The Senate Transportation Committee spent lots of time debating before finally voting in favor of SB 1206, the $320 million-plus transportation funding bill, on a voice vote.. Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, moved to approve the bill, and Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, seconded the motion.…
The House has voted 51-19 in favor of HB 67a, the bill to remove Idaho’s 6 percent sales tax on groceries. Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, spoke out in favor of the bill. “I think it’s immoral. I think it’s wrong to tax people on their...
The House is now taking up HB 67a, the grocery tax repeal bill. Meanwhile, the Senate Transportation Committee is in the midst of debating SB 1206, the new transportation funding bill.
At 3:56 p.m., the Senate gaveled back into order. Immediately read across the desk was SB 1206, the new transportation funding bill. Also read was a joint memorial supporting an F-35 million at Gowen Field, HJM 9. Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, announced…
Finally, the Senate Judiciary Committee got the new transportation bill from Sen. Bert Brackett, Rogerson. He went over the provisions of the bill, and as soon as he’d finished, Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, moved to introduce the bill. Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, seconded the...
The House came back on the floor, and received the Rev & Tax Committee’s recommendation in favor of concurring with the Senate amendments to HB 67, the grocery tax repeal bill. The House then agreed by unanimous consent to concur in those Senate amendments. The...
The Senate Judiciary & Rules Committee, which had been scheduled to meet at 2:15 to introduce a new transportation bill, had a holdup as it waited for the new bill to be printed; it’s still waiting. The new bill, from Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett,...
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee has voted unanimously, 16-0, in favor of concurring in the Senate amendments to HB 67a, to repeal the state's 6 percent sales tax on groceries.
In his closing comments to the House Rev & Tax Committee, Sen. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, said of the current 6 percent sales tax on groceries, “It’s not the best policy in the sense that it is a necessity. … It can become a dire necessity.”…
In more testimony on the grocery tax repeal bill, all in favor of it: Eileen Stachowski of the Idaho Farmers Market Association said her members support the bill, and it would help those who sell food as well as those who buy it. Tammy Nichols...
Among those testifying at this afternoon’s hearing on the proposal to repeal Idaho’s 6 percent sales tax on groceries: Fred Birnbaum of the Idaho Freedom Foundation said he believes the estimates of the cost of the repeal are “high end,” and he believes it actually…
Sen. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, is running down the basics of the grocery tax repeal bill; he was the sponsor of the amendments in the Senate that transformed HB 67a from an income tax cut bill into a grocery tax repeal bill. The bill as amended,…
Despite the relatively short notice, there’s close to a full house for this afternoon’s hearing on HB 67a, the grocery tax repeal bill.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled at meeting for 2:15 p.m. in Room WW54, to consider introducing a new transportation bill sponsored by Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett. R-Rogerson.
The Senate has failed to override Gov. Butch Otter’s veto of SB 1057, which sought to make changes to the state’s annual salary survey that’s used for comparing state employee wages, among other changes; the vote was 16-19, far from the two-thirds majority needed to…
The House has recessed until 3 p.m. to allow time for a public hearing on HB 67a, the bill that previously was an income tax cut bill, but now would remove Idaho’s 6 percent sales tax from groceries. “HB 67 left the House as an…
With all the fuss in the House this session about waiving full reading of bills, Rep. John McCrostie, D-Boise, offered a solution today: A constitutional amendment doing away with the requirement for full reading of bills, and instead requiring reading of the bills by title.…
Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, proposed new legislation in the House Ways & Means Committee today to allow government agencies to publish legal notices on their websites, if they choose, rather than in a newspaper. Luker said he proposed similar legislation earlier, and the House Local...
Three new bills were introduced in the House Ways & Means Committee just now, but only one of the three is intended to proceed beyond introduction: A new version of SB 1144 from Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, addressing state alcohol laws and nudity. Luker said…
The House has gone at recess until 11:30, and the House Ways & Means Committee has scheduled a meeting – right now – in room EW 05. Three proposed new bills are on its agenda: One from Rep. Ron Nate regarding “legal notices of governmental…
While the House has been going through and passing many of the bills on its calendar, while putting others off; Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, told the Senate they have just one bill on their calendar today – SB 1162, the $300 million…
It’s been an item much in play in the negotiations between the House and Senate over transportation funding, and was addressed in, for example, SB 1188, the “kitchen sink” bill that the Senate defeated last week. So explanations are in order. Idaho financed its Capitol...
Gov. Butch Otter has issued his first two vetos of this year’s legislative session, vetoing SB 1046, which sought to require Health Savings Accounts under state employee health benefits plans; and SB 1057, which sought to change the requirements for the annual state survey of…
With the Idaho Legislature having maintained all year that it would be done by March 24 – that’s this past Friday – two House members had plans and couldn’t be here this week, so they’ve named substitutes. This morning, House Speaker Scott Bedke swore in...
Once the House convened this morning, and went through various formalities including referrals of bills, it went at ease. House Speaker Scott Bedke asked the majority leadership, the minority leadership, and the House Transportation chairman to meet him in the hallway. Negotiations are hot and…
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