “The money we get from our products and services we use solely to fund our nonprofit advocacy and community outreach efforts,” he said. “AARP is kind of the Good Housekeeping stamp of approval, so when we sell insurance, we do it the right way and we try to do it in such a way that changes the marketplace so it becomes more responsive to the needs of the consumers.”

Continue reading AARP: ‘A vote against the people of Idaho’ »

House Speaker Lawerence Denney said after today’s stormy House debate on health care reform, “I’ve been expecting something to come up. There’s a lot of stress, and tempers are getting shorter. … I hope that that’s the hardest one that we have to do.” Denney said he doesn’t plan any further action against Rep. Lenore Barrett; he upheld the objection to her debate on the floor, though he didn’t actively gavel her. House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, said, “I think that sometimes in the heat of debate people say things they haven’t absolutely thought through, and I think it was handled appropriately by the body and the speaker.” He added, “I would bet that this isn’t the last time this session that strong feelings will be expressed.”

HB 391, the Idaho Health Freedom Act, has passed the House on a 52-18 vote - a straight party-line vote, with all Republicans voting in favor, and all Democrats voting against. Shortly before the vote, Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, began her debate for the bill by saying, “You either believe in the Constitution of the United States or you don’t. You either believe in the oath of office that you took or you don’t.” At that, Rep. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, objected. “That’s over the line,” he said.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney agreed. “Good lady, if you would stick to the bill and not involve personalities or opinions we would appreciate it,” he said. Barrett responded, “I do not take back anything that I have said,” so Ruchti said, “Mr. Speaker, then I continue to object.” Barrett asked what she was supposed to do. “I think all you need to do is acknowledge that a ‘no’ vote is not necessarily dereliction of their oath of office, because that is casting a sense that they are not as patriotic or perhaps do not believe in the Constitution. That can be your opinion, but we certainly don’t need that to be a…” Barrett said, “All right, Mr. Speaker, I will try to take another tack if that’s acceptable.” Ruchti responded, “Thank you, Mr. Speaker.” Barrett then said, “We don’t know what federal government is going to do with  health care. … It’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

Rep. Elfreda Higgins, D-Boise, spoke against HB 391. “This bill fails to look at unintended and possibly long-term consequences,” she said, and would require the state to spend thousands to go to court to fight health care reform requirements. “How can we justify that, when we’re cutting parks, schools and other services for our citizens?” she asked.

House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, told the House, “This bill is premature - there is no national health reform bill, and based on the last several weeks I don’t know that there is going to be one. If enacted, it is fraught with the opportunity for extensive litigation, and will take monies from the general fund.” Rusche, a physician, said many places in Idaho law require purchase of health insurance, including child support and foster care laws. He cited growing health care costs, and said they’re the biggest barrier to free access to health care. “I don’t believe this bill addresses that at all,” he said.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, said the bill’s estimate of $100,000 for litigation is a maximum cost, and the state likely would spend less. “I don’t think it would have the impact that people are claiming,” he said. “It would be a terrible mistake for the state of Idaho to wait until a bill is passed for us to do something about this in the state.” He added, “There’s nothing in this legislation that says that the majority of the individuals in this body are against health care reform. … What we don’t want is federal reform, we don’t want federal concepts intruding on the rights and liberties of individuals here in Idaho.”

Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, co-sponsor of the “Idaho Health Freedom Act,” told the House, “As Idahoans we are a freedom-loving people and this particular bill deals with that freedom. This bill is very narrowly drafted, it deals with one issue and that is mandatory health care coverage. It doesn’t have anything to do with various other solutions that we do need to look at in resolving our health care crisis if you will, but it does address the concern of many that the federal government would come in and say you will buy insurance, and if you don’t you will be taxed, you will be penalized, you will be fined. That is an extreme deviation from our constitutional principles.”

Luker is speaking second, after Rep. Jim Clark opened the debate. During his comments, Clark derided the AARP, saying, “They’re an insurance company,” and calling the group “the largest insurance company in the country.”

