The Senate Resources Committee today agreed to introduce legislation from the Fish and Game Department setting up a program to allow hunting of wolves in Idaho once the animal is removed from the federal endangered species list, reports S-R reporter Parker Howell. But the Fish…
House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, opened her pitch for her grocery tax relief bill with this comment: “Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I wish I were governor and had Michael Ferguson working for me. He made a good presentation.”Ferguson, Gov. Butch Otter’s…
The public hearing on the four grocery tax relief bills has just concluded, and here’s the overall score: After the sponsors of the four bills spoke, seven people testified. Four of the seven spoke in favor of Gov. Butch Otter’s targeted tax credit proposal, HB…
Here’s a follow-up to a story I reported on in December, when it turned out that a deputy director of the state Agriculture Department who was replaced last June was still on the state payroll, and was drawing his full $87,000-a-year salary through Dec. 31…
GOP senators bristled, harrumphed and took umbrage this morning when faced with legislation sponsored by all seven Democratic senators to start a public financing program for state campaigns in Idaho, and to require financial disclosure of state elected officials’ assets – saying backers of the…
Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, introduced legislation this morning designed to require parental consent for minors’ abortions. Idaho already has passed such legislation three other times, only to have it overturned in court each time – with the state being ordered to pay court costs and…
Idaho's state liquor dispensary could serve a growing customer base better and make more profit if it opened three new stores, but Gov. Butch Otter opposes the move as growth in government. Otter recommended against the three new stores – one of which would be…
The Nez Perce Tribe has put out a press release noting that this week’s 9th Circuit court ruling on field burning in Idaho doesn’t apply to Indian reservations. The ruling found that field burning actually has been illegal in Idaho under federal law since 1993…
Idaho’s state liquor dispensary has seen a huge jump in sales since 2002 – 87 percent – but not because Idahoans are necessarily boozing it up more. Instead, according to dispensary Superintendent Dyke Nally, the increase is coming from two things: population growth, and customers…
Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, just convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee to endorse his bill to revoke hunting privileges for life for anyone who shoots someone while hunting and then is convicted of manslaughter. “It seems to me that a person’s life is worth more…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee has agreed unanimously to introduce four grocery tax bills: One from Gov. Butch Otter to create his targeted grocery tax credit, which gives a much higher credit to low-income Idahoans and costs the state an additional $22 million a…
Field-burning has actually been illegal in Idaho under federal law since 1993, a federal appeals court ruled today. “This decision shows that the handwriting is on the wall for field-burning in Idaho,” said David Baron, a Washington, D.C. attorney with Earthjustice, which represented Safe Air…
According to a new statewide poll, Idahoans see availability of renewable resources as the state’s top energy priority and support using both incentives and regulations to cause change, reports S-R reporter Parker Howell – positions considerably more aggressive than those embodied in state energy plan…
The compromise plan between the governor and the Legislature over adding underground “wings” to the state capitol is being presented to the state Capitol Commission now, but not without some concerns being raised. Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, told the commission, “I stand very reluctantly.”…
State Corrections Director Brent Reinke said with Idaho’s growth in prisoners, parolees and probationers, 19,000 offenders are now managed by the Department of Correction. “We are involved in the lives of one out of every 36 adult males in Idaho,” he told JFAC. “That’s a…
The House voted unanimously Monday to raise the cap on Idaho's rainy-day fund, but that change could have a tough time competing against school funding and grocery tax relief, a key senator said. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, would lift the…
The new Idaho Chamber Alliance has adopted these issues as its legislative agenda this year: Supporting an expanded community college system, including lowering the supermajority to form a new community college district. Increasing high school graduation requirements in math and science. Supporting local-option taxation to…
Democrat Jerry Brady gave Butch Otter a run for his money in the last gubernatorial election by running under the campaign slogan “Idaho is not for sale,” criticizing Otter for first supporting, then rejecting a plan to sell off public lands. But now Otter is…
Dawn Wells, who portrayed Mary Ann on the famed TV show “Gilligan’s Island,” has a message for legislators when they visit the displays at ‘Idaho Film Day’ in the fourth-floor rotunda of the state capitol today. “We’re here for the incentives for the film industry,”…
More than 100 years ago, an elaborate vault was built in the state capitol for the state treasurer to keep the state’s treasury – the money. “All state moneys in the custody of the state treasurer not otherwise deposited or invested … shall be kept…
Both the Legislature and the governor will ask the state Capitol Commission when it meets on Tuesday to approve a change in the capitol renovation and expansion plans to include single-story, rather than two-story, underground wings at either end of the state capitol. The idea…
Members of leadership from both houses emerged from the governor’s office a few minutes ago and said there’s an agreement in principle on the capitol wings, though it’s not final. “It’s our opinion that the Capitol Commission still has a significant stake – so we…
House Speaker Lawerence Denney says he and other members of legislative leadership will be meeting with Gov. Butch Otter “sometime today” on the capitol wings issue that has stalled the entire renovation of the state Capitol, and put a damper on the opening weeks of…
House Tax Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, says he hasn’t been buried in grocery tax relief proposals, after asking all lawmakers to get him their proposed bills by today. He has Gov. Butch Otter’s bill in hand, and a couple others. “We’ll be having the print…
HB 7, a bill to deepen the state’s involvement in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project that may someday lead to taxing Internet sales, nearly died in the House Rev & Tax Committee this morning when conservative lawmakers clamored to kill it. “This is unconstitutional,” said…