Saying mothers should stay home with their children, members of a House committee have killed legislation to require minimum safety standards and criminal history checks for Idaho day-cares. “It’s gut-wrenching for me,” Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, said before the 6-5 vote against the bill. “What…
Anti-hunger advocates gathered on the Statehouse steps today, holding signs with slogans including, “No more hunger in Idaho!” “Food is a basic right” “Hungry for Justice” “Idaho is the 8th hungriest state in the nation” and “No one should suffer from hunger.” Religious leaders from…
After all that debate, all those motions, and all those numbers, here’s what the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee decided this morning on the public schools budget: They set it at $1.37 billion in state general funds, a 5.9 percent increase over this year’s budget. That’s only…
Talk about an ambitious agenda – JFAC this morning was scheduled to set the budget for public schools, parks and rec, and Medicaid, too. Certainly everyone's trying to make this a short session, but that proved a bit much. The joint committee ran well over…
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, tried to add funding to replace 70 percent of lost Craig-Wyden funds to rural Idaho school districts to one of the motions for the public school budget – if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the payments. But her move fell short on a…
As it begins its biggest day of budget-setting of the session, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning voted 17-3 to add funding to the parks budget for next year for a $3 million bridge at Eagle Island State Park and for $2.14 million to purchase…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
