Senate Education Chairman John Goedde announced at the close of today’s Senate Education Committee that “there will be an RS (bill) or two that will be printed in the House committee tomorrow,” and then will come up for a hearing before the joint House and…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — On party-line votes, the House approved two school board association-backed bills aiming give to districts more leverage during negotiations as well as require the teachers union to prove it represents a majority of…
Just as soon as the Senate Education Committee convened this afternoon, Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, moved to approve HB 65 and send it to the Senate with a recommendation that it pass. Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, seconded the motion. “It seems to me that for…
Five bills were introduced in the House Transportation Committee this week for big boosts in state funding for roads, from shifting sales taxes from sales of tires and automotive equipment to the highway fund, to phasing in a 10-cent increase in Idaho’s gas tax, to…
Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, has just announced that the Senate and House Education committees will hold a joint hearing on Monday morning at 8. He said notices will be going up shortly for that joint hearing. Meanwhile, the Senate Education Committee…
The Senate has voted 28-7 in favor of HB 221a, the bill overhauling charter school governance in Idaho. Like HB 206a, the charter school facilities funding bill, the measure now heads back to the House for concurrence in the Senate amendments.
Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, said HB 221a, the charter school governance bill, overhauls Idaho’s charter school system in ways negotiated by stakeholders including the Idaho Charter School Network, the Idaho School Boards Association, the State Department of Education and others. “It made great strides…
The Senate has voted 20-15 in favor of HB 206a, the charter school facilities funding bill. That measure now returns to the House for concurrence in the Senate amendments. Now, the Senate is taking up HB 221, the bill making changes to charter school governance…
In the debate on HB 206a, the charter school facilities funding bill: Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, said, “We’re talking about taking money out of the general fund. … They actually set up a parallel system rather than integrating systems together. … We’re making new statutory…
The Senate is now debating HB 206a, the bill to provide state funding for school facilities at charter schools, to be distributed through a per-student formula. “I would argue that all schools have improved due to the presence of these public charter schools, and as…
Talking with reporters after his bill-signing ceremony this morning, Gov. Butch Otter called his meeting with key lawmakers and others last night on the failed public school vote in the Senate yesterday a “successful” one. “I believe that No. 1 that meeting that we had…
Gov. Butch Otter held a bill-signing ceremony this morning for HB 100, establishing a $3 million “Idaho Opportunity Fund” in the state Department of Commerce to help the state convince existing and new businesses to create jobs in Idaho, by awarding grants to communities to…
Gov. Butch Otter met with legislative leaders for 45 minutes this afternoon, and they emerged with only one thing certain: The session won’t be ending Friday, following today’s Senate defeat of the $1.3 billion public schools budget. Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, told the…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Senate voted 26-8 to divert money from a Department of Fish and Game hunter-access program to wolf control, an effort backed by the state's livestock industry. Wednesday's vote came over objections from…
The Senate Education Committee has posted a meeting agenda for tomorrow at 1 p.m., and it includes HB 65, the budget fix for schools for the current year that makes sure schools don’t lose $30 million in current-year funding due to the failure of Propositions…
When was the last time a public school budget was defeated on the floor of the Idaho House or Senate? Turns out the answer is 1992, and it was a doozy. That year, the first version of the school budget, HB 704, failed in the…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho State Board of Education has named Donald Burnett as interim president of the University of Idaho. Burnett is the dean of the College of Law at the Moscow-based university. The board…
(See Davlin post and Popkey post for the background on this) To Facebook with such a lament Good Senator Hagedorn went There to embroil With Moyle and Boyle And where they did all cybervent.
The House has voted 63-7 in favor of SCR 112, the resolution stating that it’s the position of the Idaho Legislature that marijuana should never be legalized in the state for any purpose. “It doesn’t do anything other than just state our position that we’re…
HB 176, Coeur d’Alene GOP Rep. Kathy Sims’ bill to ban Idaho voters who’ve moved overseas from voting in state or local elections, has been defeated by a single vote in the Senate. The bill was just voted down, 17-18, after senators raised concerns about…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today’s stunning and historic defeat of the public school budget by one vote in the Senate, derailing plans to end Idaho’s legislative session this week. Though opponents complained that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee overstepped its…
Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, who led the historic move in the Senate to defeat the public school budget today – after it had cleared the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on a 15-5 vote and passed the House 52-16 – said after the vote…
With the defeat of the public school budget in the Senate today, the legislative session won't end this week as had been anticipated. "I think at a minimum you're adding another week to the session," said JFAC Co-Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.
Here’s how senators voted in today’s historic defeat of the public schools budget, HB 323: Voting in favor of the budget bill: Sens. Bock, Buckner-Webb, Cameron, Davis, Durst, Hill, Johnson, Keough, Lacey, Lakey, Lodge, McKenzie, Rice, Schmidt, Stennett, Tippets, and Werk. Voting against: Sens. Bair,…
The Senate has defeated the public school budget, HB 323, by one vote; it was 17-18.
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
| March 2013 | ||||
| 29 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 25 |
| 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 |
| 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 |
| 08 | 07 | 06 | 05 | 04 |
| 03 | 01 |
