Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how Idaho lawmakers wrote a new public schools budget today, one that’s virtually identical to the $1.3 billion spending plan that was rejected by one vote in the Senate last week, but this budget was…
Kootenai County public defender John Adams won’t be fired after all, county commissioners decided this week, saying two of the three commissioners had been unaware of Adams’ recent cancer diagnosis during their previous vote. The decision to reinstate Adams was made by the board “as…
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Jury selection is complete in a case where a retirement fund trustee is fighting federal prosecutors' claims he stole money from clients to help finance his failed bid to buy an Idaho ski…
House Education Committee Chairman Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, told the House that his committee heard supportive testimony on SB 1199 today from the Idaho School Boards Association, the Idaho Association of School Administrators, and the Idaho Education Association. “There was no opposition to this whatsoever,” DeMordaunt…
The House is suspending its rules and taking up SB 1199, the new education policy bill on locally-directed teacher merit bonuses and state grants for technology pilot projects in school districts. It will be the last bill the House handles today; tomorrow morning, Majority Leader…
Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, said the reason he joined the four-person minority in 20-member JFAC today voting against half the motions in the new public school budget was because he voted only for the divisions that didn’t include salary and benefit funding or discretionary…
HB 206aa, the charter school facilities funding bill, has passed the House as amended in the Senate, sending the measure to the governor's desk. There was bipartisan opposition; the bill passed on a 40-27 vote, with those dissenting including Majority Leader Mike Moyle R-Star. The…
The final action considered by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this afternoon is a new bill to transfer any unanticipated surplus in the state budget in excess of $20 million at the end of fiscal year 2013 into the budget stabilization fund, the state’s main savings…
There was no objection to the intent language attached to the public school budget in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this afternoon, so it was adopted by unanimous consent. That leaves the new public school budget pretty much the same as the Senate-defeated one, with the…
The motion for the children’s programs division in the school budget passed unanimously in JFAC this afternoon, on a 20-0 vote. Then, the motion for the division of facilities passed on a 16-4 vote, the same as earlier motions, with Sens. Mortimer, Nuxoll, Vick and…
The second and third motions on the public school budget, for the divisions of teachers and operations, have passed by identical 16-4 votes, the same as the first motion, with just Sens. Mortimer, Nuxoll, Vick and Bayer objecting. The budget motions appear to be building…
The first motion of the six in the public school budget, for administration, has passed JFAC on a 16-4 vote, with just Sens. Dean Mortimer, Sheryl Nuxoll, Steve Vick and Cliff Bayer objecting. That’s one more vote than the original school budget, HB 323, got…
The House Education Committee has just announced it'll meet on adjournment of the House - now. On its agenda is SB 1199, the new Senate-passed bill that both the House and Senate education committee held a hearing on this morning; it deals with two pieces…
The House has passed the drone privacy bill, SB 1134aa, on a 66-2 vote, with just Reps. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, and Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, dissenting. Now, Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, said the House plans to recess until 2:30 p.m. to allow the House Education…
The Senate is now at ease, and members are milling around, awaiting SB 1134aa, the drone bill, from the House. The House has just begun debate on the much-amended measure, which seeks to restrict the use of unmanned drones without a warrant, to protect privacy.…
The House has voted 42-26 in favor of SB 1192a, the bill to exempt a state parking garage project near the Capitol from local Boise city planning and zoning requirements. The bill, which earlier passed the Senate, now goes to the governor's desk.
The House is working through a suspension calendar; it has already suspended rules and approved HCR 36, on reauthorizing the LINE Commission, and HB 343, the so-called “drop-dead bill” that extends all administrative rules, which otherwise would expire July 1. Now, the Senate has reconvened…
The House is debating SB 1192a, the Senate-passed bill to exempt a state parking garage project near the Capitol from Boise city planning and zoning requirements. “We sold the bonds on the parking garage last year, and we are on a very strict timetable,” Rep.…
Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, has announced to the Senate that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. today.
There was no debate, and the Senate has voted 31-3 in favor of SB 1199, the new education bill regarding teacher merit bonuses and technology pilot project grants. Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, who asked for 60 seconds to explain his vote, noted the pending education…
Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, is presenting SB 1199 to the Senate, after a unanimous vote to suspend rules to allow the bill to come up right away. “The language … may look familiar,” he told the Senate. “It was found in another…
The Senate is at ease, while Senate leaders from both parties huddle with Senate Secretary Jennifer Novak on the complex dance that’s ahead of them, as they suspend rules, move between various orders, and pick up late bills due to arrive from the House, including…
The Senate has convened this morning; it’s planning to suspend its rules and take up SB 1199, the bill just approved this morning in the Senate Education Committee regarding two sections of the public school budget, on teacher merit bonuses and technology pilot grants.
Longtime Idaho political watcher - and player – Marty Peterson offers some historical perspective on this year’s defeat of the public school budget in the Senate and its larger implications, in a column today at Ridenbaugh.com; you can read it here. Peterson points to the…
The Senate Education Committee has approved SB 1199 with just one dissenting vote, from Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise. Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, moved to send the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass. “It’s not exactly what I would have scripted,…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
