Read all about it...
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today's developments in the Legislature, on the 100th day of the session.
Eye On Boise archive for April 21, 2009
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2009
Ed changes bring transportation votes
Just as the House was taking up the transportation bill today, the Senate was amending education bills. It's no coincidence that 11 House Democrats voted in favor of the transportation bill today, when only three supported a gas tax hike in the earlier go-rounds (four…
Senate passes amended ed bills
The Senate has passed the amended versions of two controversial education bills, HB 262 and HB 256. The first one no longer phases out an early retirement incentive program for teachers, but still freezes movement on the pay grid for one year. The second one…
Otter: 'Pass those transportation bills'
Among the bills that are being vetoed: Budgets for the state Department of Water Resources, the Industrial Commission, the Commerce Department, the Military Division, the Arts Commission, the Division of Human Resources, Idaho Public TV, the Blind Commission, the liquor dispensary, the Idaho Historical Society,…
Guv vetoing 25 budget bills
Gov. Butch Otter is vetoing 25 budget bills, telling lawmakers he'll continue the vetoes until they act on his transportation plan. "We've got to continue to try, because every day the problem is going to get worse," the governor declared. "They're all bills that need…
Guv to 'act on legislation' again
Gov. Butch Otter has again invited the news media to his office, at 3 p.m. today (Boise time), "where he will act on legislation," according to his media advisory. Yesterday, that meant vetoes.
'We haven't offered enough'
House Speaker Lawerence Denney said, "We are still negotiating, which means that what we have offered is not enough." That's how the House GOP press conference ended.
'A difficult thing to do'
Answering questions from reporters, House GOP leaders said they feel like some progress is being made, though they hardly sounded optimistic. "Any time you can sit down and communicate, there's progress being made," said House Speaker Lawerence Denney. "The governor has definitely made the case…
House GOP leaders: 'We are still in negotiations'
Emerging from a meeting with the governor, House Speaker Lawerence Denney said at a news conference just now, "The vote we had on the House floor was certainly not a vote against the governor. We think the governor has certainly made his case for increased…
About that vote...
In the House's 15-55 vote on HB 96a, the transportation funding bill, just four Republicans voted in favor - Reps. Anderson, Black, Eskridge and Leon Smith. Eleven Democrats voted in favor.
Weird, wacky and wild...
In the latest development on this weird, wacky and wild 100th legislative day, the House Republican leadership called a press conference for 1 p.m., but when the hour arrived, spokesman Chuck Malloy had to stand up and tell a capacity crowd, "The leadership has been…
Education bills amended
The Senate has amended three controversial education bills. The changes include eliminating the phase-out of an early-retirement program for teachers; restoring funding for busing for academic field trips; adding a two-year sunset to the portions of HB 303 that didn't already have them; and slightly…
Denney: 'Now is not the time'
House Speaker Lawerence Denney, after the House's overwhelming defeat of the governor's favored transportation bill, said, "I think the message is that the debate on the floor on all the other gas tax issues was the same - that we realize the need, but now…
Another 100 days?
Following the House defeat of the transportation bill, the House went at ease at Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, was presented with the "crow" to commemorate carrying a bill that receives fewer than 20 votes. Then, Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, noted that a century mark…
House defeats transportation bill
The House has voted against HB 96a, killing it on a 15-55 vote.
House debate is on...
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, the sponsor of HB 96a, told the House, "I think this bill is properly before the House and the full House deserves to vote on it." Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, spoke in favor, saying citizens and those passing through Idaho…
House suspends rules, takes up bill
The House has just voted to suspend its rules and take up the amended HB 96, the transportation funding bill.
House concurs...
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, asked unanimous consent that the House concur in the amendments the Senate placed on HB 96, the ethanol exemption bill. "The Senate has put a lot of work into these amendments," Nonini said. "I give them credit for a lot…
House is back in
The House has come back on the floor, its caucuses concluded, and will be taking up the amended transportation bill, HB 96. In this photo, just before the bell rang to convene, representatives looked at newspapers with headlines asking, "Will House yield to Otter's threat?"
Guns-at-work bill passes Senate
HB 287, the bill designed to encourage guns at workplace parking lots by granting immunity from lawsuits to employers who let their employees store their firearms in their cars in the company lot has passed the Senate on a 26-8 vote. Several opponents decried the…
House goes to caucus
The House convened this morning, and immediately went at ease for both parties to go to caucus. "We're considering all of our options," said House Speaker Lawerence Denney. "There are people who want to go home, and that may make a difference, but I suspect…
'Time to put aside our differences'
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, speaking out in JFAC this morning in support of the redo's of the eight vetoed budget bills, said he appreciated the statement in Gov. Butch Otter's veto message that he had no problem with the bills. "I think at this point,…
A re-do on the vetoed budgets
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, moved to resubmit all the vetoed budgets in new bills. The only one that will change from before is the Fish & Game budget bill, which now will incorporate the legislation that raised Fish & Game fees for out-of-state…
Budget bill passes on party-line vote
JFAC has voted 16-4 to pass the new version of what was SB 1222 on personnel funding cuts and stimulus spending. Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said joint committee members may "moan and mourn" that the original version didn't fly, but he said, "In…
'What we have here is a compromise'
Among the information about stimulus funding for local transportation projects that hadn't come out when JFAC first crafted SB 1222 was this, according to Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint: "Apparently there's a 1,500-page manual from OMB back in Washington, D.C. that requires extreme tracking of stimulus…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.