Democratic legislators from both houses offered an unusually positive response today to GOP Gov. Butch Otter’s State of the State message to lawmakers yesterday. “Clearly we need a better way forward, and the governor and our GOP leaders are beginning to understand that,” said House…
Idaho’s state Board of Examiners, which consists of the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general and the state controller, has voted unanimously to approve the claim for $401,663 in attorney fees and costs in the state’s same-sex marriage litigation that a federal judge…
Boise 8th grader Ilah Hickman’s bill to make the Idaho giant salamander the official state amphibian is the first bill introduced in the Idaho Legislature this year, after the House State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce the measure this morning. “I’m hoping this will be…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter called for boosts to school funding and tax cuts for businesses and top earners in his State of the State message to a joint session of the Legislature on Monday. But the chairman of the Senate Tax Committee, Jeff Siddoway, said school funding must come before tax cuts, and schools in his areas are hurting...
A new report from the Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations today finds that when the Legislature doesn’t allocate any money for pay raises for state employees and instead directs agencies to use any salary savings they incur for raises, the result is an inequitable distribution...
Speaking with reporters at a news conference after his State of the State address today, Gov. Butch Otter said he wants Idaho lawmakers to agree to join the streamlined sales tax project – something lawmakers have been debating but have resisted in recent years –...
“Ladies and gentlemen, look high above you,” Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers as he concluded his State of the State message today. “Within this magnificent chamber so beautifully renovated just a few years ago, you see an Idaho sky through a vaulted dome of glass....
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter had this to say about the same-sex marriage issue: “It is incumbent upon those of us sworn to uphold and defend our Constitution and to do so based on its content now – not on changing societal values since it was…
After funding the state’s first behavioral health crisis center in Idaho Falls this year, the state should add another next year, Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers in his State of the State message today. His budget includes $1.7 million for a second center, but doesn’t...
Gov. Butch Otter has made reference to his Medicaid redesign workgroup’s findings. “I have studied the recommendations of my Medicaid Redesign Workgroup and agree with its findings – up to a point,” he told lawmakers. “I especially appreciate the work group’s strong focus on personal…
“The time has come for Idaho to prepare for a potential change in federal law to address the issue of tax equity. It’s called the Marketplace Fairness Act,” Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers. “As many of you know, that legislation now before Congress would clarify…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter long has favored tax cuts; now, he’s calling for cutting the personal and corporate income tax rates for Idaho’s highest earners each year for the next five years, to drop them from the current 7.4 percent to 6.9 percent. In the…
Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers, “The biggest of the big-ticket items in our infrastructure inventory is our long-term, multibillion-dollar investment in Idaho’s roads and bridges. And if ‘Idaho Learns’ means anything at all, it’s time for us to address that elephant in the room.” “The...
Otter is praising Idaho’s higher education system and calling for boosts in the areas Idaho’s universities have named as their top priorities, a computer science initiative at Boise State University, an employee readiness initiative at the University of Idaho, career path internships at Idaho State…
Several times during his State of the State message today, Otter has returned to the phrase “Idaho learns.” He said Idaho has learned from its contract problems with the Idaho Education Network, for which the state’s $60 million contract was declared illegal. “The kind and…
Idaho has “put off making some tough decisions for too long,” Gov. Butch Otter told the Legislature in his State of the State message. “That cannot and must not continue.” He said he’ll outline issues today “on which I believe we must act, not in…
“Public confidence must be earned anew every day,” Idaho Gov. Butch Otter told lawmakers in his State of the State message today. “So let us begin our work together unfettered by cynicism or mistrust, and with a sure understanding of our limitations as well as…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has arrived in the House chamber for his State of the State message, where he was announced by Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis. Otter began his speech with acknowledgement of his near-100-year-old mom, who is watching by video. Then, he asked…
Both the House and the Senate have now convened in advance of the governor’s State of the State message today; here House Speaker Scott Bedke presides over the House. Preliminary business in the House included the appointment Vicki Purdy of New Meadows to serve as…
The state will rebid its disputed Idaho Education Network broadband contract, Idaho Education News reports this morning, but it’s not clear when – and in the meantime, school districts may pursue their own funding to keep their schools wired. Kevin Richert of Idaho EdNews covered…
Gov. Butch Otter will give his State of the State and budget message today at 1 p.m. MT, to a joint session of the Legislature assembled in the House chamber. Otter will lay out his agenda, kicking off this year’s legislative session. The House and...
A new Idaho poll by Utah pollster Dan Jones & Associates finds that 61 percent of Idaho registered voters support Medicaid expansion, and just 29 percent oppose it; the poll, commissioned by Idaho Politics Weekly, surveyed 520 Idaho voters and had a margin of error…
This could be the year that the Idaho Legislature finally moves toward long-sought goals, from restoring school funding back to 2009 levels to holding a hearing on whether to ban discrimination against gays. Boosting funding for maintaining the state’s deterioriating road system is high on…
About 750,000 Idaho residents, or nearly 47 percent of the state’s population, consider themselves hunters or anglers. Yet less than half of them buy hunting or fishing licenses each year, reports S-R reporter Becky Kramer. Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials want to increase…
State Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, a member of the legislative panel that oversees the troubled Idaho Education Network has sent out a guest editorial to Idaho newspapers entitled, “What We Should (Have) Be(en) Doing About the IEN.” In it, he calls for the state to…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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