Here's a puzzle: The House Transportation Committee is meeting this afternoon, but nowhere on its agenda is the governor's latest motor vehicle registration fee increase bill. The reason? "We asked them to hold off of the registration fee bill, until we know what's happening with…
Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, told the House Agriculture Committee today that quagga and zebra mussels should be thought of as a "biological wildfire" right at Idaho's border. He and Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, were promoting SCR 109, the resolution to allow the state…
Consensus legislation allowing unprecedented cuts in public school funding in Idaho has passed the House on a 69-0 vote. House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, sponsor of HB 252, called the bill "a piece of work that a lot of people spent a lot…
The House will come back on the floor at 1:30 today to continue today's floor session, after getting bogged down in amendments this morning and making little progress on its 3rd Reading Calendar, which stretches for five pages. This is the first time this session…
Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, today persuaded the House to vote 61-9 in favor of his legislation, HB 229, to declare that during a state of "extreme emergency" including martial law, invasion or insurrection, "No government authority will have the right to come and pick…
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, took some ribbing this morning from fellow JFAC members for his far-reaching trimming in the Division of Veterans Affairs budget, which included eliminating the replacement of a van that had 125,000 miles on it. Eskridge said the division assured him they…
When Butch Morrison, owner and operator of the Crescent 'No Lawyers' Bar & Grill, addressed the Senate State Affairs Committee yesterday as the president of the Idaho Licensed Beverage Association, backing the governor's proposed reform of Idaho's liquor license system, Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls,…
After more than a two-hour debate, the House Education Committee has voted 10-6 in favor of HB 262, legislation from the committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Nonini, to freeze teacher salaries on the salary grid for a year and to phase out an early retirement incentive.…
The joint budget committee this morning has set budgets for Vocational Rehabilitation, the Commission for the Blind, the Division of Veterans Services and the biggie, the Department of Correction. The corrections budget is based entirely on the assumption that there will be no growth in…
The budget set by JFAC this morning for the state's prison system shifts various funds around to cover the $2.5 million bond payment and operational costs of the Correctional Alternative Placement Program, a new facility that's scheduled to open in May of 2010. "The bond…
JFAC has taken formal action this morning to apply the 3 percent across-the-board state pay cut to state tax commissioners, industrial commissioners and public utilities commissioners. The commissioners' pay is set by state law, but the joint budget committee unanimously adopted "notwithstanding" language, setting aside…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
