Idaho Legislature Week 7

The seventh week of Idaho's 2010 legislative session in photos

Section:Gallery

Fri., Feb. 26, 2010

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee begins setting budgets for state agencies for fiscal year 2011 on Monday morning.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
David Ripley, lobbyist for "Idaho Chooses Life," answers questions from the Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday morning about SB 1353, the "conscience" bill protecting health care providers who refuse to provide treatments or medications related to abortion, emergency contraception or end-of-life care. Behind him is Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, the bill's lead legislative sponsor.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
This proposed special license plate would raise money to help maintain trails around the state on which mountain biking is allowed. The plate won support from the House on Monday on a 49-18 vote; the measure, HB 486, now moves to the Senate.

Courtesy Photo Idaho Legislature
Midwives and home-birth advocates from around the state, many with babies in tow, visited the state Capitol on Monday as Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, unsuccessfully sought to introduce legislation to ease last year's law establishing midwife licensing in Idaho.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Idaho House convenes on Monday with a gallery full of visiting schoolchildren.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Retired state and local government employees participate in a press conference Monday on the Statehouse steps, in a cold, biting wind; they're protesting HCR 42, the measure to block a scheduled 1 percent cost-of-living increase for state retirees scheduled to take effect next month.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, keeps a well-highlighted printout of the U.S. Constitution on his desk in his state Capitol basement cubicle. The third-term Idaho lawmaker has proposed a dozen bills so far this session, his busiest session yet.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee sets agency budgets on Tuesday morning, including the first general-fund budget, for the Idaho judicial branch. That budget reflects a deep cut in funding that's expected to be partly made up by a new emergency surcharge on all convictions for the next three years.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee set a capital budget for next year on Tuesday that includes few new building projects beyond a maintenance shop at an Orofino prison and various alteration and repair projects.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announces the top 10 sources of consumer complaints to his office in 2009, a list that was topped by mortgage-modification fraud complaints. At a news conference in his office on Tuesday, Wasden said consumer complaints to his office in 2009 were up 11 percent.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Senate Commerce Chairman John Andreason, R-Boise, left, and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, right, brief reporters along with Senate GOP spokesman Phil Hardy, center, about the decision Tuesday morning to cancel a scheduled 1:30 hearing on HCR 42, a bill to block a COLA for state retirees. The cancellation means the bill is dead, and retirees will get their scheduled 1 percent COLA.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, presents legislation to the House Resources Committee on Tuesday to exempt hunting licenses and tags from the Idaho Public Records Law.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Gov. Butch Otter addresses the Idaho Press Club on Wednesday

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Idaho Press Club members listen to Gov. Butch Otter speak Wednesday morning as part of his annual "Headliner" address to the press, which included an on-the-record question-and-answer session.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Gov. Butch Otter visits with members of the press after his annual talk to the Idaho Press Club on Wednesday. Otter said during his talk that he supports a 1 percent COLA for state retirees; he's still waiting to announce his re-election plans; and he opposes pending legislation to gut last year's bill to require vehicle emission testing in Canyon County.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Idaho House deliberates during its session on Wednesday morning, which included unanimous approval for HB 544, the bill to set up a "higher education stabilization fund" to ease state colleges and universities through future economic downturns. There's not much money to put in the fund yet, however; the bill now moves to the Senate.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Sen. Eliot Werk, D-Boise, and Rep. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, center, co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, confer Wednesday afternoon while hearing a new report showing that delays in releasing Idaho prisoners on parole are costing the state millions. At left is Sen. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello; at right is Rakesh Mohan, head of the Legislature's Office of Performance Evaluations.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The House Environment, Energy & Technology Committee debates HB 591, a measure to block a new requirement for vehicle emissions testing in Canyon County, on Wednesday afternoon before voting 6-5 to kill the bill.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Idaho Senate deliberates during a floor session. Among bills senators passed on Thursday was HB 422, to eliminate an archaic law making it a crime for a prosecutor or law enforcement officer to not prosecute "any act of gambling," of any type, that they know about. The bill now goes to the governor.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee gathers at a 7 a.m. workshop on Friday to go over motions it'll consider in its regular 8 a.m. budget-setting meeting. During the workshop, Rep. Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls, said he'd agreed to withdraw proposed intent language to block the Department of Agriculture from drawing on unlimited deficiency warrants for the anti-quagga mussel invasive species program, at least for another year.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Friday morning sets budgets for the Idaho Department of Fish & Game, the Office of Species Conservation and the Soil Conservation Commission. All three decisions were unanimous.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
JFAC Co-Chairs Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, left, and Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, right, confer during Friday morning's meeting of the joint budget committee. The panel set a budget for the Commission on Hispanic Affairs for next year that mirrors cuts to other agencies; it didn't address Gov. Butch Otter's proposal to phase out all state funding for that commission and six other agencies over the next four years.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Friday discuss the upcoming big debate and vote on the public school budget, which is set for Monday.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, debates in favor of SB 1353, the abortion, emergency contraception and end-of-life care "conscience" bill for health care providers, in the Senate on Friday morning. He's the lead sponsor of the bill, which specifically permits providers to refuse to provide care on conscience grounds, while protecting their jobs.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, the House minority caucus chair, talks about an hour-long closed caucus House Democrats held on Friday to discuss school funding. The Democrats are expecting a "strong split' in JFAC on Monday between supporters of the plan outlined by JFAC co-chairs, and backers of an even lower budget for schools.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review