Idaho still will have to make substantial cuts in state agency budgets, despite the help it'll receive from federal economic stimulus funds, state lawmakers said today. "There's somehow this feeling that this bill will solve all the problems, and it just won't," said Senate Finance…
Micron Technology, formerly the state's largest private employer, announced today that it'll phase out manufacturing of 200 mm wafers at its Boise plant, meaning 500 layoffs "in the near term" and "as many as 2,000 positions by the end of the company's fiscal year." In…
House Tax Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, was taken to the hospital today shortly after the House convened. "They're just checking on him," said House Majority Leader Mike Moyle. "He wasn't feeling good, so he went in to see if he was all right." Last year,…
Former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, who also is a former chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, had this letter to the editor published in the Idaho Statesman today lauding Democratic congressman Walt Minnick:'I appreciate Minnick's stand for responsibility'"I didn't support Walt Minnick during his campaign…
House Majority Leader Mike Moyle is a big gun-rights supporter, but he's the sponsor of HB 137, the bill this year to allow the state parks board to regulate discharge of firearms in state parks, despite the "pre-emption" law lawmakers enacted last year sharply limiting…
A vote on HB 61, the House-passed bill to make permanent this year's 4 percent holdbacks, other budget cuts, and transfers from the public education stabilization fund, has been put off again in the Senate, this time until March 3rd. Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron,…
Here's a sampling of some of the testimony this morning on the proposed hike in beer and wine taxes to fund substance abuse treatment. Of the 24 people who testified, 14 were in favor, nine against, and one neutral. Rev & Tax Chairman Dennis Lake…
It's standing-room only at the hearing this morning on legislation to raise Idaho's beer and wine taxes - unchanged for the past four decades - to fund substance abuse treatment. "This increase is pocket change for the vast majority of responsible drinkers," sponsor Keith Allred…
Idaho's legislative budget director, Cathy Holland-Smith, told JFAC just now that the federal economic stimulus bill is 407 pages long. Legislative budget analysts have printed it out. The 1,100-page stack of papers U.S. Sen. Jim Risch earlier showed the Idaho Senate included the House version,…
Members of the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee are beginning a week-long look into what's in the federal stimulus bill for Idaho. To start, JFAC Co-Chairwoman Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told legislative budget director Cathy Holland-Smith, "I know how hard you've worked on this, to help us…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
