The Legislature’s joint Change in Employee Compensation Committee has convened in the Lincoln Auditorium, the joint panel’s first meeting since 2008 to examine state employee pay and benefits. “I am pleased that we are convening once again,” said Sen. John Tippets, R-Montpelier, who is co-chairing the panel, “with the full support of the commerce committees in the Senate and the House, with the full support of leadership.” Tippets said they’ll see how it goes, but “our intention up front” is that the joint panel will once again convene every year, as it did historically.

Said Rep. Neil Anderson, R-Blackfoot, the joint committee’s House co-chairman, “From my point of view, we’re all in this together. We’re all trying to run this state of Idaho in the best fashion that we can, and we’re all allied in that cause. … We’ll work together on trying to come up with the answers.”

The committee’s agenda today includes some history, a review of the state’s current compensation system, health insurance and retirement plans, and a review of the Division of Human Resources’ latest report on state employee compensation; you can watch live here. Tomorrow, the panel will hear from the governor’s budget chief, the legislative budget director and the JFAC co-chairs, and then will hold an open public hearing for testimony from state employees from 3:15 to 5 p.m.