Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A tax break extension for Idaho's alternative energy developers is stalled until next week after talks late Thursday between utility lobbyists, wind developers, legislators and Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's office ended without resolution.…
An effort to open more than 140 private entities to public records requests died in committee this afternoon, reports Lewiston Tribune reporter Bill Spence. The House Commerce & Human Resources Committee voted 6-3 to kill HB 267, which would have subjected all organizations that participate…
The Senate Education Committee has endorsed HB 236, the House-passed bill to allow the Kootenai Technical Education Campus to open a year earlier by starting construction before all the money for the multi-district vocational education center is in from a tax levy. Coeur d'Alene Schools…
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the Medicaid cuts bill that passed the House today, HB 260; it now moves to the Senate. In addition to moves aimed at achieving long-term savings, like looking into more of a managed-care model, the…
A debate unfolding in the state capitol this week will determine how the state's energy policy will look in the years to come, reports John Miller of the Associated Press, from hotly debated legislation to extend the state's renewable energy tax credit to a proposal…
Idaho House Democrats have issued a statement calling the Medicaid cuts in HB 260 "cruel, heartless and foolish," and saying, "Democrats voted against the bill due to hundreds of personal testimonies, phone calls and emails urging all legislators to resist further damaging cuts." Click below…
The Idaho Democratic Party has issued a statement decrying the Medicaid cuts approved by the Idaho House today, saying, "Today House Republicans voted to devastate the lives of thousands of Idahoans." All of the 56 House members who voted for the bill, HB 260, today…
SB 1141, the budget bill for the Idaho Attorney General's office, has passed the House on a 60-9 vote; there was no debate, but those voting "no" included Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, who's proposed setting up a separate "Office of Legislative Counsel" to provide…
The House has voted 56-14 in favor of HB 260, the bill to cut $34 million in state funds, $108 million total, from the state's Medicaid program. All House Democrats and Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, voted against the bill; all other House members voted in…
The House's other physician member, Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, debating in favor of the Medicaid cuts bill, HB 260, said Idaho will spend a large portion of its budget on Medicaid. "We are not abandoning anybody," he said. "Are we looking for efficiencies in the…
House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, a physician, is speaking against HB 260, the Medicaid cuts bill, which he called "a flawed financial document," and said, "It displays some of the worst tunnel-vision budgeting I've ever seen. ... If we vote for this, we deceive…
The Idaho House is now debating HB 260, the Medicaid cuts bill. House Health & Welfare Chairwoman Janice McGeachin described the process that resulted in today's bill, including the removal of several proposed cuts in services for people with developmental disabilities that drew a big…
Gov. Butch Otter quietly signed two controversial school reform bills into law today, with no public ceremony; they are SB 1108, removing most collective bargaining rights from Idaho teachers, and SB 1110, imposing a teacher merit pay program beginning in 2013. The governor issued this…
The House has voted 40-29 in favor of HB 191, the off-track simulcast betting bill, which would allow the eight small horse race tracks in Idaho to move their current licenses for betting on simulcasts of live races to a facility other than the track…
The hearing on HB 250, to extend Idaho's renewable energy tax credit, is going to be continued tomorrow morning, House Rev & Tax Chairman Dennis Lake said, as the House goes on the floor at 10 a.m. and there are still several people left to…
It took an hour of debate that ran through the lunch hour yesterday before the Idaho Senate passed the budget bill fro the Department of Insurance on a 20-15 vote. The hangup: The inclusion of $2.5 million in federal money for the initial planning of…
Rich Hahn, lobbyist for Idaho Power Co., is testifying against HB 250, extending the renewable energy tax development rebate. He said the company now has 1,324 megawatts of renewable projects either on line or in the works; "that's 41 percent," he said. He said lots…
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, told the House Revenue & Taxation Committee this morning that HB 250, which would extend Idaho's renewable energy tax rebate through the end of 2014 - rather than letting it expire on June 30 - creates "a limited window of 40…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
