Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bill that would allow the popular ridesharing company Uber to bypass local city ordinances and operate how it wants in Idaho is headed to the House floor. The House Transportation and Defense…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on legislative budget writers’ decision today to spend another $400,000 in state tax funds next year to kill wolves under a year-old program, a day after Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced that another 19…
Final numbers released by the state Department of Education today show the state is saving $1.3 million by switching school districts from the defunct Idaho Education Network to individual broadband service contracts for the rest of the current school year, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho…
After a very long hearing in which the testimony was overwhelmingly in opposition, the House Education Committee has wrapped up its hearing on the teacher career ladder bill, HB 222, for today. “What I’m going to do is I’m going to allow Ms. Whitney to…
As the hearing on HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill, stretches toward the end of its fifth hour of testimony this afternoon, my count shows 46 people have testified against it, and just eight in favor. During the afternoon portion of the hearing, nearly...
House Education Chairman Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, just announced that the House Ed Committee will not vote on HB 222, the career ladder bill, today, but will still take testimony this afternoon. The committee had been waiting for a quorum for the past 15 minutes, but…
Sherri Ybarra Just after this morning’s portion of the hearing on HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill – a hearing that will start back up again in the Lincoln Auditorium in just a few minutes – state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra, who sat in…
Reps. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, and Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, pitched their transportation funding bill to the House Transportation Committee this afternoon. It calls for a temporary five-cent gas and diesel tax increase; a 3 cent per gallon transfer fee; an annual $65 “fair share surcharge” on...
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted 17-2 this morning to spend another $400,000 in state general funds next year to kill wolves through the year-old Wolf Depredation Control Board under the governor’s office; the vote came a day after Idaho Fish & Game announced that another…
So far, 25 people have testified on HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill, six in favor and 19 against. House Education Chairman Reed DeMordaunt just announced that the committee will take a break at 5 minutes to 11 this morning – 25 minutes after…
In continuing testimony this morning on HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill: Tom Van Deren, a language arts teacher at Highlands High School in Pocatello who’s been teaching for 19 years, told the lawmakers, “I’m still receiving less than I received in 2008.” He…
After positive testimony from Mike Rush, executive director of the State Board of Education, and Rob Winslow of the Idaho Association of School Administrators, a half-dozen people, including teachers, students and parents, have testified against HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill. Among them: Kari…
Testimony has begun at the hearing on the teacher career ladder legislation this morning; first up was Karen Echeverria, head of the Idaho School Boards Association, who spoke in favor. She said the bill, HB 222, “strikes a good balance” and “provides significant increase in…
Members of the House Education Committee are sounding pretty skeptical in their questioning of Marilyn Whitney, education aide to Gov. Butch Otter, about HB 222, the teacher career ladder bill. Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, said, “I just can’t see where there’s any evidence that…
Under Idaho’s current teacher-pay plan, the single largest group of Idaho’s teachers is currently stuck at the minimum salary in state funds of $31,750 – 4,649 of Idaho’s 14,884 teachers, Marilyn Whitney, education aide to Gov. Butch Otter, told the House Education Committee this morning.…
There’s a big crowd in the Lincoln Auditorium this morning for the hearing on HB 222, the teacher career ladder legislation. “What you have before you is I believe a consensus piece of legislation,” House Education Chairman Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, told the House Education Committee,...
When the House State Affairs Committee voted yesterday to introduce the new bill to revamp the state’s concealed weapon permit laws, Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, objected on the grounds that he wants state lawmakers to keep their special privilege to carry a concealed weapon…
Idaho House Democrats sent out a statement today sharply criticizing House Majority Caucus Chairman John Vander Woude for saying on Idaho Reports on Friday that Dems had “failed to engage” on transportation funding issues. “It appears to me that Rep. Vander Woude wants to blame…
Two House Republicans say they have a last-minute proposal to raise $70 million to $100 million per year in new transportation funding, the AP reports. The House Transportation Committee is slated to consider the eleventh-hour proposal Tuesday; it would draw from overall tax revenue growth…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the latest on the Idaho Education Network brouhaha: The data is in now from most of Idaho’s school districts, and it wasn’t just North Idaho – school districts across the state are saving big bucks…
House State Affairs Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, introduced legislation this morning to tap into state lottery proceeds for $500,000 a year to boost live horse racing in the state. The move comes as his committee is scheduled to hear SB 1011 on Wednesday morning, the…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers are once again seeking to remove a special exemption that allows elected officials to carry concealed guns without a permit. The House State Affairs Committee voted Monday to introduce the bill,…
Though lots of senators had questions about it, the Senate has voted 29-6 in favor of SB 1071a, Sen. Jim Patrick’s bill to require students to pass a civics test to graduate from high school. The bill has 21 co-sponsors from both parties; the idea...
The House has voted 68-1 in favor of HB 220, the “new and improved bill” to renew an expansion of the state tax credit for donations to schools that otherwise would have expired at the end of the year. That was the description given by...
Both a controversial House-passed parental rights bill, HB 113, and the measure to legalize a non-psychotropic oil extracted from cannabis for treatment of children with a severe form of epilepsy, SB 1106, were discussed in the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning, but the panel…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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