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, told the House, “The Idaho Health Freedom Act is not saying ‘no’ to health care reform. In fact … it’s the first step to saying yes,” because it sets the state up to do health care reform only on its own terms, Clark said. “It will help shield Idaho from a federal individual mandate.” He added, “We’re not alone in this battle - there are 36 states nationally” looking at some type of legislation along these lines.

Clark said he recognizes that federal law is the law of the land. “This is a legal battle that has been fought before and won before,” he said. “States may provide stronger protection of individual freedoms than the federal Constitution allows.”

HJM 10, a non-binding memorial supporting the basing of F-35 Strike Fighter planes in Idaho, has won unanimous support in the House. Next up: The Idaho Health Freedom Act.

The Idaho AARP has sent a letter to legislators notifying them that the senior citizens’ group will be watching the expected vote today on HB 391, the “Idaho Health Freedom Act,” which the AARP opposes. The bill seeks to set the state up for a lawsuit over federal health care reform, by banning enforcement of any requirements for Idahoans to purchase health insurance. “AARP has grave concerns about this legislation and the short and long-term effects it will have on our state’s health care system,” the letter says. “As record numbers of Idaho families, retirees and businesses continue to struggle with health care costs, they look to their state and federal lawmakers for solutions and relief.  The Health Freedom Act provides no solutions or needed relief; rather, it creates more roadblocks to addressing Idaho’s worsening health care woes.” The organization says it will be notifying its members of how their local lawmakers vote on the bill; click below to read the full letter. The bill has been moved up on the House calendar and is up next.

Continue reading AARP to legislators: We’re watching this vote »

Here’s an oddity: Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise, says experts say neutering and releasing feral cats is actually a better way to get rid of colonies of feral cats than killing individual cats from the colonies, because they reproduce so quickly and the colonies persist. When colony members are neutered and released, the colonies eventually go away. But current Idaho law suggests those who capture, neuter and release feral cats may be running afoul of animal abandonment laws. So at the request of the Idaho Humane Society and other animal shelters around the state, Kelly introduced legislation today to allow local communities to permit and regulate the practice if they choose.

“This is a problem for a lot of communities,” Kelly told the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee this morning. Most of Idaho’s animal shelters won’t even accept cats; the Boise shelter took in 8,000 cats last year, she said. The committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill, allowing for a full hearing later.

House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, persuaded a unanimous House State Affairs Committee this morning to introduce his bill to require voters to present photo ID’s before they can vote. Here’s a report from the Associated Press:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho voters could have to present photo identification before casting their ballots, if a bill introduced in the House State Affairs Committee becomes law. The measure introduced Tuesday is similar to a plan broached a year ago, but House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, the sponsor, says it includes additions favored by Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and county clerks. There are lingering hurdles, however. For instance, Moyle says no compromise was reached on how to handle absentee or mail-in voters who don’t show up at the polls. He says there could be a second bill. Under this measure, voters would have to present a valid photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport. Those who no longer have valid licenses or other photo identification, such as elderly people, would merely have to sign an affidavit saying they are who they say they are, Moyle said.

Here’s a news item from the AP: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The third bill of the 2010 session to take on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers emerged in the Idaho Legislature. This measure, introduced by Reps. Raul Labrador and Phil Hart on Tuesday in the House State Affairs Committee, includes provisions to suspend a business’s license for up to a year. Unlike a bill introduced earlier by Sen. Mike Jorgenson, however, their measure wouldn’t require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check if an employee is legal. But using the system would be an absolute defense against prosecution, should an employee be found without appropriate documentation. Currently, such employment violations are under federal jurisdiction. But Hart says the state should intervene, because U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents aren’t doing their jobs as well as they should be.

Pam Parks, director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, and Roger Madsen, director of the state Department of Labor, say they’re gearing up for a July 1 merger, if lawmakers approve. Gov. Butch Otter already has endorsed the plan, Madsen said, and legislation is in the works. Parks said, “Roger immediately said yes, we should explore this,” launching “a really positive, wonderful discussion about how we’d be able to save the commission.”

