Betsy Z. Russell

Gov. Phil Batt is preparing legislation to tighten up Idaho's lottery law to make it clear that video gambling machines are illegal. The change is aimed squarely at Idaho tribes, which have argued that the lottery law indirectly allows reservation casinos to operate video machines, which are similar to slot machines. Such machines operate at the Kootenai River Inn near Bonners Ferry and the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Bingo Casino at Worley.

It's going to take a citizens initiative to reform campaign finance laws in Idaho, a frustrated lawmaker said Tuesday. "I don't think this body is capable of making this kind of decision," said Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, after a House committee refused even to introduce five campaign finance reform bills. "It's almost one of those things that'll have to be a citizen initiative."

Coeur d'Alene could get one more Idaho State Police officer next year. Bob Sobba, director of the Idaho Department of Law Enforcement, told the Legislature's budget committee Monday that if he gets just one more officer, he'll assign him or her to Coeur d'Alene.

Idaho needs to be extremely vigilant as it contracts with private companies for prison services or even a whole prison, the state Corrections Department director told lawmakers Monday. "If you don't pay attention to that contract, they're in for profit, there's no doubt about it, and we'll end up losing," James Spalding told the Legislature's budget committee.

Remember the blitz of phone companies calling at dinner time, trying to sell you their long-distance service? "You ain't seen nothing yet," said Joe Cusick, telecommunications section supervisor at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Now that Congress has ordered local phone service deregulated, big changes are in store. Three companies already have won approval to compete with GTE to offer local telephone service in North Idaho. Nine more applications are pending.

Freshman Rep. Larry Watson spoke out strongly for the bill that would expand the homeowner's exemption from property taxes. Watson, a deputy Shoshone County assessor, knows plenty about how property taxes work, and says residential taxes really are rising faster than commercial or industrial, partly because there's less information available to help assessors set current market values on the latter.

North Idaho College wants to build a technical center in Post Falls where high schoolers would take vocational or high-tech classes to speed progress toward good jobs after graduation. But that would cost $15 million. And the state Board of Education didn't even approve NIC's request for $250,000 in the coming year to start planning for the center.

Plans for Idaho's first private prison have jumped up from 1,000 inmates to 1,250. And when the state asks private companies to submit proposals on how they'd build and operate a prison here, it'll ask for expansion space for up to a total of 3,000 inmates, Idaho Corrections Director Jim Spalding said Thursday. "The beauty of it is we wouldn't owe a dollar until 1999," when the inmates would move in, Spalding said. Prison officials persuaded the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee to introduce legislation Thursday authorizing them to contract out for construction and operation of a prison. Two weeks ago, Gov. Phil Batt said flatly that Idaho has no choice: Its next prison must be private. That's because the state doesn't have the millions it would take to build a big prison and also doesn't have the time to build one. Private firms can build quickly. And a private contractor would charge the state only a daily fee per inmate. "Institutions are full," prison official Eileen Tremblay told the legislative committee. "Every cell that can be double-bunked has been." The state has 305 inmates in county jails for lack of prison space, and 200 are being housed at a privately operated prison in Minnesota. The state plans to send another 350 or so to Texas this spring. "Department projections show we will need 3,000 new beds during the next six to eight years," Tremblay said. "That could cost $150 million." If the state found a suitable company and signed a contract by September, inmates could be moving in 18 months later, Spalding said. Committee members are well-aware of Idaho prisons' crowded conditions. They toured a state prison in Boise last week. The state's prison population is growing at a rate of 400 inmates a year. Said Tremblay, "The bottom line here is that the department is suffering from a serious shortfall of beds. One answer to getting us through this crisis may be privatization." The bill will be returned to the committee for a full hearing. If it is approved after that hearing, it still must pass the full House and Senate to become law.

1. Robert Hoover 2. This section of Riverbend Commerce Park in Post Falls is the site of the proposed University of Idaho research campus. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

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Idaho's school system needs to recognize that 70 percent of the jobs awaiting graduates don't require a bachelor's degree, the president of the state Board of Education said Monday. "People have obtained a bachelor's degree, then gone to our technical institutes to get a two-or three-year certificate in order to get a job," Carole McWilliam told the Legislature's budget committee.

The Idaho Family Forum will go after teachers unions and abortion this year, saying both are part of "the broader picture of understanding the impact on the family." The conservative Christian group was host to lawmakers at a dessert reception Monday, encouraging legislators to mingle with its board members as a harpist played quietly in the background.

They both want to help troubled kids - in many cases, the same kids.

When the deadline for "personal" bills in the Senate approached Friday, Democratic senators rushed in eight. The reason? The tiny band of five senators knows that in many cases, that's the only way they can get a bill introduced.

Legislative budget writers showed how tightfisted they could be Tuesday, balking at a plan to buy $2,300 desks and setting the inflation factor for all state agencies at zero. The State Insurance Fund had requested 14 new employees, and with them, 14 new desks and chairs, to handle the crush of new workers' compensation policies that now are required for the agriculture industry. The fund expects to write 4,000 to 5,000 new policies for farmers in the next year.

As lawmakers got their first look Monday at a complete rework of the rules for operating public schools, a Sandpoint school trustee said the rules aren't complete unless they make Idaho's schools safe. "We need to say very strongly, 'This is what we think is safe,"' said Willard Osmunson, a Sandpoint dentist and vice chairman of the Bonner County School Board.

After several years of ignoring Democratic efforts to toughen Idaho's lax campaign finance laws, Republican lawmakers have reason to pay attention this year: Their own governor is calling for sweeping reforms. "I think it's really gotten out of hand," Gov. Phil Batt said in an interview. "In Idaho, we're one of the few states where you can get all the money anybody wants to give you, from any source without limit." "I've never been comfortable with it, ever," Batt said. "It's just something I think needs to be changed."

Gov. Phil Batt is not known as a fiery orator. Although his annual State of the State speech this week drew positive reviews, it didn't cause lots of spontaneous ovations.

Gov. Phil Batt said Friday that Idaho's next prison will be privately built and operated. "The big advantage of it, in this terrible wave of people coming into the prisons, is it can be done rapidly," Batt said during a taping of the "Viewpoint" public affairs program on KTVB-TV.

Clean Lakes Coordinating Council officials on Thursday pleaded with legislative budget writers for money to continue cleaning up North Idaho lakes. Although no funding decisions were made, council members were encouraged at how they were received.

Idaho's struggling small drinking-water systems could qualify for $14 million in low-interest construction loans to bring them up to standards - if the Legislature can come up with $2.8 million to match the federal money. But the $2.8 million is by no means guaranteed.

It's about time Idaho did something about campaign finance reform, North Idaho lawmakers said Monday after Gov. Phil Batt proposed sweeping reforms. Freshman Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said she was "appalled by the amount of money she had to spend on her winning campaign - $44,000."

Here are highlights of Gov. Phil Batt's State of the State message to the Legislature Monday: Batt suggested that Idaho may want to re-examine, or even do away with, the tenure system for teachers and college professors. He called for a broad discussion of what types of gambling should or shouldn't be allowed in Idaho, on or off Indian reservations.

Let's say you want to look at a legislative committee's agenda, get a copy of a bill or see how your representative voted. Computers have made all that information and more as close as the touch of a finger. Despite the barrier of mountains and miles that separates North Idahoans from the state capitol, legislative information today is easily available to Idaho's far-flung citizens - if they have access to a computer with a modem and an Internet connection.