Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is hoping meetings like those in Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, and Lewiston this week will drum up support among residents for new fee or tax hikes aimed at improving the state’s roads and bridges.
Otter has made a projected $240 million annual shortfall in transportation infrastructure funding his main priority, after failing to win support for increased fees and taxes for roads in the 2008 Legislature.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter comments
At meetings this week, people who attended offered several ideas on improving Idaho’s highways, including erecting fewer stoplights, making contributions to new road building and maintenance voluntary and boosting mass transit. Otter is waiting for similar meetings elsewhere in Idaho before crafting a final proposal.
Otter continues
Meetings are also scheduled next week in Idaho Falls and Pocatello; and Aug. 5 in Twin Falls.
For more information, visit the ITD Web site at itd.idaho.gov.
A Twin Falls business consultant and former publisher of the city’s newspaper has been named to fill a vacant seat in the Idaho House of Representatives. Governor Butch Otter tapped Republican Stephen Hartgen Thursday to fill the vacancy in House District 23B. Hartgen takes over for Rogerson rancher Bert Brackett, who was named by Otter to serve out the term of former Senator Tom Gannon, who died last month. Hartgen, 63, was also selected by local GOP leaders to take the spot on the November ballot once held by Brackett. A former editor and publisher of the Times-News in Twin Falls, Hartgen is also a past vice chairman of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry and a member of the Idaho Capital Commission. (AP)
Idaho Republican leaders are coming out in support of a Twin Falls consultant and former newspaper publisher to keep the House seat in District 23 in GOP hands. The district’s central committee picked Stephen Hartgen Tuesday to replace state Representative Bert Brackett on the November ballot. Brackett has been elevated to the Senate by Governor Butch Otter to fill in for former Buhl Republican Tom Gannon, who died in June. Hartgen will square off this fall against Democratic nominee Mike Ihler. Hartgen is also one of three candidates the committee is forwarding to the governor to temporarily fill Brackett’s House seat. The other two include Gene Winchester, a former state lawmaker, and Doran Parkins, a retired school administrator. Hartgen is a former publisher of the Times-News in Twin Falls and a member of the Idaho State Capitol Commission. (AP)
Magic Valley Republicans are getting ready to fill the legislative seat once held by Bert Brackett. Brackett was chosen last week by Idaho Governor Butch Otter to finish out the Senate term of Buhl Republican Tom Gannon, who died in June - Brackett will also replace Gannon on the November ballot. Local GOP leaders will meet Tuesday in Mountain Home to pick three nominees to fill Brackett’s old seat in the House representing District 23. Those names will then be submitted to the governor. Local party leaders say competition could be fierce considering Brackett was running unopposed for re-election this fall. State law gives local committees 15 days to submit nominations to the governor, then the governor has 15 days to pick a replacement. (AP)
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has chosen state Rep. Bert Brackett to fill the Idaho Senate seat left vacant by the death of Buhl Sen. Tom Gannon.
Brackett will also be the Republican nominee for the seat on the November general election ballot.
The 63-year-old rancher from Rogerson was serving his second term in the Idaho House.
Brackett, a past president of the Idaho Cattle Association, was one of three people nominated by the District 23 Republican Central Committee to replace Gannon, along with Twin Falls consultant Stephen Hartgen and Jeanne Gannon, the widow of the former senator.
A new Idaho law that goes into effect Sunday will help protect victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by allowing their addresses to be kept out of public records.
Moscow Rep. Shirley Ringo (pictured at left) introduced the legislation during the 2008 session after meeting a woman who had moved to Idaho from Washington state in an attempt to keep her location hidden from a former business partner. Based on that case and others like it, the bill passed unanimously through both the House and Senate.
For someone to take part in the new system, they must first obtain an order of protection after a judicial hearing, or they can get a certification from a prosecutor stating the person has been a victim of domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, malicious harassment or stalking. (AP)
A federal judge has ordered the state of Idaho to pay the American Civil Liberties Union another $66,000 for legal fees from a 2005 lawsuit over abortion legislation.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill awarded the money to the ACLU Foundation this week and closed the lawsuit, which was filed by Planned Parenthood of Idaho over what was determined to be an unconstitutional parental consent law the Legislature passed that year.
The amount boosts the extra costs of years of failed attempts at similar legislation to more than $400,000 over the past decade, all of which has gone to cover attorney fees for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, which defeated two attempts to make minor girls get their parents’ OK before they can get abortions. That lawsuit marked the second time since 2000 that a federal judge ruled one of the Legislature’s parental consent laws unconstitutional.
The third version of the bill, signed into law in March 2007, has not been challenged. It requires all unemancipated and unmarried minors to get parental or guardian consent before getting an abortion, or get a judge’s permission, except in the cases of emergencies or incest. (Idaho Statesman)
Buhl Republican state Senator Tom Gannon has died at the age of 62.
The three-term senator had battled an ailment throughout this year’s legislative session and died at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
A retired Naval officer, Gannon was the chairman of the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee and served on the Senate Education Committee. Gannon won his primary this year, easily defeating Doran Parkins with more than 66 percent of the vote. He was set to face Democrat Bill Chisholm in November’s general election.
Most times when a legislator dies in office the governor chooses a replacement for ma list submitted by the central committee of the district the deceased lawmaker represented. Gov. Butch Otter has not yet received the list. Funeral services are pending.
