As JFAC set the budget for the state Department of Labor this morning, Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, raised concerns about the continuing inclusion in that budget of a “general fund phase-out” for the Idaho Human Rights Commission, cutting state general funds to that agency by $156,600 next year for the third straight year; after four years, the commission would have no general funds. The money is being replaced with dedicated funds, including federal funds, from the Department of Labor/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

• Hearing begins on Internet sales tax bill
• Testimony: “They go home, order it online, and save 6 percent”
• No dispute this year for budget-setting for Liquor Division
• ISP budget has boost but not enough for extra patrols
• Idaho retailers re: online sales tax: “It's a fairness issue”

Question: Should the Human Rights Commission be funded by the state's general fund?

Rebekah Casey of Hayden (pictured in Eye On Boise photo) was one of the individuals who testified about Medicaid cuts before the Idaho Legislature budget committee this morning (she's one pictured in Eye on Boise link). Betsy reports on Rebekah's testimony: “My husband and I have adopted two children through the foster care system. My daughter has been receiving PSR services for almost two years now.” The youngster struggles, she said. “Without the PSR services … we would not have been able to maintain her in our home.” Over the summer, Casey said, her daughter suffered a crisis, and was unable to obtain additional psycho-social rehabilitation services due to the new 5-hour cap on such services for children. “Instead we were forced to consider medicating our 4-year-old daughter, when therapy services would have been sufficient,” Casey told lawmakers. More here.

• JFAC members: 'Put a human face on our budget decisions'
• JFAC wraps up after 2 1/2 hours of public testimony
• Testimony: 'I don't know what we'll do'
• Testimony: Parents of mentally ill kids being told to get them into juvie for treatment
• Testimony: School funding, state employee pay, restoring PSR, dental cuts
• Testimony: Impact of Medicaid cuts, funding priorities, suicide hotline…
• Testimony: ‘Medicaid cuts don’t necessarily lead to savings’

Question: Should the Idaho Legislature restore Medicaid cuts?

Katherine Hansen of Boise presented lawmakers with 13,740 petitions signed by Idahoans calling for lawmakers to consider a tax increase rather than cut home and community-based services for people with disabilities. The signers, she said, are “13,740 Idahoans from every county and every city in this great state. … The people who signed these petitions urge you to approach the current budget crisis in the same way they approach their budget crisis - everything needs to be on the table”/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

• 'These programs work, so please don't cut them'
• Hearing has drawn up to 1000 to Capitol
• Testimony: Idaho is improving PSR services thru new credentialing requirements
• Testimony: 'Idaho will end up paying more'
• Testimony: 'I want to have a job'
• Quadriplegic: 'Bottom line is quality of life — let me keep mine please'
• Dentists: Proposed changes will cost state more
• Testimony: 'I was a dysfunctional mess'

Question: Would you support a state tax increase to maintain essential services such as Medicaid and schools?

Boise school teachers won’t be able to get paid time off to attend a state hearing Friday on schools spending using a special leave despite a request from the Boise Education Association (BEA). The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC), which writes the state budget, will listen to public testimony from individuals on the schools budget during its Friday meeting.  Speakers are limited to three minutes of testimony.  The hearing will likely revolve around an education reform plan backed by state schools superintendent Tom Luna that has come under fire from the Idaho Education Association (IEA). The BEA sent an e-mail to some of its members on Jan. 13 urging them to attend the meeting/Brad Iverson-Long, Idaho Reporter. More here.

Question: Should Boise teachers be able to use special leave to attend the JFAC meeting that will discuss Superintendent Tom Luna's proposed public education reform?

Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, has decided to give up his coveted seat on the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee after five years to focus on economic development legislation in the coming session. “My background is economic development, it is business management,” said Henderson, a fourth-term lawmaker. In JFAC this year, with revenue so short, Henderson said, the task will be “to do more of what we did in the last two years - keep crunching it smaller and smaller. We so badly need new revenue. I want to find ways to help our existing industries/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

Question: Who do you consider to be the best legislator from District 5 — Sen. Jim Hammond, Rep. Frank Henderson, or Rep. Bob Nonini?

Anti-Boise sentiment is easy to drum up in this state, since we’re the Capital city and everybody hates government. But after the latest shuffling in the membership of the key budgeting body of the Legislature, the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, the Treasure Valley finds itself on the decidely short end of the not-quite-so-big stick of this year’s budget: just three members instead of the six we used to have. The Mountain Goat Report picked up the editorial from south-central Idaho, where the Magic and Wood River valleys (Twin Falls, Sun Valley, that lot) have temporarily stumbled into the 30% of the Committee membership that we used to have/Fort Boise. More here.

DFO: Here, in North Idaho, we’ve been short-changed and ignored for years by the Idaho Legislature. There were times when we had one or no representatives on the budget committee. And little influence elsewhere. Ada County, the state’s most populous county, is going through something similar now. It’s hard to feel sorry for the Kingdom of Ada, given its pols haven’t felt sorry for us in the past.

Question: Do you feel ill will toward Boise, Ada County, or the Treasure Valley?