Madsen said his department has committed $144,000 next fiscal year, double that amount the following year, three times the amount the third year out and four times the fourth year, to make up for the four-year phase-out of state general funds to the commission the Otter called for, starting in fiscal year 2011. The commission’s current state funding is about $1.5 million. Labor will take the money from penalty and interest funds paid by employers and claimants, and from a special administration account that comes from interest earnings on the unemployment reserve fund. Those funds had been scheduled to pay for several building upgrades at the Labor Department next year, including $800,000 to replace inefficient single-pane windows and another $800,000 to repair leaking geothermal pipes and install a heat exchanger. “We’ll push it down the road,” Deputy Director John McAllister said of the building maintenance.

Parks said, “It is a workable plan.” She noted that Madsen said he was “humbled” to provide a home for the Human Rights Commission; she said, “We’re humbled that they offered help.”

“In the nearly 34 years I have worked with or for the Idaho Department of Labor, the past year has been the most challenging for Idaho’s economy, its 50,000 businesses, its three-quarters of a million workers and for our agency,” state Labor Director Roger Madsen told JFAC this morning. Just three years ago, in 2007, Idaho’s unemployment rate was at a record low of 2.8 percent. Today, it’s 9.1 percent, not that far off the all-time high of 9.4 percent in 1983. In two years, Idaho lost 8.8 percent of all of its jobs, Madsen said - most of them in the last 18 months. Construction employment has dropped 35 percent since the recession started; high-tech manufacturing, 31 percent; and retail is off 8 percent.

However, Madsen said, “In the last several months, we have seen signs of improvement.” He said modest job growth is projected through mid-2011, though it still likely will be late 2013 or early 2014 before the number of Idaho jobs rises back to the pre-recession level of 670,000.

Unemployment benefits were paid to more than 116,000 Idahoans last year, Madsen said, a record $403 million in regular state benefits plus another $240 million in federal supplemental benefits. “This huge amount has increased the economic pressure on our employers, who pay the bill. But it’s money spent on house payments and rent, food and clothes, utilities and other essentials - money that generally goes to businesses in the communities throughout Idaho where these workers and their families live,” he said.  Madsen called unemployment benefits “one of the best tools the state has during a recession,” and said the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that without unemployment benefits, recessions would be 15 percent longer and deeper.

Roger Madsen, head of the Idaho Department of Labor, said Labor has had a challenging year, but he’s honored to provide a new home for the Idaho Human Rights Commission, which is tentatively scheduled to move into the department as the state cuts back its funding. Madsen said he won’t interfere with the operations of the commission. “I’m not going to tell the Human Rights Commission my opinion on different issues, even if they ask,” Madsen told JFAC this morning under questioning from committee members. “I’m going to make sure they’re efficient, independent and effective, and that they take care of the state’s issues.”

Madsen said the current downturn has brought “the most severe loss of jobs in Idaho since World War II,” and the state now has fewer workers on the job than it had in January of 2005. As a result, the state’s unemployment fund had to borrow millions from the federal government to continue paying unemployment benefits.

The Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee this morning refused to introduce invasive species amendments proposed by the state Department of Agriculture after senators noted that the bill, as written, would authorize pulling over any vehicle for simply having a container - say, a cooler in the back of a pickup - and potentially sending the driver to jail for up to a year, fining him up to $3,000, and hitting him with a civil penalty of up to $10,000. That wasn’t the intent, Administrator of Plant Industries Lloyd Knight told the committee. The amendments were designed to allow citations of people who blow past boat inspection stations on the freeway - as roughly 80 percent of boaters did when they passed the Huetter inspection station on I-90 just west of Coeur d’Alene last year without stopping, Knight said. Highway patrollers pulled over a handful, and were only able to cite them for failure to obey a traffic sign - the sign that said all boats had to stop for inspection for invasive species, such as quagga and zebra mussels.

