Three freshman lawmakers presented their first bills to the full Idaho House on Monday, and House members responded with their usual hazing – most of the members voting “no,” then changing their votes at the last minute so that the largely non-controversial bills easily passed.

After three years of study, research, input and work, the Legislature’s interim committee that worked on a new approach to dividing Idaho’s school funding among schools across the state handed its work off to the House and Senate education committees last week, which now will take the lead on refining the final product.

The Idaho Commission for Libraries would see a small decrease in state funding next year under Gov. Brad Little’s proposed budget, which calls for a 1.3 percent decline in the commission’s state funding, compared to the 7.4 percent increase the commission requested.

With Sen. Cliff Bayer off to Washington, D.C., to be new Congressman Russ Fulcher’s chief of staff, Bayer’s mom, Regina Bayer, has been appointed to fill in as his temporary replacement. The Senate welcomed her last week; she’s also known as Sen. Bayer.

After he’d conducted what he referred to as his last official act in the governor’s office on Thursday, I asked outgoing Gov. Butch Otter when he’d be turning over the keys to new Gov. Brad Little.