Legislation to remove Idaho lawmakers’ special exemption from having their wages garnished for state court judgments has fallen victim to late-session hostilities between the House and Senate, and never received a Senate committee hearing. That means both bills proposed this year to remove special privileges from Idaho lawmakers, including this and another that exempts them from concealed gun permit requirements, have failed this year, both after passing the House and dying in the same Senate committee. “Sure sounds like a pattern, doesn’t it?” said freshman Rep. Ed Morse, R-Hayden, sponsor of the wage-garnishment bill, HB 510.

Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, has refused to schedule a hearing on HB 510 until a House committee sets a hearing on his bill regarding firefighters’ occupational cancers. But that Senate-passed bill isn’t going to get a hearing in the House Commerce Committee, according to that panel’s chairman, Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, who is adamant that he doesn’t think the firefighter bill is good public policy. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.