The Senate State Affairs Committee has voted 6-3 to send the full Senate SJR 108, a constitutional amendment that would shift school operations funding off the property tax, and raise the sales tax by whatever amount needed to cover the schools’ loss – likely one…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee’s agenda is up for Wednesday morning, and don’t be fooled – it’s all there. There are decisions on funding on various bills that have passed, from capitol restoration to elected officials’ salaries; decisions on funding school-construction legislation; and something called the…
When the House debated HB 845 this morning, the slice of the public school budget that includes funding for teacher pay, Rep. Bill Sali, R-Kuna, debated against the bill sponsored by Rep. Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, but then voted for it. The bill was approved unanimously.S-R…
1st District Congressman Butch Otter, who’s running for governor, has announced his engagement to Lori Easley, a vice principal in the Meridian School District. A photo of the engaged couple is posted on Otter’s campaign website, showing the two smiling tensely. The site notes that…
Things are getting hot in the Gold Room of the state Capitol, where people have been lined up shoulder-to-shoulder for hours and every seat is full, as testimony stretches on about a controversial bill regarding water rights, Idaho Power, and recharging the Snake plain aquifer.…
HB 676a, the bill to eliminate a notorious tax loophole for some rural developers and land speculators, just won final approval in the House after it was amended in the Senate – on a unanimous vote. “This is the bill that’s been floating around and…
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne declared, “This is a good day for law enforcement. This is a bad day for bad people,” as he signed legislation today to crack down on gang activity and to toughen sex-offender registration and sentencing laws. People need to know where sex…
Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, was giving a rundown of everything North Idaho lawmakers have had to go through in the past to cadge a bit of money each year to protect water quality in the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, and he mentioned the role Senate…
The House State Affairs Committee, after a hearing that ran nearly two hours, has voted 12-5 to kill HB 843, a Democratic proposal to raise Idaho’s minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $6.15, and to index it to inflation in the future.…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee meeting room was transformed into a party room this morning, with three kinds of cake, lots of visiting and reminiscing, and congrats to longtime Chairwoman Dolores Crow, R-Nampa, who is retiring after this session.When Randy Nelson, head of Associated…
A retroactive sales tax exemption for shooting range fees and membership dues just cleared the Senate on a 27-8 vote, but not without a lot of debate. Several senators noted that the bill, HB 686, would treat shooting clubs differently from all other clubs. Senate…
HB 545, the bill to adjudicate all the water rights in North Idaho, just passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote and headed for the governor’s desk. “There is nothing more sacred in the state of Idaho than water,” sponsor Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake,…
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, commented, “It’s a good day for North Idaho,” just after the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee voted unanimously just now to approve funding for the North Idaho water rights adjudication. Just before that, they’d voted 19-1 in favor of a…
Everyone’s starting to feel it – this legislative session has gone on too long already. Lenette Bendio, attaché in the legislative bill and mail room, decided to announce her feelings about it today by hanging a bright red “Out of Order” sign around her neck.…
In a 3-2 decision, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled against the Idaho Press Club in its lawsuit challenging closed meetings of official legislative committees as a violation of the Idaho Constitution. Justice Daniel Eismann, writing for the majority, agreed with attorneys for the Legislature…
At first blush, it certainly seems that with only 8 months in office and no legislative session, the upcoming Risch Administration might not make much of a mark legislatively, despite Gov. Jim Risch’s long history as one of the state’s most skilled state senators and…
The intricate rules the Senate follows when it meets as the “Committee of the Whole” in its 14th Order of business to amend bills have their quirks. Today saw a few. In one, Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, an accountant, was arguing in detail for a…
Lt. Gov. Jim Risch just announced that if Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is confirmed as the new Interior secretary, he’ll step in and serve out Kempthorne’s final term as governor, but he won’t change his plans to run for re-election as lieutenant governor.“I think the decision…
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne says he took a red-eye flight to D.C. on Wednesday night for morning meetings with National Guard officials and the congressional delegation, and then met with the president and was asked to be the next Secretary of the Interior. On Thursday afternoon,…
The Idaho Senate has adjourned for the night after amending just one property tax bill, HB 676, the bill to do away with a loophole that allows some rural land developers and speculators to pay agricultural rates, giving them a huge tax break. Unanimously, with…
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has been nominated by President Bush to be the new Secretary of the Interior, replacing the departing Gale Norton. If confirmed, Kempthorne would be the second sitting Idaho governor tapped for that post. Then-Gov. Cecil Andrus was named Interior secretary in…
Senators are now looking to start amending property tax bills around 4 this afternoon, after they weren’t quite ready to start this morning. With six major House-passed property tax reform bills awaiting amendments – and one of the year’s hottest political issues hanging in the…
It was unanimous – a 35-0 vote in the Senate just now – to pass HB 707, the bill to require those who lobby the executive branch to register with the state and disclose their spending, just as do those who lobby the legislative branch.…
The Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee is going over possible amendments to the various property tax bills and their impacts, and conferring publicly with experts like state Tax Commissioner Duey Hammond and administration chief economist Mike Ferguson. It’s the same workshop format the committee…
For only about $150,000 more a year, Idaho could provide regional educational programs for deaf and blind students in five regions of the state, rather than run its current school for the deaf and blind in Gooding – where enrollment has been falling, as it…