It's Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, and Idaho has a celebration planned featuring the unveiling of its newly restored and relocated statue of the 16th president, “The Emancipator,” which shows Lincoln holding the Emancipation Proclamation. Idaho’s statue, first placed in 1915, six years after the introduction…
The Millenium Fund Committee met today, and lawmakers on the joint panel sent a message to Gov. Butch Otter, the AP reports: Idaho should raid its tobacco-settlement fund only as a "last resort" if tax revenue collapses. Here’s the news from AP reporter John Miller:…
Here's a surprise: Idaho actually has more women legislators than the national average. Even though just 25 percent of Idaho's legislative seats are held by women - eight of 35 in the Senate and 18 of 70 in the House - the figure's even lower…
Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett, R-Challis, had this to say today as she pitched a memorial about wolf delisting to the House Resources Committee: "If you need to whack a mule across the head with a 2-by-4 to get his attention, and all you have in…
Final state tax revenue figures for January and an agreement between the governor, JFAC leaders and legislative leaders on a new budget target - and a plan to get there - are tentatively scheduled to be announced Friday during that morning's JFAC meeting. "We have…
The House Education Committee has voted 9-8 against a bill proposed by Rep. Rich Jarvis, R-Meridian, to raise the high school dropout age from 16 to 18. “This committee is pretty well split,” said House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene. Click below to read…
Former state Rep. Wayne Meyer, who represented North Idaho in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2004, died Monday of colon cancer. He was 59. Meyer, a Republican, was a bluegrass seed farmer from Rathdrum and served as a high school basketball referee for…
When Gov. Butch Otter’s transportation bills were introduced yesterday, the numbers in the fiscal notes didn’t match up to his description of the program. For the first year, it appeared the package would raise only $42.9 million instead of $47 million, and in the fifth…
The Idaho Women’s Commission had its budget hearing this morning, with legislation pending by one JFAC member, Sen. Joyce Broadsword, to eliminate the commission entirely; Broadsword sees it as obsolete. But director Kitty Kunz got not a single question from the joint committee after giving…
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, noted that the Legislature has “been very generous when we’ve had the money to be proactive on milfoil, and with the leadership of Rep. Anderson and others, made some great strides.” But now, she said, “Obviously, in our economic downturn we’re…
Here’s a link to my full story in today’s Spokesman-Review about Gov. Butch Otter’s pitch to raise taxes to fund more road work, and here’s a link to my full story about how cuts in rural economic development grants upset Idaho lawmakers. And over in…
State Agriculture Director Celia Gould described her department’s zero-based budgeting exercise in her budget presentation to lawmakers this year, stressing frugality. “I planned to cover budget highlights,” she told JFAC. “However, highlights is probably not a good word to use for anything headed our way…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
