A settlement has been reached in litigation over the University of Idaho’s failed University Place real estate project in Boise. Under its terms, the UI Foundation will pay $2.5 million and the various parties’ insurers will pay $5.8 million, for a total $8.3 million mediated…
House Speaker Bruce Newcomb has assigned the GARVEE bonding bill – the funding for the first year of the “Connecting Idaho” highway plan, including major upgrades to U.S. Highway 95 – to the House Transportation Committee, though it’s an appropriation bill that’s already cleared the…
Here’s how House Speaker Bruce Newcomb responded right after the Senate voted 14-21 against his water recharge bill, HB 800: “I don’t know where you go from here. … I hope it keeps the discussion alive. … The good part of this is there’s an…
After a debate stretching for more than three hours – from 11 a.m. right on through the lunch hour and into the mid-afternoon – the Senate has just voted down HB 800, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb’s water recharge bill. The measure was strongly opposed by…
The Senate has just voted 24-11 for SCR 134, a resolution sponsored by Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, that rejects the high school curriculum redesign rule that the House Education Committee accepted last week. There was a long and intense debate, and in the end, the…
Legislators filled the Gold Room this morning to honor Carl Bianchi, the director of legislative services who tried to retire before this legislative session – but was prevailed upon by legislative leadership to stay on through June.“When he announced his retirement, we turned into lobbyists,”…
Here’s Rep. Jim Clark’s explanation of the new House property tax bill that was introduced today: “What this will do is it will punch about a $40 million hole in the budget.”Yes, Clark, R-Hayden Lake, doesn’t like the bill, which eliminates school operations property taxes…
When JFAC approved funding this morning for the Capitol renovation project – including moving the Legislature into the abandoned old Ada County Courthouse across the street for at least two future sessions while the work is done, Co-Chair Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, commented as she…
HB 791, placing a two-year moratorium on development of new coal-fired power plants in Idaho, just passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote – but the project that prompted the moratorium is off. Lobbyist Roy Eiguren distributed copies of a letter today from Sempra Generation…
The Senate State Affairs Committee has voted 6-3 to send the full Senate SJR 108, a constitutional amendment that would shift school operations funding off the property tax, and raise the sales tax by whatever amount needed to cover the schools’ loss – likely one…
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee’s agenda is up for Wednesday morning, and don’t be fooled – it’s all there. There are decisions on funding on various bills that have passed, from capitol restoration to elected officials’ salaries; decisions on funding school-construction legislation; and something called the…
When the House debated HB 845 this morning, the slice of the public school budget that includes funding for teacher pay, Rep. Bill Sali, R-Kuna, debated against the bill sponsored by Rep. Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, but then voted for it. The bill was approved unanimously.S-R…
1st District Congressman Butch Otter, who’s running for governor, has announced his engagement to Lori Easley, a vice principal in the Meridian School District. A photo of the engaged couple is posted on Otter’s campaign website, showing the two smiling tensely. The site notes that…
Things are getting hot in the Gold Room of the state Capitol, where people have been lined up shoulder-to-shoulder for hours and every seat is full, as testimony stretches on about a controversial bill regarding water rights, Idaho Power, and recharging the Snake plain aquifer.…
HB 676a, the bill to eliminate a notorious tax loophole for some rural developers and land speculators, just won final approval in the House after it was amended in the Senate – on a unanimous vote. “This is the bill that’s been floating around and…
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne declared, “This is a good day for law enforcement. This is a bad day for bad people,” as he signed legislation today to crack down on gang activity and to toughen sex-offender registration and sentencing laws. People need to know where sex…
Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, was giving a rundown of everything North Idaho lawmakers have had to go through in the past to cadge a bit of money each year to protect water quality in the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, and he mentioned the role Senate…
The House State Affairs Committee, after a hearing that ran nearly two hours, has voted 12-5 to kill HB 843, a Democratic proposal to raise Idaho’s minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $6.15, and to index it to inflation in the future.…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee meeting room was transformed into a party room this morning, with three kinds of cake, lots of visiting and reminiscing, and congrats to longtime Chairwoman Dolores Crow, R-Nampa, who is retiring after this session.When Randy Nelson, head of Associated…
A retroactive sales tax exemption for shooting range fees and membership dues just cleared the Senate on a 27-8 vote, but not without a lot of debate. Several senators noted that the bill, HB 686, would treat shooting clubs differently from all other clubs. Senate…
HB 545, the bill to adjudicate all the water rights in North Idaho, just passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote and headed for the governor’s desk. “There is nothing more sacred in the state of Idaho than water,” sponsor Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake,…
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, commented, “It’s a good day for North Idaho,” just after the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee voted unanimously just now to approve funding for the North Idaho water rights adjudication. Just before that, they’d voted 19-1 in favor of a…
Everyone’s starting to feel it – this legislative session has gone on too long already. Lenette Bendio, attaché in the legislative bill and mail room, decided to announce her feelings about it today by hanging a bright red “Out of Order” sign around her neck.…
In a 3-2 decision, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled against the Idaho Press Club in its lawsuit challenging closed meetings of official legislative committees as a violation of the Idaho Constitution. Justice Daniel Eismann, writing for the majority, agreed with attorneys for the Legislature…
At first blush, it certainly seems that with only 8 months in office and no legislative session, the upcoming Risch Administration might not make much of a mark legislatively, despite Gov. Jim Risch’s long history as one of the state’s most skilled state senators and…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
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