Gov. Butch Otter visited and joked easily with legislators this morning at a signing ceremony for Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan (CAMP) legislation. Walking up beforehand to a group of legislators who had taken seats in the audience, Otter put his arm around Rep. Dell Raybould's…
The House will meet on Friday, Speaker Lawerence Denney said this afternoon, "probably just a short time. We'll see what business we have. If there's something we need to do, we're at the point where we can't take a day off." Some lawmakers in both…
Here's a news item from AP: BOISE - A Boise House member demanded - and received - an apology from a northern Idaho lawmaker who accused a 2001 commission of drawing Idaho's 35 legislative districts to intentionally disadvantage some voters. Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, a Democrat…
The Senate passed some budget bills this afternoon, then adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow. Before adjournment, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, announced that the Senate will be meeting on Friday morning as well, so that senators know that when they make their weekend…
Duane Nellis, current provost and senior vice president for academics at Kansas State University, has been named the new president of the University of Idaho. Nellis had been a finalist earlier but had withdrawn over pay considerations; the final terms under which he'll take over…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has canceled its meeting that had been scheduled for 8 a.m. tomorrow. "House leadership requested that we postpone our meeting until perhaps Monday," said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. "We will make our decision later, but we will not be…
The Senate has recessed until 1:30, after a contentious procedural dispute between the majority and minority leadership over a possible override vote on the governor's vetoes. Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, objected to simply sending the vetoed budget bills back to the finance committee…
As the House prepared to wrap up its business for today, Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, rose and said, "We've got one of those cowboy poets in the loft upstairs, a gentleman from 15, he came up with a little deal that describes our situation pretty…
The House has voted 51-17 in favor of SB 1133, to change how driver's education businesses are regulated; it's a bill that prompted long and contentious hearings in committee. The House is now debating SB 1184, the redistricting bill. Meanwhile, the Senate has begun debating…
Senate Transportation Chairman John McGee, R-Caldwell, said, "I think the 25 vetoes made it pretty clear that the governor is dug in. It's up to us to come up with a plan. ... We've got to continue to have discussions." Though the House yesterday killed…
It's Earth Day, it's warm and sunny, and it's the 101st day of the legislative session. At the Capitol Annex, both houses are scheduled to go on the floor at 9:30 and run some bills, but both are running a bit late; the House has…
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today's developments in the Legislature, on the 100th day of the session.
Just as the House was taking up the transportation bill today, the Senate was amending education bills. It's no coincidence that 11 House Democrats voted in favor of the transportation bill today, when only three supported a gas tax hike in the earlier go-rounds (four…
The Senate has passed the amended versions of two controversial education bills, HB 262 and HB 256. The first one no longer phases out an early retirement incentive program for teachers, but still freezes movement on the pay grid for one year. The second one…
Among the bills that are being vetoed: Budgets for the state Department of Water Resources, the Industrial Commission, the Commerce Department, the Military Division, the Arts Commission, the Division of Human Resources, Idaho Public TV, the Blind Commission, the liquor dispensary, the Idaho Historical Society,…
Gov. Butch Otter is vetoing 25 budget bills, telling lawmakers he'll continue the vetoes until they act on his transportation plan. "We've got to continue to try, because every day the problem is going to get worse," the governor declared. "They're all bills that need…
Gov. Butch Otter has again invited the news media to his office, at 3 p.m. today (Boise time), "where he will act on legislation," according to his media advisory. Yesterday, that meant vetoes.
House Speaker Lawerence Denney said, "We are still negotiating, which means that what we have offered is not enough." That's how the House GOP press conference ended.
Answering questions from reporters, House GOP leaders said they feel like some progress is being made, though they hardly sounded optimistic. "Any time you can sit down and communicate, there's progress being made," said House Speaker Lawerence Denney. "The governor has definitely made the case…
Emerging from a meeting with the governor, House Speaker Lawerence Denney said at a news conference just now, "The vote we had on the House floor was certainly not a vote against the governor. We think the governor has certainly made his case for increased…
In the House's 15-55 vote on HB 96a, the transportation funding bill, just four Republicans voted in favor - Reps. Anderson, Black, Eskridge and Leon Smith. Eleven Democrats voted in favor.
In the latest development on this weird, wacky and wild 100th legislative day, the House Republican leadership called a press conference for 1 p.m., but when the hour arrived, spokesman Chuck Malloy had to stand up and tell a capacity crowd, "The leadership has been…
The Senate has amended three controversial education bills. The changes include eliminating the phase-out of an early-retirement program for teachers; restoring funding for busing for academic field trips; adding a two-year sunset to the portions of HB 303 that didn't already have them; and slightly…
House Speaker Lawerence Denney, after the House's overwhelming defeat of the governor's favored transportation bill, said, "I think the message is that the debate on the floor on all the other gas tax issues was the same - that we realize the need, but now…
Following the House defeat of the transportation bill, the House went at ease at Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, was presented with the "crow" to commemorate carrying a bill that receives fewer than 20 votes. Then, Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, noted that a century mark…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
