Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, came right out with it when he was about to give his budget recommendations to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee:"I am gearing up for campaign season, so you may have to gavel me down to shut me up.…
The House had a little fun with HB 547, the measure to eliminate the state Prune Commission, which hasn't met for at least two decades."A once thriving Idaho industry ... has now shriveled up," intoned Rep. Allen Andersen, D-Pocatello. "Please join me in a moment…
Dan John, tax policy manager for the Idaho Tax Commission, had a pretty easy sell when he pitched HB 537 to the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. Why? He was able to tell the committee this:"This will eliminate the filing of about 100,000 returns that…
The number of bills being filed in the Legislature has ballooned up to beyond last year’s level, after a slow start. Among the bills introduced just on Monday: Rathdrum Rep. Wayne Meyer’s legislation to require community college boards to cooperate with local officials like county…
Loose talk around the Capitol says the new constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriage is written so broadly that it could be read as banning second and third marriages for heterosexuals, too. Here's the wording - decide for yourself:MARRIAGE. Only marriage between one man…
The state Senate was unanimous in confirming three North Idaho appointees to the Lake Pend Oreille/Priest Lake Commission on Wednesday, but Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, had to set them straight on pronouncing attorney Ford Elsaesser's name.Lt. Gov. Jim Risch first said it ee-lasser. Then, the…
It's only the fourth week of the legislative session, but tempers already are starting to flare in the Statehouse. So far this week, an angry Rep. Lenore Barrett threw a pencil after House Resources Chairman Bert Stevenson gaveled a meeting to an end before she…
Senate Republicans held a nearly hour-long closed-door caucus Tuesday to talk about the state budget."There was no consensus of anything," said GOP Caucus Chairman Brad Little, R-Emmett. "It was, `Here's where we are, and think about it.' "Added Little, "One of the most important jobs…
Former state GOP Chairman Blake Hall is the only one who gives not one, but two full presentations to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.First, Hall addressed the influential joint budget committee as the president of the State Board of Education. Then, this week, he went before…
Nine legislators lined up behind anti-abortion activists on Monday to promote new legislation they plan to introduce to expand Idaho's existing informed-consent law for abortion. The new measure would, among other things, more strongly require doctors to give women detailed information about fetal development and…
Because Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett, has been out for surgery, Carlos Bilbao has been filling in for him for the opening weeks of the session. On Friday, Bilbao sponsored his first bill in the Senate, offering arguments to other senators in favor of passing SB…
Senators got a little testy when they were debating confirmation of Phil Reberger, a top GOP operative and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s former longtime chief of staff, to the Idaho Judicial Council. The council selects and disciplines judges. Sen. Mike Burkett, D-Boise, said the appointment would…
When a van showed up to ferry lawmakers to an Association of Idaho Cities luncheon on Thursday, it was plastered with magnetic AIC logos, but instead of “Famous Potatoes,” the license plates said - oops - “Ski Utah.”
The House State Affairs Committee was so enthusiastic about a resolution to declare "Ronald Reagan Day" on Feb. 6, the day the former GOP president will turn 93, that the panel decided to send the bill to the full House without even waiting for a…
Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, has long been a big booster of technology investments for schools, and has pushed for funding each year in the joint budget committee. So Richardson was understandably miffed that Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's budget for next year would slash $5 million…
Idaho's current anti-terrorism law goes too far, according to Sen. Mike Burkett, D-Boise, defining terrorism so broadly that it could include someone marching in a Martin Luther King Day demonstration. "I think this statute is just too broad," Burkett, an attorney, told the Senate Judiciary…
Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, probably isn't going to go ahead this year with his bill to set up a state-sanctioned legal defense fund for farmers. "The ag community's really not that enthusiastic about going forward, so at this time I'm just going to have it…
Former state Rep. David Bieter, a Boise Democrat, returned to the House on Thursday to address the chamber not as a member, but as the newly elected mayor of Boise.After a warm welcome, he told the assembled representatives, "I have been waiting an awful long…
St. Maries Rep. Dick Harwood surprised everyone in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Wednesday when he followed up on a question about the DEQ budget by launching into a little speech, complete with statistics."Back in 1975, Shoshone County generated almost 27 percent of the state's…
Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis is known for holding forth at great length, in intricate lawyer's language that's not easily quoted. So in typical fashion, the Idaho Falls Republican announced after long months of reflection Tuesday that he's made a decision on whether to run…
Here's how North Idaho College student body president Joel Crane characterized the NIC/CSI lunch with local legislators this week: "You're getting the benefit of free food, and we're getting the benefit of getting to know our legislators."To which an eastern Idaho senator muttered, "We're getting…
Idaho has a ton of special license plates for cars to commemorate this and that, but Sen. Kent Bailey, R-Hayden, may be the first to propose a special plate for motorcycles."I love firsts," Bailey chuckled.Of course, there's not much room on the little motorcycle plate…
Though legislators were quick to decry Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's revenue projections for next year as overly optimistic, they really didn't depart much from them when they set their own estimate, which provides a basis for budget-setting. Plus, the Joint Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee…
State employees are waiting to hear if they'll get raises next year, after being stiffed two straight years by state lawmakers. The joint legislative committee that'll review Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's recommendation for a 2 percent merit raise had been tentatively scheduled to meet, and possibly…
Twenty-eight Idaho legislators went on a tour of three state prisons this week, entering a stark, cramped, empty two-person cell, visiting with some of the inmates, and getting baleful glares from those on Death Row through the small windows in their cell doors.(In photo, from…
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