Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how Idaho’s Medicaid program is facing such a big potential shortfall next year that officials are suggesting turning to volunteers to help out the disabled and poor who now rely on its services. State Health…
Idaho Fish & Game is seeking help to identify a poacher who's been taunting the agency; here's the AP's report: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Fish and Game is seeking help in identifying the person who wrote to the agency bragging about recently poaching a…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has sent a letter criticizing the federal government's proposal for the next phase of cleanup in Idaho's Silver Valley region. Otter sent a letter Monday to the Environmental…
Idaho’s state Land Board voted today to keep Tamarack Resort’s lease for state land alive through next June, opening the door to a possible ski season at the ailing Valley County resort this winter. "My only comment would be 'bravo,'" Secretary of State Ben Ysursa…
Idaho’s state prison system, with its crimped budget, has continued to put employees on furlough this year, to the tune of 90,000 furlough hours for the fiscal year. That includes 15,000 fewer hours spent monitoring probationers and parolees in the community. State Corrections Director Brent…
Idaho’s Medicaid program is projecting a $42.3 million shortfall in the current year, in state general funds. Last year, the program pushed $89.4 million in bills into the current fiscal year – leaving providers waiting from three weeks to three months for payment – in…
You can read my full story here at spokesman.com on today’s JFAC discussions, in which state lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee got a grim glimpse of the decision-making that awaits them when they convene in January, including a possible budget shortfall for next year…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A state budget analyst says Idaho could bank hefty savings from a new system designed to collect and monitor student test scores, attendance and other data from the time they enroll in kindergarten.…
A public school budget request for next year that would make this year’s historic $128 million funding cut for schools permanent – none of it would be restored - was reviewed by the Legislature’s joint budget committee this afternoon. The request is preliminary, having been…
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A State Tax Commission official says the agency will request $2.7 million in the upcoming Legislature to permanently take on workers who were hired on a temporary basis to collect unpaid taxes. Randy…
Idaho’s public employee retirement system has been deluged by calls, email and visits from worried state retirees who are concerned that it’s going to be eliminated or cut back, but PERSI Director Don Drum said there’s no truth to the rumors driving those concerns. “I…
The Public Employee Retirement Fund of Idaho has gone from 78.9 percent funded in October of 2010 to 87.7 percent funded as of last Thursday, fund director Don Drum reported to lawmakers on the joint budget committee this morning. The system’s unfunded liability has dropped…
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said he’d put state economist Derek Santos on the spot, as JFAC often did to newly retired state chief economist Mike Ferguson, while recognizing that there’s always risk in economic forecasting: He asked him what his level of confidence…
Gov. Butch Otter’s Division of Financial Management is presenting its latest revenue figures to JFAC; in October, state tax revenues were up $8.8 million over projections, for a year-to-date total of $22.8 million ahead of projections. Both individual and corporate income taxes are running well…
Idaho Sen. Jim Hammond is back on dry ground and in the light, after a sojourn on a Carnival cruise ship that drifted powerless for days. Hammond, during a break in this morning’s JFAC hearing, said it was his first cruise in 15 years, and…
JFAC, the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, is holding its interim meeting in the state Capitol today, as lawmakers begin looking ahead to the budgeting task they’ll face in January when they convene. Among the figures reviewed thus far: One-time money used in setting the fiscal…
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, addressing statehouse reporters from across the country this morning at the Capitolbeat conference in Phoenix, said he thinks the election of four Hispanic Republicans to Congress – including Idaho Congressman-elect Raul Labrador – is a promising sign for bipartisan immigration…
Jim Lynch, director of the Montana Department of Transportation, says that state has gone through an environmental review of ConocoPhillips’ application to run four giant, oversized truckloads from Lolo Pass to its Billings refinery. “Right now, we’re working out the details,” he said. That includes…
Idaho Transportation Department Director Brian Ness has scheduled a hearing for next Friday, Nov. 19, on the petition to intervene by opponents of the ConocoPhillips megaloads. That’s the hearing on whether or not the department will hold a full contest-case hearing on the proposal. You…
The number of Idaho children and teens participating in this year’s Summer Reading Program at their public libraries was up 9 percent to a record 69,000. The Idaho Commission for Libraries reports that since it launched its “Bright Futures” program in 2004, which includes a…
A business group called “Drive Our Economy” was launched this week – actually within moments of the ITD’s announcement that it was issuing but staying permits for four U.S. Highway 12 mega-loads - to promote plans to move gigantic loads of oil refinery equipment along…
The permits that ITD issued this week for the first four mega-loads on U.S. Highway 12 may say they're valid as of 10 p.m. tonight, but at this point ITD says the ConocoPhillips loads won’t be moving tonight. The permits were stayed while a hearing…
Here's a link to the permits that ITD issued today to ConocoPhillips for the first four proposed Highway 12 mega-loads, and here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on ITD's action today, issuing permits for the first four mega-loads proposed for U.S. Highway…
The Idaho Transportation Department just announced that it has issued permits today for the first four mega-loads proposed for U.S. Highway 12 in north-central Idaho, the four proposed by Conoco-Phillips, but is suspending the shipments until after a hearing officer rules on a petition for…
In a new opinion piece today, Gov. Butch Otter says he's "read all the postmortems and punditry about the 'meaning' of the November 2nd election results," and declares, "I believe most of it is well-intentioned, although there certainly is a fair amount of cynicism, condescension…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
