House-Senate talks over the defeated public school budget broke up around 6:30 tonight, and leaders emerged cautiously optimistic that a bill will be printed tomorrow to address some of the concerns. “We have more than modest confidence in the language,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart…
As the grandfather of a Meridian High School student, Russell Joki submitted $85 in student fees at the start of the school year, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News. Does that give Joki, a former Nampa school superintendent, standing to file a class-action lawsuit…
After more than an hour behind closed doors, senators and representatives emerged from a meeting on the impasse over the defeated public school budget in House Speaker Scott Bedke’s office, only to say they’re going to continue to meet, this time over on the Senate…
Gov. Butch Otter has signed SB 1117, the statewide heavy-trucks bill, into law, but says he wants the Idaho Transportation Department to hold public hearings and take other steps before designating any new routes – including Highway 95 in North Idaho - for the big,…
The Senate has adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow – without any announcement of a committee meeting today to print a new bill aimed at resolving the impasse over the Senate-rejected public school budget. But immediately after adjournment, Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, said,…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In a ruling issued last week, the Idaho Supreme Court got right to the point: The Department of Administration's former head appears to have helped the state's biggest phone company win a contract.…
The House has passed SCR 131, the rule change resolution to allow archiving of the video and audio streams of legislative proceedings, on a 65-1 vote, with just Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, dissenting. “We’re trying to find that sweet spot where we’re allowing these proceedings…
The House has now adjourned until 11 a.m. on Tuesday; the House Ways & Means Committee announced that it would meet immediately on adjournment in the JFAC room, where it will consider a new bill from Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, on the Line Commission…
For the past few votes in the Senate, key senators involved in talks on the public schools budget – including Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, Education Committee Chairman John Goedde and Vice Chairman Dean Mortimer, Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, and others, have been out of…
The House has voted 38-29 in favor of SB 1190, the budget for Medicaid for next year. There was little debate, but some members expressed disdain for “Obamacare,” and elements within the budget that are required because of the passage of the national law; many…
Next up on the House calendar was SB 1133a, the twice-amended bill that originally was a Senate bill about school safety, and now has morphed into a combination of two House-passed but Senate-neglected guns rights bills. House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, said he thought…
The House has voted 54-14 in favor of HB 111a, the bill to make a second offense of torture of a companion animal a felony. Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, noted that the original bill had a felony penalty for a third offense. Andrus…
Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, is telling several stories as part of his opening debate on HB 111a, the animal torture bill. As he got well into the second tale, he told the House, “Indulge me, we got a lot of time – we…
The Senate and House have both convened this afternoon; the Senate won’t be taking up HCR 21 and 22, the public lands transfer resolutions, until tomorrow. The path forward on the defeated public schools budget isn’t yet clear. “There’s been a lot of conversation going…
Alas for the budget for schools For some can be stubborn as mules When politics play At $30,000 a day We may be the April fools.
A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of student fees charged by public schools in Idaho heads back to a Boise courtroom this afternoon, reports Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News. District Judge Richard Greenwood dismissed the state as a defendant in the case last month, but…
What was supposed to have been a grand bargain for Idaho public schools has become a grand debacle, extending the 2013 legislative session indefinitely as opposing sides try to patch together the $1.3 billion education budget, reports AP reporter John Miller. The Senate last week…
The Idaho Legislature’s minority Democrats, though outnumbered 4 to 1, were “in play” this year, reports Idaho Statesman Reporter Dan Popkey, providing the key margin on the health exchange vote in the House and playing significant roles in other issues, from budgets to business issues.…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
