There were a few whoppers told on the House floor today in the debate over HB 193a, the bill to block citizen lawsuits over giant megaloads on Idaho roads. First, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Dick Harwood, repeatedly said the companies shipping megaloads will post a…
Here's a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the House's passage today of legislation designed to block citizen lawsuits against giant megaloads on Idaho roads. Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, said the state's current permit fees for giant megaloads don't cover all its costs…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers are considering expanding the list of gang related crimes and give judges more latitude to issue tougher sentences for those convicted of gang activity. The Senate State Affairs Committee unanimously approved…
The House has voted 42-28 in favor of HB 285, the final GARVEE bonding proposal for highway work; it calls for $162 million in bonding next year. This is the last of a multi-year series of bonding efforts to complete major improvements to a series…
As the House debates the $162 million GARVEE bonding proposal, HB 285, there's been plenty of debate so far on both sides. The bill would fund the remainder of the last two bonded projects: The Garwood-to-Sagle project on U.S. Highway 95 in North Idaho, and…
The House this afternoon is suspending rules to take up the appropriation bills that are on its 2nd Reading Calendar, a move House Majority Leader Mike Moyle said is needed if the Legislature is going to wrap up its work within the next two weeks.…
The House Ways & Means Committee has voted 4-3, along straight party lines, to introduced Rep. Vito Barbieri's new health care bill, which, like his earlier health care nullification bill, would seek to declare the national health care reform law unconstitutional, forbid any state employees…
The state Land Board's legislation on state-owned cottage sites, which repeals an unconstitutional law that protects the sites from conflict auctions when leases come up for renewal, has passed the Senate in a narrow 18-16 vote. Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said she's been hearing from…
The Senate has been locked in debate this morning over SB 1085, which would loosen regulations on domestic elk farms that require testing of the elk for chronic wasting disease. Sen. Cheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, said, "There's been no chronic wasting disease in the last five…
Legislation to make dairy farms' nutrient management plans, which detail how they deal with waste from dairy cows, would be exempt from the state's public records law, under legislation that cleared the House this morning on a 61-7 vote; the bill, HB 269, now goes…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Department of Commerce's glossy business magazine this month gushes "Wind developers find sweet spot in Idaho." Even Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter weighs in, bragging how Idaho has the "raw materials in…
Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, has a new bill up for introduction in the House Ways & Means Committee today that he said is "our last gasp before the session is over" to try to block implementation in Idaho of the federal health care reform…
The House has voted 53-16 in favor of HB 193, Rep. Dick Harwood's bill to require anyone suing over a transportation project on Idaho roads to first post a bond equal to 5 percent of the insured value of the load. Harwood said his bill…
The House Revenue & Taxation Committee has voted unanimously in favor of Gov. Butch Otter's proposed "Hire One Act," which would provide a sliding-scale tax credit for employers adding new workers, with those who've made less use of the state's unemployment insurance system in the…
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter scuttled the last push to permit guns on Idaho college and university campuses in 2008, the Associated Press reports. "He had concerns then, I believe he has concerns now," said Sen. Curt McKenzie, a Nampa Republican behind the 2008 effort to…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
