Senate convenes, exchange debate on tap

The Senate has convened this morning, with SB 1042 , the governor’s state health insurance exchange bill, atop its calendar for debate. A debate of several hours is expected; the Senate previously announced that it won’t take a break today until it’s finished debating and voting on the bill.

Meanwhile, the House Education Committee, after much debate, has agreed to introduce a controversial charter school funding bill this morning that would shift part of the state public schools budget to pay for school buildings for charter schools; regular Idaho school districts have to ask local property taxpayers to vote to raise their own taxes in order to fund buildings. Also, the House State Affairs Committee, at the request of the state Department of Administration, has introduced a sweeping new public records exemption bill that would prevent the public from seeing state security videos; the bill was introduced at the request of the state Department of Administration.