The legislation Knight proposed would make failure to stop for inspection a misdemeanor for anyone “towing, carrying or transporting any conveyance,” with “conveyance” broadly defined to include a vehicle, a boat, a trailer, a container and more. It also would allow the Department of Agriculture to impound infested conveyances; and allow law enforcement officers to stop, search, detain and impound conveyances. Knight said the Department of Ag made the bill broad so it could apply to any future invasive species, such as, perhaps, one carried on firewood, or one carried in containers of fish. Rules for each inspection program would be more specific, he said.

But Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, brought up the cooler-in-a-pickup example - and said it’d fit the language in the bill. “If I’m driving down the road and I have a cooler in the back of my truck and I don’t stop, if you want to, you can throw me in jail and fine me a couple thousand dollars,” he said. “This appears to give the Department of Agriculture the ability to get involved in mischief if they choose to do so. … You’re telling me to trust you.”

Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said he rarely votes against printing a bill, but he’d do so in this case. “I think we may even be hinging on some constitutional issues,” he said. The roll-call vote on a motion to introduce the bill failed, 3-5, even after committee Chairman Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, said a full committee hearing on the bill would include information on the high costs of invasive species infestations, showing why “that might require us to take some extraordinary measures.” Knight said afterward that he’ll work on narrowing the bill and bring back a new version. “We’ll work with them,” Knight said. “I think we can get to a definition that will work for them.”

Wayne Hammon, Gov. Butch Otter’s budget director, told the Senate Education Committee, “There is no cut to IDLA in the governor’s budget. … We continue to have the $5 million going forward.” That’s the budget that was set for IDLA for this year, before its enrollment surged from 11,100 to 14,000 students. Hammon said the administration views the current funding system for IDLA as “double funding,” because school districts receive state funding to educate students, and then the state also funds IDLA for some of those same students. “The problem isn’t that IDLA is doing a poor job, they’re doing a great job,” Hammon told the committee. “They’re a model for the nation. However, they’re double-funding this activity over and over again.”

Wayne Rusch, Glenns Ferry School District superintendent, said, “You can call it double funding, but this is how it will affect the program: We will reduce our graduation rate, we will eliminate the advanced math courses that we’re currently offering, and we will go back to offering a basic education.” The state now spends only $10,000 to provide 30 classes and 154 credits through IDLA for Glenns Ferry students, Rusch said. “I just can’t offer the courses for that.” Donna Hutchison, CEO of IDLA, said under the governor’s budget proposal, “Classes would be capped, students would be possibly turned away.” Fees might also be raised.

The Idaho Digital Learning Academy was established by the state in 2002 to offer online courses to Idaho school districts as a supplement to their district offerings, IDLA CEO Donna Hutchison told the Senate Education Committee this afternoon. Hutchison, who also presented to the House Education Committee this morning, said IDLA offers more than 160 courses to students in grades 7 through 12, and enrollments have been growing fast, from 700 students in 2003 to about 14,000 now, with more still signing up for this spring. Hutchison said IDLA anticipated only about 11,100 enrollments this year due to cutbacks, but has seen the opposite effect. “What we’re hearing from schools, based on the cutbacks that they’re experiencing at the local level, they’re needing to turn to online learning more,” Hutchison said. Last year, 98 percent of Idaho’s school districts participated in IDLA.

IDLA is one of the agencies for which Gov. Butch Otter has proposed phasing out all state funding over the next four years, but for next year, his budget proposes funding equal to this year’s budgeted level. However, that doesn’t account for the program’s growing enrollment. Wayne Rusch, superintendent of the Glenns Ferry School District, told lawmakers that his district has high poverty rates and has lost 30 percent of its enrollment in the last 10 years. Yet, students are being offered a full array of courses, including advanced math and science and foreign language. “If we didn’t have IDLA, we couldn’t offer what we’re offering. We would have to cut back on our math, our science and those courses, and our students wouldn’t have those opportunities,” Rusch said. Among the classes his district now offers to students only through IDLA: Trigonometry, calculus, Spanish, psychology and zoology. Benjamin Merrill, principal at Notus Junior-Senior High, said his students are using IDLA for remedial courses, for graduation requirements, and for advanced classes.

