Don Soltman, vice president of Kootenai Medical Center, has been unanimously confirmed to the state Board of Education, to which Gov. Butch Otter nominated him. Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, told the Senate, "I've known Don for a number of years and I highly recommend…
Here's a link to my full story in today's Spokesman-Review on the governor's setbacks yesterday in his transportation initiative, a one-two punch with the House killing its last remaining bill to raise the state's gas tax and the joint budget committee directing a $17 million…
The House Judiciary Committee has voted 8-6 in favor of revamping Idaho's 62-year-old quota system for liquor licenses, after one member switched sides from an earlier motion to kill the bill that failed on a tied vote. The move sends the Senate-passed bill to the…
The confirmation of Ruthie Johnson of Hayden Lake for another term on the Idaho Human Rights Commission prompted an hour-long debate in the Senate today, the AP reports, after Johnson's comments about gay rights during her Senate State Affairs Committee confirmation hearing aroused opposition from…
Earlier, when House Speaker Lawerence Denney introduced a last-minute bill to require voters to show picture I.D. and to end mail-in voter registration in Idaho, he said the bill probably wouldn't get a hearing this year - and then, yesterday, a hearing was scheduled for…
Asked what happens next on the gas tax, House Speaker Lawerence Denney told Eye on Boise, "I don't know, I really don't. I think the governor has made his case that we do need increased funding, and I think a case has been made here…
Gov. Butch Otter has issued this statement on the House's defeat of the gas tax bill: “First let me thank the 32 House members who showed today that they understand the issue and the stakes. I appreciate their patience, leadership, and commitment to doing the…
Here's the vote in the House to kill the gas tax bill, HB 135a, which failed, 32-37:Voting in favor: Reps. Anderson, Andrus, Bedke, Black, Block, Boe, Bolz, Chadderdon, Denney, Eskridge, Gibbs, Hagedorn, Hartgen, Henderson, Higgins, Jaquet, Jarvis, Luker, Moyle, Patrick, Raybould, Ringo, Roberts, Shirley, Smith(24),…
The House has voted 32-37 on the gas tax increase bill, HB 135a, defeating the bill. Here is House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood's entire closing debate: "The people of the state of Idaho who trust us to look at their circumstances and make decisions look…
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, asked the House, "Do you honestly think that this bill addresses the issue? ... It'll fix one pothole. ... It's still a tax increase." Clark said if the House passes the 2-cent gas tax increase, the Senate will amend it…
Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett, R-Challis, speaking against the gas tax increase bill, told the House, "Once again the government ... is ready to throw a drowning man a brick." As she rose to debate the bill, she said she'd been debating back and forth with…
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, strongly urged the House to reject the proposed gas tax increase. "This debate has lost some perspective," he said. "We keep talking about our roads going into disrepair. ... This legislature is being accused of not taking care of our roads,…
The House is now debating the gas tax bill, which would raise Idaho's gas tax by two cents a gallon next year. Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, told the House, "This doesn't build highways - this tries to fix highways that we already have. ...…
The motion from Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, to send all the stimulus money to local highway districts has passed JFAC on an 11-9 vote. Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, was the last to vote and held the deciding vote. "It's all up to you, sister,"…
JFAC is debating between three alternative motions on how to distribute $17 million in stimulus money to roads. The first, from Rep. Frank Henderson and Sen. Jim Hammond, would have the money distributed, whether to state or local roads, based on the greatest public safety…
An attempt to shift nearly $20 million from federal stimulus money that Gov. Butch Otter has suggested earmarking for additional road work failed on a party-line vote this morning in JFAC. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, proposed shifting $19.5 million from the stimulus into the public…
Idaho Falls attorney and former state GOP party chairman Blake Hall has resigned from the state Board of Education after nearly nine years. His resignation was effective April 3, the board announced today. Click below to read the full announcement.
Jon Hanian, press secretary for Gov. Butch Otter, says the governor is "very pleased" with JFAC's decision this morning to eliminate a proposed 3 percent across-the-board pay cut for all state employees, instead opting to let agency directors decide on their own how to cope…
Here's what the governor's budget chief, Wayne Hammon, had to say about JFAC's vote this morning on statewide personnel cuts: "The flexibility part, section 1, is very, very good. The governor's very pleased with that. He's been saying from the the very beginning that he…
HB 252, the bill to allow various state laws to be temporarily suspended to allow cuts in education funding - including teacher pay - when a school district declares a financial emergency, got a vigorous debate in the Senate today, much different than the chorus…
Here's a news item from the AP: "The House voted 64-3 for a constitutional amendment to allow tuition at the University of Idaho, a move to help the Moscow school manage its budget. A law from Idaho's territorial days when the school was founded in…
There was heartfelt debate in JFAC before the vote on statewide personnel cuts. Here's a sampling:"I'm feeling very, very guilty costing the taxpayers of Idaho $30,000 a day to stay here and be stubborn." - Rep. Maxine Bell"Our issue all along as a committee was…
Here's how JFAC voted in the 12-8 vote on statewide personnel cost reductions, in which Sen. Dean Cameron's motion carried to reduce the cuts from 5 percent to 3 percent by tapping federal stimulus money:Voting in favor: Sens. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert; Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint; Joyce…
The substitute motion from Sen. Dean Cameron - offsetting the statewide personnel cut with stimulus money, so that it'll be reduced from 5 percent to 3 percent - has passed JFAC, 12-8.
Here are the two competing motions JFAC is debating: The original motion, from Reps. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell, and Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, sets a 5 percent personnel cost cut for state employees - excluding public schools and higher education, which already have been set - but…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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