House and Senate Democratic leaders say the latest unemployment figures underscore the need for economic development legislation like the 10 bills their party has proposed, including six as part of their "IJOBS" package, but none of those bills has passed; just one had received a public hearing before today, while a second is up for a hearing this morning. “Democratic legislators understand that the number one issue for Idaho’s citizens is jobs,” Senate Assistant Minority Leader Elliot Werk said in a news release. “While the Majority has focused on playing politics with a series of memorials and bills that will do little more than force the state to defend costly lawsuits, there has been precious little discourse about how we can help the private sector create jobs for Idahoans.”

You can read the Democrats' release here, and a full report here from reporter Brian Murphy in today's Idaho Statesman, in which House Revenue & Taxation Committee Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, says, "Any bill that passes out of committee, I want it to pass on the floor and if I don't think it's going to pass out of the committee, I'm not going to have a hearing on it. Some of these bills that come up are strictly for political reasons or trying to pat or scratch somebody's back. My job is to sift that stuff out."

---

---