Idaho Legislature this week 3/20-4/3/09

Here is the 12th week of Idaho's legislative session in photos as a slide show.

Section:Gallery

Sun., April 5, 2009

Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise, speaks in favor of Sunshine Law amendments to impose Idaho's first financial disclosure requirement for elected officials and candidates. The bill won unanimous support from the Senate State Affairs Committee, and now moves to the full Senate.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Senate Education Committee hears testimony on legislation to allow cuts in school funding. The first bill the panel heard, HB 252, had passed the House unanimously, but barely cleared the Senate committee by one vote.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee gathered for an early-morning workshop Tuesday to discuss complications with the budgets they're setting for next year, including constitutional questions about their ability to order pay cuts at universities.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meets Tuesday. The panel voted unanimously to set a budget for the state's catastrophic health care fund that relies on an increase in counties' deductibles from $10,000 per case to $11,000 for the medically indigent, before addressing possible pay cuts for employees of universities.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Gov. Butch Otter talks with reporters after a proclamation-signing on Tuesday morning. The governor said the 2-cent gas tax increase bill that the House is poised to amend currently doesn't go far enough to address the need for additional road work.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, said he's "not mad at all" at Gov. Butch Otter, and said his forceful debate against gas tax increases in the House on Tuesday morning was just his usual debating style. "I just get pretty passionate," he said.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Don Soltman, vice president of Kootenai Medical Center and a former longtime Lakeland School District trustee, was appointed Tuesday to the Idaho State Board of Education by Gov. Butch Otter.

Courtesy Photo Courtesy Photo
House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, urges the Senate Education Committee to support his legislation to allow cuts in public school budgets next year.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Freshman Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, the swing vote on a school funding-cut bill in the Senate Education Committee, favored amending the bill rather than killing it. He hopes a clause can be removed that would cut nearly $1.5 million from the Boise School District's allocation for student busing.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, presents his sovereignty resolution to the Senate State Affairs Committee, saying the federal government shouldn't entice the state with federal money. The panel approved the measure, plus another just after it that asked the federal government to send Idaho money to offer a medical degree.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
The Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday introduced legislation to change some of the rules for the citizens commission that draws new legislative and congressional districts every 10 years. Among the changes: Commissioners who've served before couldn't serve again.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
House Democrats meet in an open caucus to discuss state employee pay cuts and the state budget, while House Republicans met behind closed doors to talk about that and transportation on Thursday morning.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, confers with House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, during a closed-door GOP caucus Thursday, after Rusche knocked on the door to check in. Moyle told Rusche the Republicans planned to keep going a while, and the House wouldn't reconvene until 1:30, freeing Democrats to go to lunch.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, presents legislation to the Senate expanding Idaho's Sunshine Law to include personal financial disclosure for elected officials. That would end Idaho's distinction as one of just three states with no such requirements. The bill passed the Senate unanimously Thursday and now goes to the House.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
After a closed-door Republican House caucus that lasted more than two hours, House Republicans still were disagreeing strongly with each other over state employee pay cuts and the state budget. Here, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, talks with other caucus members just after the meeting broke up without an agreement Thursday.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, proposes legislation to add three miles to the south end of the Garwood-to-Sagle project on U.S. Highway 95, to eliminate a remaining two-lane stretch between two stretches of four-lane highway. The Ways & Means Committee agreed Thursday to introduce his bill.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Idaho's capitol press corps dons ugly ties when the session's gone on too long, in hopes that lawmakers will be so disgusted by the hideous neckwear that they'll want to end their session and leave town. It's that time - the ties are out.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Wally Huffman, general manager of the Sun Valley Resort for the past 42 years, testifies to the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday on a city consolidation bill, as Sun Valley City Council President Nils Ribi, left, and Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich look on. After the hearing, an angry Huffman had to be restrained by Capitol Annex security after he menaced a reporter.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, proposed legislation to move Idaho toward putting all state agency expenditures into a searchable, online database, but the House killed the bill Friday on a tied vote.

Betsy Russell The Spokesman-Review
Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich was among those involved in a tense dispute over a bill regarding city consolidation that boiled over at the Idaho Legislature on Friday. The bill was killed in committee; afterward, an angry Sun Valley resort manager had to be restrained by security after he menaced a reporter.

Official Photo City Of Sun Valley