Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said now that legislation is back on track to cancel the future cuts in teacher salary funds required by the "Students Come First" law, and JFAC has approved transfers to the state's rainy-day accounts, he's willing to support the…
Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, moved to transfer funds to the budget stabilization fund beyond the statutorily required amount, including "any excess cash balance" beyond a $5 million carry-over at the close of fiscal year 2012. Based on current revenue estimates - and assuming that the…
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, moved to transfer $1 million to the new higher education stabilization fund, and Rep. Shirley Ringo, seconded the motion. Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, spoke against the motion. He noted that that would mean $1 million less to the budget…
The first two year-end transfers from the state's general fund approved this afternoon by JFAC: $2 million to the disaster emergency fund; and $21.5 million to the public education stabilization fund, the state's savings account for schools. Next up: Discussion of transfers to the budget…
JFAC is back in, and Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, tried to move approval of just the dedicated and federal funds for the Youth Challenge, but JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told him, "Your motion is out of order." JFAC is now moving on to the…
JFAC has gotten snagged in an extended parliamentary dispute, after the joint committee defeated, on a 10-10 tied vote, an appropriation bill, called a "trailer bill" because it trails after the substantive legislation, to match the House-passed bill, HB 662, authorizing funding of the National…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Senate has voted to remedy a special-use permit problem, passing HB 691 and sending the bill to the governor. Senators called the bill a shotgun wedding that married a fix for a…
JFAC has convened at this unaccustomed late-afternoon hour, and its first item of business is a request to allocate $660,000 from a mortgage foreclosure settlement to the Idaho Attorney General's office for use in helping Idaho homeowners affected by foreclosure. The AG's office made a…
Both the House and the Senate are now adjourning for the day, and JFAC is preparing to meet. Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis said, as to whether the Legislature can adjourn tomorrow, "I remain hopeful that that is possible ... but I wouldn't give Friday…
SB 1413, the bill to put another $500,000 in state general funds into the nearly-drained Constitutional Defense Fund to cover legal judgments against the state, has passed the House on a 61-6 vote, after earlier clearing the Senate on a party-line, 28-7 vote. Much of…
The amended Senate animal cruelty bill, SB 1303a, has passed the House on a 64-2 vote, with just Reps. Dick Harwood and Paul Shepherd voting no. The bill, which makes the most aggravated charge of animal cruelty a felony on a third offense, was amended…
HB 662, to fund the proposed National Guard Youth Challenge school in Pierce in north-central Idaho as an alternative school, has passed the House on a 50-19 vote. Rep. Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, told the House, "These are not additional dollars that we are asking for,…
The nine-member Senate committee that will take up the tax-cut bill tomorrow morning is deeply divided, reports AP reporter John Miller, and its chairman, Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, prefers to see the $35 million in question go into state rainy-day savings. Corder says the…
After much debate, the House has voted 48-21 in favor of HB 697, the latest Boise County bill. This one, unlike the previous one that failed in the House on a tied vote, requires a vote of the people before the county could bond to…
Boise County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Twilegar, a former Senate minority leader and former Boise city councilman, has delivered a letter to House Speaker Lawerence Denney suggesting that SB 1387, the forced ultrasound bill, "violates Article 1 of the Idaho Constitution and, thus, the rights of…
The Senate has voted 23-11 in favor of HB 695, which sets up a new $200,000 legislative legal fund to be spent at the sole discretion of the Senate president pro-tem and the House speaker, with each in charge of $100,000. The bill already has…
The Senate is taking up HB 695, to create a $200,000 legal fund for the Legislature to hire its own attorneys. Meanwhile, the House is taking up HB 697, the latest version of the Boise County bill, to enable that county to pay a large…
The House Ways & Means Committee introduced two new bills this afternoon, but neither is expected to go any further this session; both were introduced just for discussion. In the words of House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, the moves will "get 'em a…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's proposed $35 million income tax cut will be in the hands of the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee Thursday morning. But its fate remains uncertain. During Wednesday's behind-closed-doors…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho House lawmakers marked Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's third birthday in captivity of a Taliban-allied group in central Asia. Bergdahl is a U.S. soldier from Hailey, Idaho, taken prisoner in Afghanistan in June 2009…
Senate Republicans emerged from a 90-minute closed-door caucus with no particular announcement; they're now planning to recess the Senate for lunch. "We're just looking at how to get out of here," said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis. "We have work ahead of us, and we're…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has signed off on a resolution recognizing the significant impact Alzheimer's disease has on thousands of Idahoans. Otter signed the resolution Tuesday in part to raise awareness of the…
The House has passed the death bill, SB 1348a, which would ensure that treatment, food and fluids aren't denied to a dying patient if the patient wants them and if they “in reasonable medical judgement will preserve the life of the patient,” on a 57-12…
The House has voted 46-22 in favor of HB 660, the judges' retirement bill, after extended debate. Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, spoke out against the bill. "The judges have an increase in pay coming - maybe that increase in pay should go to their…
Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Meridian, the lead sponsor of this year's controversial forced ultrasound bill, had this to say today about the measure's demise without a hearing in the House: "I think it's the process. The process worked." Proposed amendments to the bill, he said, "wouldn't…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
