The House has now adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow. Speaker Scott Bedke asked House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer to give an update on the conference committee. “We moved a little bit today,” Palmer told the House. “Tomorrow we’re going to meet up again at 8…
The conference committee has voted unanimously to adjourn until 8 a.m. tomorrow.
Well, now it’s nearly 4 p.m., the Senate has adjourned to tomorrow morning, and the conference committee has arrived back in room WW 17. Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, distributed a handout listing “Tax Relief Provided during the 2015 Legislative Session.” There are 13 bills listed,…
Let’s say that we have to pay To speed cars and trucks on their way But what is the cost As ideas are tossed Must we see lawmaking in May?
The Senate has just adjourned until 10:30 tomorrow morning - meaning the Legislature is not adjourning sine die today. The conference committee on transportation funding still is at ease; the panel is in mid-negotiations about gas taxes. It has been meeting since 9 a.m. today;…
Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, offered a 4-cent gas tax increase next year, followed by another 2 cents two years later, and then another 2 cents four years out, a total of 8 cents. “That probably gets close to our bottom line,” he said. “That’s less…
Back at the table, the House-Senate conference committee on transportation funding picked up where it left off at its last break – talking about possible indexing of the gas tax in the future. House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, said, “As good as it sounds,”…
Idaho House OKs task force to study state's broadband system Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho House has unanimously approved a new task force to recommend changes to the state's piecemeal broadband system. The action comes after…
Jayson Ronk is still the acting president of Idaho Association of Business and Industry, and will be for the foreseeable future, reports Melissa Davlin of Idaho Public TV’s “Idaho Reports.” Widespread rumors in the Capitol had President Alex LaBeau back on the job; IACI’s board…
House members of the conference committee have come back with a counter-proposal on where to direct funds from a proposed surplus-eliminator, which would be split half-and-half between the Budget Stabilization Fund and transportation. The House members proposed rather than setting up a new fund, altering...
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — A management plan for a popular southwest Idaho federal wildlife refuge that's more accommodating for water skiers is being praised as a good compromise. The Idaho Press-Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1Jt0vIl) that U.S. Fish and...
The conference committee has gone at ease for 5 minutes at the suggestion of Chairman Bert Brackett, so each house’s delegation “can talk this over.” That came after Sen. Dean Cameron suggested Reps. John Vander Woude and Joe Palmer would be able to sell an…
House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer has come out slugging from the lunch break. Sen. Bert Brackett said, “When we adjourned, the question was … whether the presenters of the draft … if they would be receptive to including the locals in the surplus eliminator fund…
The conference committee has decided to go at ease until 12:30, after lots of questions about the House GOP's proposed surplus-eliminator plan.
The conference committee has set aside for now the question of including HB 310, the general-fund shift bill that cleared the Senate Transportation Committee yesterday, in the compromise transportation funding legislation, after Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, spoke about the demands on the state budget, including...
With absolutely no debate, the House has voted 68-1 in favor of HB 330, Rep. Mike Moyle’s bill to raise the grocery tax credit by $10 per person next year. The sole dissenter was Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley; Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, missed the vote....
The conference committee returned from its break. “We won’t attempt to resolve the hold items at this point. We’ll move on to other issues,” announced Chairman Bert Brackett. “And understand, committee, that there must be a transportation connection on issues that we can include in…
Idaho tax revenue collections exceeded projections by $23 million in March, marking the fifth consecutive month with a positive variance, reports Bill Spence of the Lewiston Tribune. Lower than anticipated corporate and individual income tax returns and higher filings contributed to the results, which were…
The conference committee has now gone at ease for 10 minutes; it’s set aside the areas on which it doesn’t agree: Gas tax, treatment of taxes on gaseous fuels, and a 60-40 split of new road funds raised. There was some debate over a section…
On other pieces of HB 312a, there was much discussion in the conference committee this morning about the addition of a provision to phase in a change in taxing of gaseous fuels, like those for liquid natural gas power buses. Gov. Butch Otter recently allowed…
On the gas tax, on which the Senate is proposing a phased-in, 10-cent hike to Idaho’s 25 cent per gallon tax over the next four years, Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, said, “In my opinion, too many steps and too high a number.” Rep. Joe...
The conference committee has reached tentative agreement on a few of pieces of the Senate amendments that the House disputed: Lowering registration fee increases for older classes of vehicles, keeping a flat $25 increase on commercial trucks, and approving slightly lower fees on hybrid and…
After brief comments about the process the conference committee will follow, Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett asked, “Any questions or clarifications?” When there were none from the other conference committee members, he said with a smile, “This is gonna be easy.” Rep. John Vander Woude,...
“We intend to have this be a short, productive meeting,” said Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, as he opened today’s conference committee meeting between the House and the Senate on transportation funding. Brackett said he’s going to ask Legislative Services Director Eric Milstead to…
Conference committee members are arriving and taking their seats; room WW17 is full for this morning's meeting. There's an overflow room across the hall, with audio; you can also listen online here.
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