Governor’s Home Fund Dies In House

It isn’t often that a leadership bill gets rejected by the Idaho Legislature.

Republicans hold 84 of the 105 seats and when the leadership gets behind something, it usually skims through the Legislature.

But Rep. Kathleen Gurnsey, R-Boise, co-chairwoman of the Legislature’s Joint FinanceAppropriations Committee, battled Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs in the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday, and Gurnsey won.

The committee voted to kill legislation that would have set up another way of dealing with the problem of a new governor’s residence. It had cleared the Senate on a 32-3 vote.

The legislation would have given legislative leaders authority to spend the $1 million-plus in a fund for a new governor’s residence without going through the Legislature or the Permanent Building Fund Council, which controls state construction dollars.

But Gurnsey told committee members that an existing seven-person committee, which she heads along with Sen. Atwell Parry, R-Melba, can deal with the issue.

Idaho has had no governor’s residence since 1990 when the old home in Boise was sold and the money put toward building a new home for the state’s chief executive.

But Gurnsey said the development got caught up in politics and nothing has been decided since then.