House Speaker Lawerence Denney is less optimistic this morning than he was last week, and now says, "I doubt that we get done this week." Both houses are preparing to go into session this morning and work through their calendars, which are populated largely with…
On tonight's "Idaho Reports" program on Idaho Public Television, I joined BSU political scientist emeritus Jim Weatherby, Rep. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, and Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, along with host Thanh Tan, to discuss the legislative events…
After the House passed the GARVEE bond bill today, handing Gov. Butch Otter a rare victory in his transportation initiative this year, House Speaker Lawerence Denney said, "I think we can finish next week - I hope we can finish." Denney said he's not planning…
Here's how the House voted in the 39-29 vote to pass SB 1186, the $82 million GARVEE bonding program for highways for next year:Voting in favor: Reps. Anderson, Bayer, Bell, Bilbao, Black, Block, Boe, Bolz, Burgoyne, Chadderdon, Chavez, Chew, Collins, Crane, Cronin, Durst, Eskridge, Gibbs,…
The House has voted 49-15 in favor of a small increase in state Fish & Game fees that targets only non-residents. The bill, SB 1141a, earlier passed the Senate and now goes to the governor.
The House has voted 39-29 on SB 1186, the Senate-passed bill to issue $82 million in highway bonds next year, passing the bill and sending it to the governor. The vote came after a long debate dominated by the bill's opponents. House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn…
So far, the debate in the House on GARVEE bonds is coming mostly from opponents. Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, said, "Borrowing money and passing the debt on to our kids - I sure don't want to be a part of something like that." Rep. Phil…
Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, who sits next to Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, told the House, "I love my seatmate, but he's misguided." Smith, speaking against the GARVEE bonding bill, asked the House, "Should we be doing this huge GARVEE program, building highways with a…
The House has moved the $82 million GARVEE bonding program to the top of its calendar and begun its debate. "By the end of this construction season, 130 lane miles of road will have been improved with the aid of GARVEE," Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover,…
Don Soltman, vice president of Kootenai Medical Center, has been unanimously confirmed to the state Board of Education, to which Gov. Butch Otter nominated him. Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, told the Senate, "I've known Don for a number of years and I highly recommend…
Here's a link to my full story in today's Spokesman-Review on the governor's setbacks yesterday in his transportation initiative, a one-two punch with the House killing its last remaining bill to raise the state's gas tax and the joint budget committee directing a $17 million…
The House Judiciary Committee has voted 8-6 in favor of revamping Idaho's 62-year-old quota system for liquor licenses, after one member switched sides from an earlier motion to kill the bill that failed on a tied vote. The move sends the Senate-passed bill to the…
The confirmation of Ruthie Johnson of Hayden Lake for another term on the Idaho Human Rights Commission prompted an hour-long debate in the Senate today, the AP reports, after Johnson's comments about gay rights during her Senate State Affairs Committee confirmation hearing aroused opposition from…
Earlier, when House Speaker Lawerence Denney introduced a last-minute bill to require voters to show picture I.D. and to end mail-in voter registration in Idaho, he said the bill probably wouldn't get a hearing this year - and then, yesterday, a hearing was scheduled for…
Asked what happens next on the gas tax, House Speaker Lawerence Denney told Eye on Boise, "I don't know, I really don't. I think the governor has made his case that we do need increased funding, and I think a case has been made here…
Gov. Butch Otter has issued this statement on the House's defeat of the gas tax bill: “First let me thank the 32 House members who showed today that they understand the issue and the stakes. I appreciate their patience, leadership, and commitment to doing the…
Here's the vote in the House to kill the gas tax bill, HB 135a, which failed, 32-37:Voting in favor: Reps. Anderson, Andrus, Bedke, Black, Block, Boe, Bolz, Chadderdon, Denney, Eskridge, Gibbs, Hagedorn, Hartgen, Henderson, Higgins, Jaquet, Jarvis, Luker, Moyle, Patrick, Raybould, Ringo, Roberts, Shirley, Smith(24),…
The House has voted 32-37 on the gas tax increase bill, HB 135a, defeating the bill. Here is House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood's entire closing debate: "The people of the state of Idaho who trust us to look at their circumstances and make decisions look…
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, asked the House, "Do you honestly think that this bill addresses the issue? ... It'll fix one pothole. ... It's still a tax increase." Clark said if the House passes the 2-cent gas tax increase, the Senate will amend it…
Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett, R-Challis, speaking against the gas tax increase bill, told the House, "Once again the government ... is ready to throw a drowning man a brick." As she rose to debate the bill, she said she'd been debating back and forth with…
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, strongly urged the House to reject the proposed gas tax increase. "This debate has lost some perspective," he said. "We keep talking about our roads going into disrepair. ... This legislature is being accused of not taking care of our roads,…
The House is now debating the gas tax bill, which would raise Idaho's gas tax by two cents a gallon next year. Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, told the House, "This doesn't build highways - this tries to fix highways that we already have. ...…
The motion from Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, to send all the stimulus money to local highway districts has passed JFAC on an 11-9 vote. Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, was the last to vote and held the deciding vote. "It's all up to you, sister,"…
JFAC is debating between three alternative motions on how to distribute $17 million in stimulus money to roads. The first, from Rep. Frank Henderson and Sen. Jim Hammond, would have the money distributed, whether to state or local roads, based on the greatest public safety…
An attempt to shift nearly $20 million from federal stimulus money that Gov. Butch Otter has suggested earmarking for additional road work failed on a party-line vote this morning in JFAC. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, proposed shifting $19.5 million from the stimulus into the public…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
