Sponsors of SB 1254, the guns-on-campus bill, held a Statehouse press conference this afternoon to announce that the Idaho Sheriff’s Association, after a poll of its members, has endorsed the bill. “There was a pretty wide margin that were in favor of this bill,” said…
The Senate Health & Welfare Committee debated for close to an hour this afternoon before voting to kill Rep. Janet Trujillo’s catastrophic fund bill, HB 535. The measure, which wouldn’t have taken effect until 2016, sought to exclude from the state’s medical indigency and catastrophic…
The Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee has voted unanimously in favor of HB 531, to grant a sales tax exemption to Camp Rainbow Gold, a kids cancer camp north of Ketchum – but only because the camp has the exemption already. Therefore, the fiscal…
Every state senator or representative from North Idaho’s districts 2 through 5 is backing a move to use negotiation, rather than litigation, as the state and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe look to settle federal reserved water rights in the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River Basin Adjudication. The…
After asking lots of questions, members of the Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee have signed off on HB 547, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle’s bill to shift cigarette tax funds that now are going to pay off bonds for the state Capitol renovation into…
After 10 months of research, long hearings and hard work by all three branches of Idaho’s state government, the justice reinvestment bill won quick and unanimous support this afternoon in the House Judiciary Committee. “I think enough’s been said,” said Rep. Linden Bateman, R-Idaho Falls,…
Over the objections of all three major education stakeholder groups, the House Education Committee today approved a bill altering the teacher evaluation process, Idaho Education News reports. Rep. Steve Harris’ bill, HB 556, conflicts with recommendations from the governor’s education task force, opponents said, and…
A group called the “Coalition to Keep Guns Off Campus” delivered a thick stack of petitions against SB 1254, the guns-on-campus bill, to House Speaker Scott Bedke this morning. “We have nearly 3,000 Idahoans who have signed this,” said spokeswoman Emily Walton. The petitions call…
Idaho’s state Department of Correction would see an 11 percent increase in state funds next year, under a budget set by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee in a series of motions today, slightly higher than the governor’s proposed 9.2 percent, but the difference is largely because…
The Idaho Realtors Association proposed legislation today to remove the indexing of the homeowners exemption from property taxes to the Idaho Housing Price Index, instead setting it at a fixed $90,000 at the high end. John Eaton, lobbyist for the Realtors, said his bill is…
The state’s Permanent Building Fund budget for next year won unanimous approval in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning, though the panel didn’t address Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendation to transfer $15 million from the state general fund to the building account for alterations and repairs;…
Legislative budget writers took no action this morning on expanding the Idaho Education Network from high schools to elementary and middle schools next year, or on whether to cover $7.3 million in expected e-rate shortfalls in the coming year, as requested by the state Department…
Idaho’s state Department of Administration would be required to re-examine its contract management practices in light with a 2013 Office of Performance Evaluations report, and report back to the Legislature on that next year; and to notify the Legislature in writing 90 days in advance…
The “heavy lifting” is continuing in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee today, which this morning is setting budgets including the state Department of Administration and the Department of Corrections, among others. First, however, it took up a minor technical change – legislative budget director Cathy Holland-Smith…
Idaho’s legislative session is on track to end by March 21, Idaho Statesman reporter Dan Popkey writes today, with a school budget set that’s winning support and GOP legislative leaders sticking by Gov. Butch Otter’s plan to avoid big issues like Medicaid expansion and transportation…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
