Here's my full story from spokesman.com on the minimum-wage pre-emption becoming law without the governor's signature: BOISE – Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has allowed legislation forbidding local voters, cities or...
House Speaker Scott Bedke surprised House members today with a dozen original limericks, all strictly within the bounds of House rules, and designed around the formalities of recognizing lawmakers as they present bills. “I started ‘em, and then it turned out that Mary Lou is…
House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer’s plan to tie repeal of an unpopular $75 annual fee on hybrid cars to a five-year, phased-in elimination of Idaho State Police funding from highway taxes was revived this afternoon and surprisingly passed out of the House Revenue & Taxation…
HB 644, the bill just introduced this morning to grant $5 million next year and the year after to Idaho’s community health clinics and rural health clinics to increase their services to the gap population, has passed the House on a 43-26 vote. The bill...
The debate was tense, as the House took up HCR 63, the resolution just introduced and passed out of committee this morning to create an interim study committee on seeking a possible federal waiver to provide care for Idaho’s gap population, those who make too...
The House has voted unanimously – 68-0 – in favor of HB 630, Rep. Julie VanOrden’s bill to increase pay for career-technical education teachers who have occupational specialist certificates in the fields they’re teaching; those teachers would get an additional $3,000 in salary. The fiscal…
The much-amended urban renewal bill, HB 606a, is headed to the Senate’s 14th Order for more amendments, after a motion to pass it as-is failed, following testimony from an array of local officials and others who said the complicated bill needs various changes. “Make no…
Gov. Butch Otter has signed a long list of bills into law today. Among them: HB 481, the “Right to Try Act,” which would allow terminally ill patients to use experimental drugs with their doctor’s OK; and HB 528, which lays out standards, requirements and...
Gov. Butch Otter has allowed HB 463, the minimum wage pre-emption bill, to become law without his signature, saying he was “philosophically torn” over the issue. “Self-determination and local control – like independence and self-reliance – are Idaho values,” Otter wrote...
HB 628, legislation to spend $300,000 to launch state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra’s plan for rural schools centers next year by establishing a pilot center to serve North Idaho, drew extensive debate in the House this morning, before finally passing on a 44-26 vote, with…
With no debate and not a single “no” vote, the Senate has just passed, one after the other, all seven pieces of the public school budget, the largest single piece of Idaho’s state budget. The bills add up to a 6.8 percent increase in state…
In case you missed it, here’s my full story from today’s Spokesman-Review on the Senate-passed bill to repeal last year’s new $75 annual fee on hybrid cars dying without a hearing in the House, because House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer has insisted on tying it…
A grant and a study committee/To show that lawmakers have pity/For folks in the gap/Cause the session’s a wrap/It’s something, but it’s itty-bitty.
The House Health & Welfare Committee has voted 8-3 in favor of bills to establish a study committee to look into health coverage and a possible waiver for the state’s “gap” population, and to give a grant...
JFAC Co-Chair Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said, “I think there’s been a great deal of discussion in Bonner County over the last six years on the property and the plans for the property. And that discussion’s been ongoing for a number of years. There are many...
Here's our full story from today's Spokesman-Review on the latest on the Clagstone Meadows conservation easement, which JFAC will consider this morning: Stimson Lumber seeks support for N. Idaho conservation plan By Scott Maben and Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review A wood products company that…
When all the county caucuses were done, Bernie Sanders won Idaho’s Democratic presidential caucuses last night with 78 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton trailed with just 21 percent. One percent went to “uncommitted,” and Rocky De La Fuente got…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
