Education is the top priority for Idaho for the coming year, Gov. Butch Otter declared Monday, coming even ahead of tax cuts for businesses and top earners. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com. Click below for a full report from AP reporter…
Senate GOP Caucus Chairman Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, who's running against fellow Republican Gov. Butch Otter in the primary, released a statement on both video and audio this afternoon, reacting to the governor's State of the State message. Fulcher said the governor's speech to a joint…
Talking with reporters at a news conference in his office after today’s State of the State address, Gov. Butch Otter was asked about his recommendation for zero funding for raises for state employees. He noted that he is proposing $12 million to cover health care…
Penni Cyr, president of the Idaho Education Association, is applauding Otter’s “recommitment to public education” in his State of the State message today, and said her organization “readily supports the majority of the goals and initiatives that he has outlined.” But she decried the lack…
Among the major items proposed in Gov. Butch Otter’s budget for next year: A $15 million, one-time allocation to the state Department of Water Resources for water supply improvement projects around the state. “Being from southern Idaho, I’m encouraged by putting the money back into…
House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, had overall praise for Gov. Butch Otter’s State of the State message today. “I’m intrigued by the new concept of K-through-Career,” he said, instead of seeing education as K-12. “I think that is an important recognition that the goal of…
Reactions are rolling in to the governor’s State of the State message to a joint session of the Legislature today. Among them: State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna says the governor’s budget would cut teacher pay by $21 million. That’s because this year’s budget includes…
“I firmly believe that the kind of conservative, sustainable policies I’ve outlined today are the best way to protect our traditional values while strengthening the foundation of our future,” Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers this morning in his State of the State message, which ran…
A new $2 million wolf control fund is among Gov. Butch Otter’s proposals for the coming year. The state funding would be one-time, and legislation would call for the state’s cattle industry and sportsmen also to contribute to the fund. “One form of growth we…
Gov. Butch Otter hasn’t included expanding Medicaid in his budget proposal for the coming year. “On the issue of Medicaid expansion, we should not jump into the deep end without knowing what’s on the bottom,” he told lawmakers. “We must not risk our other priorities…
“I’m sure some will argue that the proposals I’m putting forward today are not bold enough, not front-loaded enough or simply not enough,” the governor told a joint session of the Legislature. “But peaks and valleys are not the best way to manage any enterprise…
Idaho would boost its rainy-day savings, under Gov. Butch Otter’s budget proposal, plunking another $35 million into the already capped Budget Stabilization Fund, which now has $135.7 million, and creating a “surplus eliminator” for the current year’s budget to put additional funds into the Public…
Gov. Butch Otter is calling for more partnerships in the state’s workforce training program. “You can expect to see more targeted use of grants for training employees not just for individual businesses, but for the market-driven growth of industry sectors that add value to Idaho’s…
The proposal that’s been languishing to add a second year to the University of Idaho’s law school program in Boise – which now includes only the third year of law school – has won the endorsement of Gov. Butch Otter. He called on lawmakers in…
Gov. Butch Otter has included money in his proposed state budget for next year to continue the five- to 15-year WiFi contract that state Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna signed this year with Education Networks of America. The initial funding was just from a one-year,…
Process is important, Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers. That’s “why I appointed a task force representing a broad cross-section of stakeholders to carefully assess our options. Now that group has delivered its findings, and we must be just as careful in how we enact them.”…
“I will not sanction growing our state government as fast as our economy,” Gov. Butch Otter told a joint session of the Legislature, which is assembled in the House chamber along with state elected officials and Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges. “I…
As he opens his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature today, Gov. Butch Otter is honoring four Idahoans who lost their lives in military service in 2013: Specialist Thomas Murach, Specialist Mitchell Daehling, Staff Sergeant Octavio Herrera, and Captain…
The Idaho Senate’s newest member, Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, was sworn in this morning, as the legislative session kicks off today; here, she’s shown leaving the Senate chamber after the ceremony with her mom, Eloise Ward, and other family members. Ward-Engelking, formerly a state representative,…
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