The University of Idaho's Agricultural Research and Extension Service will see a $2.3 million increase in state support next year, reports Bill Spence of the Lewiston Tribune, including $200,000 it didn't even request. The Legislature's joint budget committee unanimously approved a $28.7 million fiscal 2016…
Even as the House Education Committee today introduced a bill to raise teacher pay, the Senate Education Committee scuttled a rule to create a tiered teacher licensure system, the Twin Falls Times-News reports. Both the new pay scale, which would pay teachers based on seniority...
In their annual talk and Q-and-A session with the Idaho Press Club today, House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill were asked about an array of legislative issues, from an “Add the Words” compromise to concealed-carry gun legislation. Here are some of…
House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill both say the Legislature can still wrap up its session by March 27, as long as it addresses education funding. Both also want to see movement on transportation funding. But Bedke told the Idaho Press…
Today’s “Idaho Day” festivities will include commemorations in both the House and Senate chambers this morning, the official state celebration starting shortly after noon in the Lincoln Auditorium, and observances at schools and elsewhere around the state; there’s more info here. The House is planning...
This morning, on the 52nd day of this year’s legislative session, the House Education Committee has voted to introduce one of the most significant bills of the session – the teacher career ladder measure. That clears the way for a hearing on the bill, proposed...
Idaho’s bill to do away with the “fall back” and “spring forward” of daylight saving time is dead; its sponsor, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, says he’ll withdraw the bill and try again next year, after learning that what was proposed in this year’s…
The Senate State Affairs Committee is hearing dramatically different testimony from supporters and opponents of SB 1106 this morning, which would legalize a non-psychotropic extract from cannabis for treatment of children with a severe form of epilepsy. “This legislation means so much to our family,…
Idaho House members are slowly chipping away at addressing the state's transportation funding shortfall, the AP reports, providing the only solution thus far this session as legislative leaders struggle to gather support for a comprehensive transportation bill. House committees have considered proposals that would provide…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee had two divided votes on the budget for the Judicial Branch this morning, finally approving a motion from Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, that Gibbs described as the “nuclear option,” on a 15-5 vote. While funding two new magistrate judges in Kootenai...
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho citizens could soon be sharing the road with driverless cars. A Senate panel considered a bill Tuesday that would allow companies to test self-driving cars on Idaho highways. Senate Transportation Committee Chairman…
It’s a busy day at the Statehouse today, with a hearing set for 8 a.m. in the Lincoln Auditorium on the bill to legalize an oil that’s extracted from cannabis to treat children with a severe form of epilepsy; JFAC setting budgets this morning for…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