After Idaho hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games last year, Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, said he was startled when reading through an Idaho statute to see outmoded terminology like “mentally retarded,” “mentally deficient” and even “lunatic” and “idiot.” Bock said, “I think it made all of us a little more sensitive with respect to some of the language we use with regard to people with intellectual disabilities.” So he asked the Legislative Services Office to do a search of state law, and found lots of such wording. Then, a half-dozen meetings followed with state Health & Welfare officials, the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities, the courts, the state Department of Insurance and more. In the end, Bock came up with an 82-page bill to update the wording in an array of sections of Idaho state law, from the probate code (“a decedent, an infant, lunatic or insolvent, may have…”) to the death penalty (“imposition of death penalty upon mentally retarded person prohibited”).

A section about “Contracts of Idiots” became “Contracts of Persons Without Understanding.” A clause about vocational education programs that said “handicapped students” switched to “students with disabilities.” When Bock presented the bill today to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, asked if it would penalize people who use the outdated terms. Bock said no; “that’s not in the bill,” he said. “It’s not about requiring people to speak in a certain way. It’s about the language in the statute.”

Bock said the Special Olympics, which drew international attention to Idaho and drew hundreds of Idahoans as volunteers, opened his eyes about language referring to people with disabilities. “We shouldn’t be labeling them in a way that’s disrespectful,” he said. Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, noted that the long bill also, in one instance, changes the term “Afro-American” to “African-American.” Bock said that was simply a matter of updating a term that’s no longer in use. The bill also, in several instances, changes the word “handicapped” to “impaired,” and removes the term “the mentally retarded” in favor of “people with intellectual disabilities.” In all cases, Bock, a lawyer, said, “The goal was absolutely no change in the substance of the law.” The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill.

The Idaho Sheriff’s Association says it’s currently illegal for a boat operator to fail to report an accident, for a full county investigation, if the damage comes to $500 or more - and that’s too low. “We are proposing $1,500, to be the same as cars,” Sheriff’s Association lobbyist Mike Kane told the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon. “It’s a great imposition to the boating public to have to go through what is in the current law for very minor accidents, and also a waste of county resources,” when all that’s happened is “two Chris-Crafts kinda nudge each other.” The committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill, with Sen. Patti-Anne Lodge, R-Huston, noting that it could save counties some money.

The AP reports that Idaho is among several states watching to see if a California animal cruelty law drives big egg farms there to look at leaving the state - and possibly move here. As a result of a 2008 voter initiative, California law will ban cramped cages for laying hens by 2015; click below to read the full report from AP reporter John Miller. 

Continue reading Egg farms poised for exodus to Idaho? »

The Senate has voted unanimously to pass HB 379, the bill that’s already passed the House to eliminate a checkoff on state income tax returns that now lets voters donate $1 of their taxes to the political party of their choice. The bill now moves to the governor’s desk.

There was just one “no” vote - from Rep. JoAn Wood, R-Rigby - as the House voted just now to pass HB 422, the bill from Rep. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, to eliminate what he called an “archaic law” that now requires law enforcement officers and prosecutors who know about any type of gambling - including office pools and the like - to prosecute them or face misdemeanor charges themselves. “Fortunately, this archaic law is being ignored by our law enforcement officers,” Burgoyne told the House. “They are today using their discretion. What this would do today is make that discretion lawful.” No one spoke up against the move, and the bill passed the House on a 69-1 vote; it now moves to the Senate.

The House has voted unanimously, 70-0, in favor of HB 435, the measure from Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, to grant a temporary, two-year sales tax exemption to Idaho’s non-profit homeless shelters. “We’re here today because our economy has tanked, people are losing their jobs and they’re losing their homes. They need help,” Durst told the House. “It’s a sign that we’re being proactive in addressing the budget crisis that we have this year. … It will reduce the budget needs for the Department of Health & Welfare and Corrections.” Operators of homeless shelters told an earlier legislative committee hearing that the temporary exemption will save them hundreds of dollars in sales taxes on toilet paper, oatmeal and the like, allowing them to house more people for more nights.

