How long it is…
When lawmakers convene on Monday morning, it'll be the 99th day of the legislative session, which already is the second-longest in state history. Idaho's legislative sessions have averaged just under 71 days since statehood, but seven of the past 10 annual sessions have stretched longer than that mark; last year’s session ran 87 days. “Everybody’s ready for us to go,” said Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls. This year's session is so long, in part, because the federal economic stimulus legislation essentially forced a do-over of the state budget six weeks in. That meant delays, but it also meant serious, careful and public examination of the impacts of the stimulus on Idaho, and softening of state budget cuts that otherwise could have gone much deeper. You can read my full story here from this weekend's Spokesman-Review.