Otter hints at higher ed funding boost, public defense reform…

Gov. Butch Otter has been declining to answer questions that go directly to what he’ll be presenting to lawmakers in his State of the State message on Monday. Among them: Whether he’ll push to increase higher education funding as he has for K-12 funding, and the prospects for public defense reform.

On higher ed, he said, “I don’t think there’s a legislator that disagreed with our goal to have 60 percent of the people in the state of Idaho between the ages of 25 and 34 that have either a post-secondary degree or a professional-technical certificate.” He said those will be needed for Idaho’s future jobs.

On public defense reform, on which Idaho is facing a lawsuit, he said, “I will be addressing this in the State of the State.”