Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the reaction from lawmakers today to the governor's plan to phase out state funding for Idaho Public Television over the next four years. "I just don't see this committee doing that," said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, JFAC co-chair. "We're not going to fund based on what we think is going to happen the next year or the year after that. ... They're going to be subject to the same level of reduction as everyone else." IPTV had its budget hearing before JFAC today.

Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, the panel's other co-chair, said, "It's my personal feeling that they're part of the education system." Without any state funding, she said, the system couldn't serve all of Idaho's rural areas. Bell said she hopes the IPTV folks get together with Gov. Butch Otter and talk about "business plans," as state Parks Director Nancy Merrill did, prompting Otter to drop his "conceptual" proposal to eliminate the state Parks Department. "I have a little ray of hope that they're working with the governor's office to try and find a business plan that may be more to his liking," she said.

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