<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (March 28, 2013) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h1 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 28px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Idaho school budget rejected by one vote in Senate</h1></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – In a stunning move Wednesday, the Idaho Senate rejected the public school budget by one vote – sending lawmakers back to the drawing board and derailing plans to end Idaho’s legislative session this week.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At issue was $21 million for merit-pay bonuses and professional development for teachers, at the discretion of local school districts, and $3 million for technology pilot-project grants.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, who led the Senate revolt against the House-passed spending plan, said he believes the House and Senate education committees need to hold hearings on the two proposals.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think leadership’s going to have to carve out time for that to happen,” Goedde said. “We’re here to do it the right way. … There was no public input on policy changes.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said, “I think at a minimum, you’re adding another week to the session.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, Senate Finance vice chairwoman, said, “Both sides seem to be pretty dug in at the moment. I don’t know if cooler heads will prevail or what happens next.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goedde said he had no problem with the bottom-line budget figure set for schools. “My problem lies in some specific areas in the budget,” he told the Senate, which struck down the measure on an 18-17 vote. In addition to the merit bonus and technology grant items, he objected to restoring teacher pay after a two-year freeze on the state’s salary schedule. He said schools have gotten more for salaries through the recession than other state agencies.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho’s state budget process includes a joint committee of 10 House and 10 Senate members who agree on budget plans before they go to either house. This budget, HB 323, passed on a 15-5 vote in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee and then passed the House 52-16. It had backing from an array of groups, from the Idaho School Boards Association to the Idaho Education Association to state schools Superintendent Tom Luna. No school budget has been defeated in either house since 1992.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The defeated budget bill called for a 2.2 percent increase in state funding for Idaho’s public schools next year, which still would be $110 million below the 2009 level. That was slightly above Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendation for a 2 percent increase, but below state schools Superintendent Tom Luna’s request for 3 percent.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The public school budget is the largest piece of Idaho’s state budget, taking up roughly half the state’s general fund.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cameron attributed the opposition in part to continued raw feelings over voters’ rejection of the Students Come First school reform laws, which were repealed in the November election. Goedde was the lead sponsor of the bills when they passed the Legislature in 2011.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The raw emotions and feelings over the referendums – that’s what I really think is at play,” Cameron said. “Some people had worked really hard, and they were defeated.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goedde said he thought the objections were more about the process than the substance of the bill, and suggested the two programs he wants committee hearings on might still win approval, though possibly with some modifications.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I support differentiated pay,” he said, “and I support technology, and pilots have worked very well in Utah.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h5 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How they voted</span></font></h5></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Here’s how North Idaho senators voted in Wednesday’s defeat of the public school budget, HB 323:</p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><cci:capitals class="character" displayname="capitals" name="capitals" style="overflow: visible !important; ">Yes: Sens. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint; and Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow.</cci:capitals></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><cci:capitals class="character" displayname="capitals" name="capitals" style="overflow: visible !important; ">No: Sens. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene; Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene; Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood; and Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens.</cci:capitals></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">-------------------------------------</p></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><div>Seeya on the flip-flop, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Wallace, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>