Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes noted that at this morning's AP Legislative Preview, the new, spacious hearing room in the Capitol's new underground wings was full to overflowing. "We chose the wrong hearing room," he said, adding that now there are rooms big enough to accommodate crowds of the public. "It's going to be a great thing for us as legislators to have the public back into the process," he said. "It hasn't been good for us for the last two years as we've worked out of the capitol annex. ... This is a great hallmark for Idaho, to have a functioning capitol again."

Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly agreed. "It's really an icon of our democracy, and it's so important to future generations that we made that investment," she said. At that point, the agreement between the panel of legislative leaders from both parties ended, as Kelly criticized the idea of making cuts to education in Idaho. "That's not the sort of leadership that we need right now," she declared. Said House Minority Leader John Rusche, "We need to focus on wise budgeting, so that we're not cutting to save money but we actually lose more in tax revenue."