After the second week of meetings and negotiations, Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Butch Otter came to a compromise Friday to halve the underground wings portion of Statehouse renovation. That means everybody can get back to lawmaking.
The three-week session has brought one of the slowest rates of bill introductions in recent memory. Leaders have been behind closed doors much of the past two weeks, working on Capitol renovation. Two dozen lawmakers have been learning the ropes. But committees have been chugging along.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee heard education budgets, from universities seeking a 13 percent increase Tuesday to schools superintendent Tom Luna's $1.3 billion budget on Thursday. The state Department of Education also announced a new position to oversee the education of nearly 4,200 American Indian students in Idaho.
Committee co-chairwoman Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, said Wednesday she was concerned about the budget requests lawmakers won't be able to approve. She told the Idaho Statesman that once lawmakers pay for continuing state-government operations, they will have about $48 million left over — not enough for many special projects.
Bell said there are some holes in Otter's budget the committee will have to fill. For example, Otter supported spending money for Luna's $10 million textbook initiative in his State of the State speech, but his budget proposed no money for it.
The tax committees were busy, too, with the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee continuing its lengthy rules review, including a trip to Hewlett-Packard to question management about business taxes. The House Revenue and Taxation Committee started consideration of actual bills, including a bill to make Idaho Internet and catalog businesses collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers.
Some smaller bills also started moving through the committees, like one that makes it easier to charge state officials misusing taxpayer dollars with a felony.
Otter even produced some ink outside the Statehouse debate. On Wednesday, he told the Idaho Water Users Association he has met with federal officials on possible new dam sites in Idaho and thinks existing dams should be expanded.
