Highlights from 03-01-2013

STATE WATER PLAN

Time running out to revise plan

The Idaho Water Resources Board delivered the state water plan to the Legislature on the first day of the session.

But lawmakers who want to revise the plan didn't act until Friday, and under state law legislators have 60 days - until March 8 - to make changes.

The House Resources and Conservation Committee voted Friday to print the plan and Committee Chairman Lawerence Denney set the hearing for March 7. But that means there's likely not enough time for lawmakers to get their changes made before the plan takes effect.

Rocky Barker

HEAVY LOADS

Committee OKs two big-rig bills

The Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday unanimously recommended a bill that would permanently allow heavy rigs on 35 specific routes in southern Idaho.

A 10-year pilot project recently concluded that 129,000-pound loads have had no significant effect on road and bridge infrastructure or safety conditions on the designated routes.

The committee split 5-4 on another bill that would allow highway districts to designate truck routes for loads ranging from 105,501 to 129,000 pounds.

William L. Spence, Lewiston Tribune

TEACHERS

Senate OKs open contract talks

In a rare point of agreement between the education union and school boards on a remnant of the failed Students Come First overhaul, the Senate unanimously voted Friday to send to the House a proposal to make collective bargaining talks public and require school boards to post notices of negotiation sessions.

The bill would also make all meeting minutes and contract offers subject to state open records laws.

Kevin Richert,Idaho Education News

More teacher negotiation bills

A third round of teacher negotiation bills is expected to pop up in the Senate Education Committee Monday.

Senators likely will hear variations on some familiar themes: bills that would eliminate longstanding "evergreen" clauses between teachers unions and school districts; legislation allowing school districts to cut teacher salaries; and legislation that might require teachers' unions to prove that they represent at least half of a district's staff. The Idaho School Boards Association will present these rewrites.

Meanwhile, the Idaho Education Association will come back with a rewrite of its own: a bill defining when a school district can declare a "financial emergency," and budget accordingly..

Kevin Richert,Idaho Education News

CITIZEN INITIATIVES

Senate panel hears initiative bid views

The Idaho Farm Bureau got an earful from foes of its proposal to make it tougher to get citizen initiatives on the ballot on the first day of debate.

Friday's Senate State Affairs Committee hearing will be followed by more discussion on Monday.

Now, it takes signatures from 6 percent of voters statewide to get initiatives on the ballot. The Farm Bureau aims to require signatures from 6 percent of residents in 18 of Idaho's 35 legislative districts, on grounds the current system favors populated, urban areas over rural Idaho.

The Associated Press

BEER

Idaho distributors fight big brewers

Idaho beer distributors want to forbid beer brewers including giants Miller Coors and Anheuser-Busch Inbev from owning distributorships.

The Idaho Beer and Wine Distributors Association's bill originally failed in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday.

But lawmakers reconsidered more than an hour later and said they'll debate possible changes on the Senate floor.

Distributors fear Miller Coors and Anheuser-Busch will move aggressively into the market, using their clout to bend distributors to their will - or force them to sell.

The Associated Press

HEALTH EXCHANGES

Otter: Good idea long before Obama

Pressing his case after a 23-12 Senate vote for his state-based health insurance exchange, Gov. Butch Otter wrote that such exchanges were considered good policy in the private sector long before the passage of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

With the House Health and Welfare Committee expected to introduce a new omnibus bill incorporating the Senate bill next week, Otter says an Idaho-run exchange is best for Idaho, even if it means swallowing opposition to Obamacare.

"More than a decade before Obamacare started giving health insurance exchanges a bad name, they were at work in the private sector, used mostly by large companies seeking to provide affordable group health coverage for their employees," Otter wrote in an op-ed released Friday. "Some states, including Idaho, also have had private exchanges selling small group and individual policies for years.

"Then Obamacare started confusing the issue. Its passage and court approval, and the subsequent re-election of its namesake, left those of us seeking a market-based approach to addressing the issue frustrated and disappointed.

"But much as we may wish otherwise, resisting Obamacare by simply refusing to act is no remedy at all."

Dan Popkey

LEGISLATIVE ARCHIVES

2013 audio, video will be preserved

The Legislative Council agreed unanimously Friday to archive the 2013 Legislature.

The possible modifications to rules and statutes will be considered by the various caucus and legislative leadership teams, with an eye to enactment before the end of this year's session.

Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill and House Speaker Scott Bedke said they authorized retaining this year's audio and video records for now, rather than deleting them after two weeks as had previously been the policy.

Dan Popkey