The House Judiciary Committee has voted 8-6 in favor of revamping Idaho's 62-year-old quota system for liquor licenses, after one member switched sides from an earlier motion to kill the bill that failed on a tied vote. The move sends the Senate-passed bill to the…
The confirmation of Ruthie Johnson of Hayden Lake for another term on the Idaho Human Rights Commission prompted an hour-long debate in the Senate today, the AP reports, after Johnson's comments about gay rights during her Senate State Affairs Committee confirmation hearing aroused opposition from…
Earlier, when House Speaker Lawerence Denney introduced a last-minute bill to require voters to show picture I.D. and to end mail-in voter registration in Idaho, he said the bill probably wouldn't get a hearing this year - and then, yesterday, a hearing was scheduled for…
Asked what happens next on the gas tax, House Speaker Lawerence Denney told Eye on Boise, "I don't know, I really don't. I think the governor has made his case that we do need increased funding, and I think a case has been made here…
Gov. Butch Otter has issued this statement on the House's defeat of the gas tax bill: “First let me thank the 32 House members who showed today that they understand the issue and the stakes. I appreciate their patience, leadership, and commitment to doing the…
Here's the vote in the House to kill the gas tax bill, HB 135a, which failed, 32-37:Voting in favor: Reps. Anderson, Andrus, Bedke, Black, Block, Boe, Bolz, Chadderdon, Denney, Eskridge, Gibbs, Hagedorn, Hartgen, Henderson, Higgins, Jaquet, Jarvis, Luker, Moyle, Patrick, Raybould, Ringo, Roberts, Shirley, Smith(24),…
The House has voted 32-37 on the gas tax increase bill, HB 135a, defeating the bill. Here is House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood's entire closing debate: "The people of the state of Idaho who trust us to look at their circumstances and make decisions look…
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, asked the House, "Do you honestly think that this bill addresses the issue? ... It'll fix one pothole. ... It's still a tax increase." Clark said if the House passes the 2-cent gas tax increase, the Senate will amend it…
Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett, R-Challis, speaking against the gas tax increase bill, told the House, "Once again the government ... is ready to throw a drowning man a brick." As she rose to debate the bill, she said she'd been debating back and forth with…
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, strongly urged the House to reject the proposed gas tax increase. "This debate has lost some perspective," he said. "We keep talking about our roads going into disrepair. ... This legislature is being accused of not taking care of our roads,…
The House is now debating the gas tax bill, which would raise Idaho's gas tax by two cents a gallon next year. Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, told the House, "This doesn't build highways - this tries to fix highways that we already have. ...…
The motion from Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, to send all the stimulus money to local highway districts has passed JFAC on an 11-9 vote. Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, was the last to vote and held the deciding vote. "It's all up to you, sister,"…
JFAC is debating between three alternative motions on how to distribute $17 million in stimulus money to roads. The first, from Rep. Frank Henderson and Sen. Jim Hammond, would have the money distributed, whether to state or local roads, based on the greatest public safety…
An attempt to shift nearly $20 million from federal stimulus money that Gov. Butch Otter has suggested earmarking for additional road work failed on a party-line vote this morning in JFAC. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, proposed shifting $19.5 million from the stimulus into the public…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
