The new teacher “career ladder” bill proposed by Gov. Butch Otter, introduced yesterday in the House Education Committee, is being variously described as a $125 million plan and a $214 million plan; it’s a $125.6 million plan. Here’s why: The current teacher pay system in...
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…
That was really, really weird. The House, on a motion from GOP Caucus Chairman John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, reconsidered the 38-32 vote this morning by which it passed HB 100, the bill to do away with a special retirement perk that sharply boosts the pensions...
It was a bit anticlimactic after the big fights in past years, but the House has easily passed HB 177, the bill to require parental consent for teens under 18 to use artificial tanning beds, and banning their use for those age 13 and younger.…
The Idaho Senate has passed SB 1066, Sen. Chuck Winder’s bill to give political parties the option for a March presidential primary election at state taxpayer expense – with an estimated cost of $2 million – in addition to the May primary. The bill passed…
After much debate, the House has passed HB 100, to remove a special retirement perk that sharply boosts the pensions of longtime lawmakers who, late in their careers, do brief stints in high-paying state jobs, by counting all their years of legislative service as if...
Seven senators remained outside the Senate chamber this morning as guest chaplain Rajan Zed delivered today’s opening invocation, a Hindu prayer, then took their seats immediately after it was done. The seven: Sens. Vick, Nonini, Nuxoll, Den Hartog, Rice, Patrick, and Siddoway. Vick had previously...
The House State Affairs Committee has approved HB 155, legislation from Rep. Linden Bateman, R-Idaho Falls, raising fines for violations of the Idaho Open Meeting Law. The vote sends the bill to the full House for consideration.
House Majority Leader Mike Moyle’s bill to end the twice-a-year daylight saving time changes in Idaho has run into a problem: By engineering the change to occur on July 1, it would put Idaho into permanent daylight saving time, rather than permanent standard time. And…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers on a Senate committee advanced to the full Senate a bill that will give the public access to oil and natural gas production records and that more closely follows national standards.…
Far from leaving them in the dark without service, the demise of Idaho’s multimillion-dollar statewide school broadband network has brought several North Idaho school districts better service at a lower cost. “We’re getting more bandwidth now than we did before,” said Seth Deniston, technology director…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today’s nearly two dozen arrests of “Add the 4 Words” protesters at the state Capitol, as talk swirls around the statehouse about possible compromise legislation and whether there’s time to consider it this year or…
The Senate Education Committee has endorsed SB 1072, the bill from freshman Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, to require school board candidates to comply with the same campaign finance disclosure rules now in place for nonpartisan candidates for city council or community college trustee positions.…
A North Idaho senator is objecting to allowing a Hindu prayer as the opening invocation for the Idaho Senate on Tuesday morning, and says he’ll walk out. Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, said, "They have a caste system. They worship cows." He acknowledged the First…
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