The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted 19-1 this morning to pay Education Networks of America to offset a portion of the missing federal e-rate funds for the Idaho Education Network in the coming fiscal year, but only eight months’ worth, not a full year. That knocks…
Yesterday was Election Day in an array of Idaho school districts, and voters approved nearly $209 million in school levies and bond issues, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News. Richert reports that voters approved 41 of 48 ballot measures for schools statewide. The biggest…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bill that seeks to pre-empt a hypothetical gun-seizing order from the federal government cleared its last hurdle when it won unanimous backing in the House Wednesday. Rep. Jason Monks, a Meridian Republican,…
Late this afternoon, after waiting for more than two hours, seventh-grader Ilah Hickman got her meeting with House State Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona. Idaho Education News reports that Loertscher met with the 13-year-old for 25 minutes, as her mom and other lawmakers looked…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter today signed SB 1254, the bill to allow guns on Idaho public college and university campuses - over the objections of the colleges - into law. "As elected officials, we have a sworn responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution of…
Seventh-grader Ilah Hickman has been working for four years to get the Idaho giant salamander named the official state amphibian, and this year, she persuaded not only the Senate State Affairs Committee but the full Senate – which voted 33-2 on Feb. 26 in favor…
Boise attorney Christ Troupis, who represented the Idaho Republican Party in its successful lawsuit against the state to close the GOP primary, announced his candidacy today for Idaho Attorney General, challenging GOP Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. “I believe the time is right to ensure that…
Idaho’s top elected officials would get bigger raises than state employees next year, and additional raises every year following for the next four years, under legislation that cleared a Senate committee this morning; the lieutenant governor's salary would jump nearly 20 percent. You can read…
The story I posted this morning on the bill to raise top elected officials' salaries had incorrect percentage figures, as it compared the new salaries to the old salaries in the bill - which actually are from several years ago, not from this year. That…
The Senate Finance Committee, the Senate half of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, met briefly this morning to introduce a bill and refer it to the Education Committee. The measure, from Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, lays out state requirements for high school wireless…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter signed more than two dozen bills into law today, many of them non-controversial. Among the more notable ones: HB 395 will restore non-emergency adult dental services under the Medicaid program, a program that was cut in 2011 with disastrous results, as…
Idaho is considering a student loan repayment program to draw doctors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to a pair of chronically understaffed rural state hospitals, the AP reports, State Hospital North in Orofino and its sister State Hospital South in Blackfoot. Senate-passed legislation to…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The head of Idaho's Department of Correction is taking a leave of absence as his grandson faces a murder charge in southern Idaho. Brent Reinke has led the department since 2007. Department spokesman…
Like the Senate before it, the Idaho House has voted unanimously in favor of the justice reinvestment bill, SB 1357, sending it to Gov. Butch Otter’s desk. There wasn’t even any debate in the House on the measure, which would invest in reforms to the…
Speed limits up to 80 mph in Idaho? The House was decidedly less enthusiastic about the idea today than the Senate was earlier, but SB 1284a narrowly passed, 34-31, and now goes to Gov. Butch Otter; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com.…
More than 43,000 Idahoans have now selected health insurance plans on YourHealthIdaho.org, the state health insurance exchange, with 26 percent of them falling into the key 18- to 34-year-old demographic. The latest numbers, released this afternoon, place Idaho second in the nation in per-capita participation.…
Idaho firefighters have fought for years to get the state’s workers compensation laws to recognize cancer as an occupational hazard, when it develops after they’re exposed to known cancer-causing substances while fighting fires. Today, after much debate, the Senate voted 28-7 in favor of SB…
The House has voted 46-21 in favor of granting $10 million a year in tax credits for donations to scholarships to private schools, after much debate; similar legislation narrowly passed the House last year, but died in the Senate. HB 507 now moves to the…
Maybe it’s because it’s so late in the session, but there seem to be a lot of second thoughts bouncing around the Statehouse. The House today reconsidered two bills that it voted on yesterday, again passing one, and passing the other even though yesterday it…
Small Idaho school districts with pressing building problems could get loans of up to $200,000 to make the fixes, under legislation that cleared the House today on a 38-31 vote. The loans would come from the Public Schools Facilities Cooperative Fund, a state fund that…
The Senate has voted unanimously in favor of legislation from Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, to allow the state Board of Correction to contract out inmate labor to harvest fruit or do other agricultural labor involving perishable food products. “This is a voluntary program for…
Tamarack Resort now belongs almost entirely to Credit Suisse, after the Zurich-based firm was the only bidder at a sheriff's sale on Monday, the AP reports; click below for the full report from the AP and KTVB-TV. Resort officials say the sale, which involves three…
Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, tweeted last night, “I was quite frankly shocked,” after the Senate State Affairs Committee killed his bill, HB 514, to remove the special exemption that allows elected officials to carry concealed weapons without a permit. “Our bill passed resoundingly in the…
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said the motion she planned to make in JFAC this morning – before the joint committee abruptly adjourned – was to make the 2 percent raises for state workers next year all ongoing, rather than half permanent and half one-time. She’s…
Idaho’s PUC commissioners, state tax commissioners and Industrial Commission members would get the same level of salary boost next year that has been funded for all state employees – 1 percent permanent, and 1 percent as a one-time bonus – under legislation approved by the…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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