There was no debate before the unanimous vote. After the vote, a victorious Durst shared fist-bumps with GOP Reps. Marv Hagedorn and Raul Labrador. The bill now moves to the Senate.

As Idaho mulls what to do with the Simplot house, the state’s official - but unoccupied - governor’s residence in Boise, Lewiston Tribune reporter Bill Spence had an interesting look today at the house and the issue. “There’s hardly a piece of real estate that showcases Idaho better,” Lt. Gov. Brad Little told Spence. “It overlooks Boise, the foothills, horse pastures, farmland. But we have to address the maintenance costs. It’s probably the highest (water) consumptive real estate in the state. If Jack were alive today, he’d say ‘Make ‘er pay, boys.’ He was never reluctant to adapt to change.” Click below to read Spence’s full report from today’s Tribune.

Continue reading Trib story: ‘Future uncertain for Simplot house’ »

JFAC members quizzed Idaho Department of Administration officials so long about the Idaho Education Network this morning that they ran over time, and almost had to skip the Capitol Commission’s budget hearing. Among the questions was this one from Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert: “What role did IEN or the agency, Mr. Gwartney or the Department of Administration, play in the recommendations to reduce the Idaho Digital Learning Academy and Idaho Public Television? That’s a rumor that’s out there that I’d like you to follow up on,” Cameron said, indicating that Admin officials could get back to him later. “The second half of that rumor is that the governor asked IEN to deliver his State of the State message to four schools, and IEN was unable to do so, but Public Television then did so. Can you get back to us with those answers?” At that, Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, said, “Thank you, and we would all appreciate that information. … We’re running way past, but this is a very troubling area of the budget.”

The Idaho Human Rights Commission has unanimously endorsed the plan to merge the commission into the state Department of Labor, a move that was proposed after Gov. Butch Otter proposed phasing out all the commission’s state funding over the next four years. Legislation still must pass to make the change. Labor gets no state general funds, operating instead mostly on federal funds and employment taxes. Pamela Parks, commission director, called the move “a win-win for the state, and the right thing to do. We recognize that both our agencies share a common mission to provide Idaho with a strong work force and a commitment to ensure that those workers are protected from discrimination in the workplace.” Click below to read the commission’s full announcement.

Continue reading Human Rights Commission unanimously endorses merger with Labor Dept. »

When JFAC heard the budget request for the state’s Permanent Building Fund this morning, a long-familiar participant was missing. Tim Mason of the state Division of Public Works told the joint committee that Larry Osgood passed away nine days ago. Osgood, a mechanical engineer, was state public works director under several governors, starting with Cecil Andrus, until his retirement in 2005. Since retiring, Osgood served in several capacities for the city of Caldwell, including public works director; he used a wheelchair due to injuries from a car accident before he started his state service. “He enjoyed very much working with JFAC,” Mason told the committee members. “When I go back this morning, I’ll be missing getting a phone call from him critiquing my presentation.”

JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, said, “I’m truly sorry to hear that. We loved having him with us. He’d roll in in his wheelchair, and did a fine job for the state those many years.” Osgood’s obituary in the Idaho Press-Tribune said, “Larry lived his life believing that life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.”

Reps. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, and Branden Durst, D-Boise, have introduced legislation that Durst touts as “innovation in education,” to set up a pilot project for 21 school districts and three charter schools to offer a special scholarship to students who graduate from high school at least a year early. Those who do would be eligible to receive 35 percent of their school district’s average daily attendance rate as a scholarship. The school district also would receive 35 percent, while the remaining 30 percent would be “remitted back to the general fund.” The two lawmakers estimated that at $4,593.51 in average state funding per student to school districts for a year, the state could save hundreds of thousands if the participating students graduate at least a year early.

The House Education Committee agreed unanimously, without discussion, this morning to introduce the bill.