The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee will reconvene on Thursday morning, and its agenda is packed. On the schedule: Reconsidering cuts in the DEQ's air quality program, reconsidering caps on the Children's Health Insurance Program and possibly other items in the Medicaid budget, and increasing the budget…
Rep. Bob Schaefer, R-Nampa, contends that back when he worked on North Idaho field-burning issues, he discovered that there was nothing to residents' complaints about smoke from field-burning."We found out from that when people complained about the smoke in the Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint area,…
Rep. John Campell, R-Sandpoint, told the House that the sale of the University of Idaho's Clark Fork Field Campus was "a travesty of justice.""Whoever bought that hit the Idaho jackpot," Campbell said. "I think we ought to change this law to make sure this never…
Wonder why former Rep. Freeman Duncan was filling in for Sen. Dick Compton this week? Or how Kootenai County GOP Chairman Bob Nonini took Rep. Hilde Kellogg's seat for a week?Idaho's substitute-legislator system may be unique in the country. Brenda Erickson, a senior researcher with…
St. Maries Rep. Dick Harwood told the House on Wednesday that a bill to require kids to attend kindergarten was akin to communism.Lawmakers would be familiar with the idea "if you've ever read the Communist Manifesto," Harwood said. "This is another step toward government control…
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne expects a "short, productive legislative session," he told the Idaho Press Club today. With reporters jammed into a local Mexican restaurant for the governor's annual luncheon talk, Kempthorne defended his campaign finances, declined to threaten any vetos in the interest of working…
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne opened the door today to the possibility of running for a third term - something he's been saying for years he wouldn't do."Ask me next year," Kempthorne told reporters after a news conference in his office. "Today, I don't have plans to…
Hard feelings over the University of Idaho's decision to dump its Clark Fork Field Campus without consulting the community first bubbled over into a bill this week.But when Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, joined Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Rep. John Campbell, R-Sandpoint, to propose the…
Plans to change the name of the huge Department of Health and Welfare to Health and Social Services fell one vote short in the Senate this week, amid protests about the $30,000 cost to change signs and listings that have the old name.Backers, led by…
Just before the House Revenue & Taxation Committee met on Thursday, a committee member, at the urging of her fellow lawmakers, straightened a painting of a historic downtown Boise scene that hangs on the hearing room wall."It needs to go a little bit down on…
The anti-vicious dog bill being pushed by Rep. George Eskridge and Sen. Shawn Keough of District 1 along with the Boundary County commissioners ran into a little trouble on Wednesday. The head of the Idaho Humane Society and several others pointed out flaws in the…
Sen. Sheila Sorensen, R-Boise, announced this morning that she has chosen not to schedule HJR 9, the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, for a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee, which she chairs."It's an emotional, contentious, divisive issue," Sorensen said. "Why do we…
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, and Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, are disappointed that their resolution on the Rock Creek Mine never got introduced this year.The two tried to persuade the House Resources Committee to introduce the resolution to call attention to the need to protect Lake…
Sen. Marti Calabretta's daughter, Rebecca Miller, visited the Statehouse on Monday and now the state library won't go a third year without any money to buy books or periodicals. At least that's how her mother tells it.Miller is a senior editor with Library Journal in…
Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, is against letting anyone under age 14 get piercings, other than in the earlobe, or tattoos either. He supported a bill that includes the ban. Here, in a moment captured by Chuck Cathcart of Idaho Public TV, Davis…
After a House committee refused to introduce their bill and schedule a public hearing on it, the Idaho Community Action Network set up its own "People's Hearing" on the steps of the state Capitol on Thursday. Complete with a podium and seats labeled with the…
Let’s say a style-conscious Idaho 13-year-old wants to have several piercings in her upper ear as well as her earlobe, and perhaps one in her eyebrow or navel too, and her parents are just fine with the idea. Idaho legislators say no way – that…
He may just be a freshman political science major at the University of Idaho, but Henry D. Johnston is tuned in. The student, who served as a House page last year, listens in via the Internet to House and Senate debates when he gets the…
Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, is working furiously on legislation to double the $1-per-acre fee for agricultural field burning - even though Meyer, a grass seed farmer himself, would then have to pay more.The reason? When the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, on which Meyer serves, passed a…
Halfway through the legislative session, the high school pages who help out with errands and such go home, and a new crop comes down to the Capitol. House Speaker Bruce Newcomb administered the oath of office to the second group of pages on Monday, and…
Lobbying groups host receptions, luncheons and dinners for lawmakers so frequently that the elected officials may be taking the free grub for granted. Thus, this exchange overheard between a state senator and a companion last week:Senator: "I'm going to the retailers reception tonight."Companion: "You mean…
Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, had plenty of arguments to offer in favor of his bill to ban restaurant smoking during a passionate debate that ran for three hours in the Senate on Friday. Here's one that got a chuckle from other senators: Hill brandished a…
Just last week, the House Environmental Affairs Committee approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, and Roy Eiguren, lobbyist for Envirosafe, a southern Idaho hazardous waste dump, to match Idaho's "tipping fees" for hazardous waste to Oregon's. That meant lowering them.Now, in the…
The gray-haired lobbyists and legislators who hang out on the historic chairs and couches on the state Capitol's fourth floor don't like it when people think this sign refers to them.
Legislation to let donors to Children's Village in Coeur d'Alene in on a state income tax credit for contributions to youth rehab facilities had no trouble clearing the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Wednesday, and heading to the full House.The committee's vice chairman, Rep.…
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