House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, introduced legislation today to disable all the parking meters on streets adjacent to the state Capitol Mall during the legislative session, to ease citizen access to the session. "It'd make it so all the parking meters ... are basically turned off during the legislative session, so people can come here and testify without panicking that their car is going to get towed," Palmer told Eye on Boise.

He said he didn't check with the city of Boise, which operates the meters, before introducing the bill; but a city representative was at the Transportation Committee hearing this afternoon and came up to him afterward, "and said, 'hey, let's get together and talk, see what we can do,'" Palmer said. He said past pitches from lawmakers to remove the meters have been opposed by the city, but that the city representative told him, "You might be onto something here."