On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” program on Idaho Public Television, I join Jim Weatherby, Dan Popkey, Clark Corbin and host Greg Hahn to discuss the week’s developments in the Legislature. Plus, Aaron Kunz interviews state schools Superintendent Tom Luna; Melissa Davlin interviews freshman Rep. Julie VanOrden,…
A federal appellate court has revived a lawsuit brought by homeless Idaho residents against the city of Boise over ordinances that bar sleeping and camping in public spaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling sends the 2009 lawsuit back to Boise's U.S. District…
The House Education Committee has voted along party lines, 12-3, in favor of HB 260, the bill to let school boards impose their “last best offer” if they don’t reach negotiated agreements with teachers unions by June 10. It was a feature of voter-rejected Proposition…
The House Education Committee is still hearing testimony this morning on HB 260, the latest version of legislation from the Idaho School Boards Association to revive a provision from voter-rejected Proposition 1 saying that if teachers unions and school districts don't reach negotiated labor agreements…
At the start of this year’s legislative session, legislative budget writers heard a report on deferred maintenance at the state’s public colleges and universities, complete with shocking pictures showing rotting window frames, cracked and deteriorating sidewalks, corroded and leaking boilers, and a professor lecturing to…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee this morning introduced the sweeping personal property tax elimination bill proposed by the IACI, the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry. Yesterday, the same committee introduced a much more modest bill from the Idaho Association of Counties, to instead…
Though state law requires people on food stamps to cooperate with the Department of Health & Welfare’s child support services office to ensure that child-support payments are made to non-custodial parents, state budget cuts in 2010 cut out the staff that used to enforce that…
Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, proposed two additions to the “intent language” in the Medicaid budget, one to direct it to develop and report on strategies to keep patients from unnecessarily using the emergency room, and another to ask the division to report on its percentage…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has voted 17-1 on the budget for Idaho’s Medicaid program for next year, with just Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, objecting. Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, said, “Many of us have struggled to get our arms around this budget. I do think…
The Medicaid division of the state Department of Health & Welfare is among the biggest agency budgets that’s set by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee; it’s up today, on the final day of agency budget-setting. Sens. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, and Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, worked together on…
The Department of Commerce had its budget set by JFAC this morning at the governor’s recommended level, which reflects a 0.6 percent increase in state general funds, and a 14.5 percent decrease in total funds, due to the removal of a big one-time expenditure last…
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, proposed a substitute motion on the intent language for the public schools budget, in an attempt to ensure that teachers and their associations have a voice in local school district plans to distribute performance bonuses to teachers next year. Her alternative…
Today is the final day of agency budget-setting in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee; first up this morning is the “intent language” for the public school budget that was delayed earlier this week at the request of Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls. This is the language…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
