In brief: Idaho tax panel OKs aircraft legislation

BOISE – The Idaho Senate’s tax committee has unanimously endorsed legislation from Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, that he says will create at least 182 Idaho jobs over the next five years.

“That was an historical event,” Senate Tax Chairman Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, said after the vote; the Senate committee has resisted enacting any new sales tax breaks for the past four years, and last year refused to hold a hearing on the last version of a sales tax break for aircraft parts installed in Idaho into out-of-state planes.

Henderson’s version expanded the break to apply to aircraft parts businesses across the state, rather than just to one in Boise, and imposed a five-year expiration so lawmakers can evaluate how it works and decide whether they want to extend it. The bill now moves to the full Senate. It earlier passed the House unanimously.

Fransen new head of environment agency

BOISE – Curt Fransen, a former deputy attorney general who represented Idaho on mine cleanup and other resource issues in Coeur d’Alene for 10 years, has been named the new director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

Fransen has served as the department’s deputy director since 2007; he represented state agencies in North Idaho from 1997 to 2007.

Fransen will replace current Director Toni Hardesty, who is leaving for a position as the Idaho director of the Nature Conservancy; she’s been in the post since 2004.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, who announced the appointment Tuesday, said, “One of the best measures of Toni’s effectiveness as director is the quality of the team she’s built at DEQ, and Curt is Exhibit A.”

Budget plan restores Pend Oreille funding

BOISE – The Pend Oreille Lakes Commission, which lost its $50,000 a year in state funding this year to Idaho state budget cuts, would be funded again next year under a budget plan approved by the Idaho Legislature’s joint budget committee on Tuesday.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, proposed the budget for the state Department of Environmental Quality, which closely matches Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendation except for adding back the funding for that commission and the Bear Lake Commission, which also lost its funding this year.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved Keough’s proposal unanimously. It still must pass both houses and receive the governor’s signature to become law, but budget bills rarely change after they’re set by the joint committee.

Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, who backed the plan, said only interim funding from Avista Corp. has kept the commission operating.