Budgets: Two steps forward, one step back

Members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee are nearly done writing budgets, but one major agency still remains: the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The committee also has to rework budgets for the Idaho State Liquor Division, which failed on the House floor, and for the Attorney General's office and State Appellate Public Defender, which the co-chairs pulled back to committee.

But they made progress on the public schools budget this week. Watch Idaho Reports for more.

Property tax relief bill moves to Senate

One of the most anticipated bills of the session is inching closer to the finish line – though not without trepidation from Democrats and school advocates over the bill’s tradeoffs.

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Watch more coverage in this week's episode.

Idaho Reports airs Friday at 8 p.m. on Idaho Public Television.

House passes school bathroom bill

The House passed a bill that would require schools to provide separate bathrooms, locker rooms and sleeping quarters for students based on their sex assigned at birth. The legislation now heads to Gov. Brad Little.

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Data center bill advances to House (again)

The committee narrowly shot down — and then later reconsidered and passed — a bill earlier this session that aimed to make data centers choose between taking a sales tax exemption, or being included in an urban renewal district, but not both.

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Bill to grant driving authority to unauthorized immigrants sent back to committee

The move came without debate or objection. It isn’t yet clear if the Senate will take up the bill again before the end of the session.

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Follow Idaho Reports for updates throughout the week

Direct care workforce report finds shortages

After a late start this session, the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee met and published a long-awaited report regarding the state’s direct care services workforce.

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This week on the podcast:

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Sealing Minor Criminal Offenses

Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, has spent several years trying to bring a Clean Slate Act - legislation that allows for minor criminal offenses to be sealed or expunged - to Idaho. She sat down this week with producer Ruth Brown to talk about a bill that passed this year with overwhelming bipartisan support and the compromises it took to achieve it.

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Library ‘obscenity’ bill moves forward to House

The committee heard about an hour-and-a-half of testimony from concerned community members and concerned librarians. One testifier even brought in copies of “Hustler” magazine to compare it to something he got at an Idaho library.

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