At this crazy point in a legislative session, everyone’s under pressure – but some handle it with humor. Lenette Bendio, attaché in the legislative bill and mail room, had this sign posted on her counter today: “Sarcasm – Just one more service we provide.”
The House has voted 48-22 to override Gov. Butch Otter’s veto of HB 81a, the bill to increase the grocery tax credit across the board. Otter wanted a targeted, means-tested plan instead, but lawmakers didn’t support that. “Everybody knows the track record with this bill…
Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, just noted that Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis was “frowning” so he said he’d refrain from a comment he was about to make in JFAC. Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said, “Don’t be afraid of my leadership – I’m not…
On a 12-8 vote, JFAC has just approved a motion from Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, to fund GARVEE projects next year at the same level as his earlier successful motion – $246 million – with the same list of dollar amounts per project. That…
Gov. Butch Otter today, for the first time, sounded ready to let the grocery tax relief issue go for this year. “My bill wasn’t going to take effect until 2008,” he said. “What I’m saying is that we could get busy in early January next…
As the House debated the public school budget today, there was lots of back-and-forth about the budget plan’s 3 percent raises for school employees, as opposed to the 5 percent merit-pay increase state agency employees are getting, reports S-R reporter Parker Howell. House Education Committee…
The House Ways & Means Committee has voted unanimously to introduce legislation to ban former legislators from working as paid lobbyists for one year – with House Speaker Lawerence Denney as a co-sponsor along with House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet. “This is one of the…
The three public school budget bills that the Senate passed this morning have been rushed over to the House, where they’ve suspended rules and taken them up right away. This kind of speedy movement happens only at the end of a legislative session – and…
Gov. Butch Otter has scheduled his long-promised “water summit” for April 17th in Burley. “The Idaho Supreme Court’s March 5 ruling that the state has authority to manage ground water and surface water as a single resource cleared the way for that summit to occur,”…
Kurt Douglas, an engineer at Micron Technology, is filling in for Boise Sen. Elliot Werk today. In the Senate, Douglas spoke out on the school budget and the 3 percent vs. 5 percent for raises. “Five percent of an apple is always going to be…
The Senate has just adjourned until tomorrow in memory of former Rep. Janet Miller, R-Boise, whose funeral is this afternoon. The former lawmaker and longtime Republican activist died last week of cancer. Both houses are adjourning early today to allow lawmakers to attend her funeral.
The Senate has passed the remaining pieces of the public school budget – a key move toward finishing up the legislative session. The bills still need House approval and the governor’s signature to become law. Objections to the budgets came from a handful of senators,…
The news yesterday about the prospects for ending this now-overdue legislative session was almost too depressing to post – there was none. House Speaker Lawerence Denney said at noon that he hadn’t spoken with the governor since the previous Wednesday. This morning’s JFAC meeting was…
The Senate State Affairs Committee has agreed on a party-line vote to introduce legislation changing Idaho’s primary election system. Under the proposed plan, Idahoans would have to register with a political party, but they could choose ‘independent’ and still vote in primary elections. However, their…
House Democrats have drafted legislation to ban legislators from being paid as legislative lobbyists for a year after they leave the Legislature, and House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said the bill will be considered next week in the House Ways & Means Committee. “We…
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has set Joseph Duncan’s trial on federal kidnapping, murder and child-molesting charges for next January, splitting the difference between the prosecution’s request to start the trial in July and the defense’s to put it off until August of 2008. The…
Although Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, has been teased by fellow lawmakers about his concerns about state agencies' use of vehicle fleets, he wants to contact every state agency over the summer and submit a report on vehicle use to the Legislature next year, Parker…
But we won’t be. That was the message House Majority Leader Mike Moyle just gave the House. “You guys have done a really good job today and we’re caught up, we really could be done tomorrow. But there’s a few things in the wings,” he…
Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said of Gov. Butch Otter’s veto of the bill to ban smoking in Idaho bowling alleys, “I don’t think it has anything to do with me.” Hill, the Senate tax chairman, was the lead Senate sponsor of the smoking bill –…
Lawmakers have gotten a lot of mileage out of criticism by Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, of vehicle fleets used by state agencies, Parker Howell reports. Last week, Nonini voted against a Department of Health and Welfare funding bill, arguing that he sees unused vehicles…
Gov. Butch Otter has just vetoed HB 121, the bill to ban smoking in Idaho bowling alleys. “Given legislative concerns about ‘social engineering,’ particularly in regard to my proposal for targeted expansion of the grocery tax credit, in the interest of consistency it seems reasonable…
Just before the vote on the tribal fuel tax bill, HB 249a, Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, asked to have the Senate put at ease and a big brouhaha among leaders from both parties ensued, with rule books waving. The problem? Sen. Lee Heinrich,…
The Senate Republican caucus has emerged after long hours in caucus debating over the GARVEE bonding plan. “We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re talking about doing something with GARVEE,” said Caucus Chairman Brad Little, R-Emmett. Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, said he’s glad…
After dealing with topics such as restricting Idaho's primaries and making English Idaho's official language, the House State Affairs Committee tackled a less controversial topic this morning, reports Parker Howell: who showed up to meetings earliest. Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, distributed prizes to the earliest…
The House has voted 53-17 against concurring in Senate amendments to HB 74, which originally was an innocuous tax break for a specific charity on airplanes it uses overseas in charitable missions, but had been remade in the Senate into a bill to stop Cabela’s…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
| Dec. 2007 | Nov. 2007 | Oct. 2007 | Sept. 2007 |
| Aug. 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 |
| April 2007 | March 2007 | Feb. 2007 | Jan. 2007 |
