The Senate Education Committee has voted unanimously in favor of HB 662, the National Guard Youth Challenge bill declaring the proposed Pierce, Idaho school an alternative secondary school - the bill whose funding was defeated yesterday in JFAC. Committee Chairman John Goedde said, "General Sayler,…
House Speaker Lawerence Denney invited all those who will be leaving the House after this year to assemble in the well in front of him; with the huge crowd standing there, he then banged his gavel and asked loudly, "Haven't you learned anything?" House rules…
House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, has thrown in the towel on his $10 milion tax credit bill for private school scholarships; he just asked for unanimous consent to return the bill to the House Education Committee. "In light of HB 670 as amended…
The Senate Education Committee took up SB 698, the salary-based apportionment bill, and immediately passed it, with no discussion. "There's only one condition that I would support this motion, and that is that if Rep. Nonini agrees not to testify," Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, said…
The Senate has recessed to about 2:30 p.m., and the Senate Education Committee is going to meet now. There are two items on its agenda: HB 662, on the National Guard Youth Challenge - for which funding was defeated in JFAC yesterday - and HB…
The House is back in session, and is quickly moving through the three final bills that have arrived from JFAC: The year-end transfer bill, including transfers to state reserves, and two trailer appropriation bills. Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis told the Senate that the fact…
The House has voted 59-9 in favor of HB 698, the salary-based apportionment bill, which cancels future teacher-salary cuts required by the "Students Come First" reform law, while also declaring that the law's reforms, including laptop computers and performance-pay bonuses, are top funding priorities in…
The House is now debating HB 698, the salary-based apportionment bill. Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, asked Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, the bill's sponsor, whether the bill's requirement that in the future, the state's minimum teacher salary must rise by twice the percentage of the…
SB 1303a, the animal cruelty bill sponsored by the state's cattle industry that creates the state's first felony penalty for animal cruelty - for a third aggravated offense - has been endorsed by the Senate with its House amendment. "They did make what I think…
The judges' retirement bill, HB 660, has passed the Senate on a unanimous, 34-0 vote and now heads to the governor's desk. Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said he arrived at this year's legislative session ready to kill the judges' retirement bill, but today he's…
The Senate has passed HB 697, the Boise County debt bill. But first, Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, read from the letter to House Speaker Lawerence Denney from Boise County Prosecutor RJ Twilegar threatening a lawsuit on behalf of Boise County women if SB 1387, the…
The Senate was just disrupted by a scream from the gallery, of "Give that back!" Several Occupy Boise protesters in the gallery were being accosted by Idaho State police officers, who escorted them out, as the same woman shouted, "I didn't do anything!" and "You're…
The Senate has voted 28-7 along party lines in favor of HB 693, the Capitol Mall rules bill covering the site of the Occupy Boise vigil; all Republicans voted yes, and all Democrats voted no. "My question is the rush and the emergency," said Sen.…
The Senate has just suspended its rules and taken up HB 693, the latest anti-Occupy bill. This is the emergency measure to authorize rule-making by the state Department of Administration regarding behavior on the Capitol Mall grounds, making violations of those rules infractions, and empowering…
Now the House has decided it won't come back in session until 1 p.m. after all; it'll take up HB 698, the salary-based apportionment bill, first thing then and get it over to the Senate as quickly as possible, Majority Leader Mike Moyle said.
The House is rethinking its plan to recess until 1 p.m. Majority Leader Mike Moyle just checked in with House Democrats, who were gathered on the House floor for a picture-taking session while majority Republicans are upstairs in caucus, to see if they can come…
Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis has outlined a plan by which the Legislature could adjourn today, including the Senate passing a slew of bills this morning, including new Senate ethics rules (read about them here). Then, it'd have an Education Committee meeting at 1 p.m.,…
The House is unexpectedly recessing until 1 p.m. for a closed-door majority caucus. Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, said he wasn't planning to back off on his push for HB 670a, his bill to grant a $10 million-a-year tax credit for donations to scholarships to…
Asked what he thinks about House Education Chairman Bob Nonini's scholarship tax credit bill bypassing the House Rev & Tax Committee, instead coming through Education, House Tax Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, said, "I think it stinks." Asked if the bill would have passed in Rev…
House Tax Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, has objected to the House taking up 670a, Rep. Bob Nonini's bill to give $10 million a year in tax credits for donations to scholarships for K-12 private schools; the bill would allow a corporate giver to erase half…
The Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee has voted 6-3 in favor of sending HB 563, the House-passed income tax cut bill for top earners, to the full Senate without recommendation. Those voting yes were Sens. Rice, Hammond, McKenzie, Hill, Johnson and Siddoway. Those voting…
Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, said people in his district are struggling. The House-passed tax cut bill, he said, asks him "to take their tax money and redistribute it up to the wealthy." He called the bill "disappointing," and said the Legislature could have found better…
Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d'Alene, said he's not convinced that the state can afford the tax cut, bearing in mind the lessons he learned sitting on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee for years as that panel had to make deep and painful cuts. However, he said…
Sen. Jim Rice has moved to send the tax-cut bill to the full Senate with no recommendation; Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill seconded the motion. Sen. Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston, then spoke. "I believe that we've accomplished some good things this legislative session and I've seen…
The Senate Tax Committee is questioning Sen. Chuck Winder and deliberating on HB 563, the tax-cut bill for top earners. "I haven't seen anything in here that indicates there would be a single job created," Sen. Elliot Werk. "Have you or the proponents done any…