Legislation to impose a $10 fee on all criminal convictions, traffic citations and the like to fund the "Victim Information Notification Everyday" or VINE system, which notifies crime victims of changes in the offender's status or case, already passed the Senate 30-5 and cleared a House committee unanimously. But today a new version of the earlier SB 1263 was introduced in the House Ways & Means Committee. "It is identical in every way," said Mike Kane, lobbyist for the Idaho Sheriff's Association. The reason: An Attorney General's opinion found that because the measure raises revenue, it should have started in the House.

Today's quick meeting of Ways & Means was the leadership panel's first meeting this legislative session; it generally meets when legislative leaders want to do something quickly. The panel voted unanimously to introduce the new version of the VINE bill. It also introduced a new measure from Rep. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, to impose a one-year, $10 fee on vehicle title transfers to shore up the deteriorating ILETS system, which 3,000 law-enforcement officers use daily to run checks on people they're pulling over.