Musical howl may have helped betting bill pass

Just as Rep. Jim Clark was ready to start his opening debate in the House on Wednesday on SB 1074a, the dog-racing simulcasting bill, his neighbor, Rep. Ken Roberts, turned on some music. As “Who Let the Dogs Out” pulsed through the House chambers, Clark drew a laugh from his fellow legislators that may have helped the bill pass 51-19.

The measure allows the off-track betting on simulcasts of horse and dog races now conducted at the Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park to move to another location in Kootenai County if the park’s owners sell the building or convert it to other uses.

The bill now goes to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

It wasn’t divine intervention

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb jumped to conclusions after Rep. JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, was in the middle of asking a question during House debate when her phone rang, and she said, “I think I’m getting the answer.”

Newcomb marveled, “With all my years in this body, there is always something I’ve not yet seen. I’ve never seen anybody in this body get a phone call from God to answer their question.”

Wood didn’t elaborate on who had called, and when Newcomb pressed her, she shared the answer she’d received.

And it wasn’t any higher being on the line – it was just another House member.

A little nudge

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was signing the three bills ratifying the Nez Perce water rights agreement Thursday when he paused.

Turning to Newcomb, who worked long and hard for the agreement, Kempthorne asked, “Speaker, how are we doing on that GARVEE bill?” Newcomb clearly was caught off guard and took a moment before responding, “I didn’t think we were trading votes on that one.”

The governor’s $1.6 billion highway construction plan, which calls for issuing GARVEE bonds, has passed the Senate, but hasn’t yet had its House committee hearing – though the legislative session is drawing to a close. According to official legislative records, the status of SB 1183 is now “Held at desk” – the speaker’s desk.

Birth-control pills replacing God?

For anyone who missed it, here’s the central part of Rep. Janice McGeachin’s tearful speech in the House Health and Welfare Committee on Tuesday against a bill that would have given some low-income Idaho mothers, age 19 or older, access to cancer screenings, family planning and contraception.

McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, said, “While I personally understand the importance of having good family planning, I also represent a large constituency that doesn’t even believe that contraception is necessary or correct or even appropriate in their lives and they have a really difficult time … using their tax dollars to support that.” She continued, “It’s very upsetting to me when our U.S. Supreme Court says we can’t pledge allegiance to our God and we can’t have prayer in our school and we can’t have a Bible in our school, and yet we can have this. … It’s not the proper role of government.”

Not much sulfa-control

Rep. Peter Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, who helped kill the bill to extend family-planning services including contraception – but not abortion – to eligible low-income Idaho adults, shared this story with the committee during the hearing: “After our third child was born, my father-in-law come to talk to me. He says, ‘Pete, they got a new drug out that could help you. It’s a sulfa drug.’ I says, ‘What do you call it?’ He says, ‘It’s sulfa-control.’ ”

Nielsen went on to have five more children.

Company made wise ice cream investment?

The governor’s corporate incentive tax bill has gotten the nickname “the Albertsons bill” because it was written with Albertsons in mind, as the Boise-based grocery chain considers consolidating many of its operations – possibly in Boise, possibly elsewhere. Because of that, there was talk in the House debate about Albertsons and the late Joe Albertson’s supermarket’s contribution to the state.

Rep. Joe Cannon, R-Blackfoot, recalled that as a little kid, he used to cross the road to Albertsons all the time to get an ice cream cone. The cone was called a “Big Joe,” which he assumed was named after himself, rather than after the Albertsons founder. Then, one day, the youngster and future legislator was hit by a car while crossing the road. He told the House that Albertsons then gave him free ice cream for a year. In view of that, Cannon said to laughter, he’s supporting the bill.