<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman at:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div> </div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 39px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Otter ‘not prepared’ to call special session to address child support, but promises action</span></div><div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 10pt; font-family: sans-serif;">Read more here: <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html#storylink=cpy</a></div><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Butch Otter said he was “not prepared” yet to call a special legislative session to address a House panel’s late-session vote that threatens to dismantle the state’s ability to process $205 million in child support payments, but added that doing nothing has “not even entered the discussion.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><font color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/13/3749491/vote-by-idaho-lawmakers-could.html" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">A House panel on the session’s last day </a>rejected a measure to bring Idaho into compliance with an international treaty on cross-border child support payments and other forms of family assistance. All 50 states must ratify the new provision. </span></font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Failure to do so, in Idaho’s case, threatens $16 million in federal aid to fund the state’s office of Child Protection Services, $30 million in aid under the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and $205 million in payments the Idaho office oversees annually.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The state has until June 12 to find a fix. In the meantime, letters about the potential change are being sent to parties to all 155,000 state child support cases, which involve 400,000 people — including 183,000 children.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I’m not prepared to stand up here today to tell you that I’m going to call a special session,” Otter said, speaking at his post-session press conference Thursday. “Because I think there’s a lot of homework for us to do, if we were to have a special session, to have a successful one.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He added: “We are going to be engaged and we’re going to do something.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The bill was introduced in the Senate and passed unanimously in that body on March 20 before coming to the House. The House panel involved rejected the measure by one vote, 9-8. Otter Thursday declined to comment on the lawmakers who voted against it.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The governor gave the session a grade of ‘A’ on its action on funding for education, but a “B minus or C plus,” or incomplete, on lawmaker’s work on transportation funding. He praised the 7.4 percent increase in public education funding, which includes funding for the first of a five-year teachers salary increase, but was tepid in his appraisal of the Legislature’s approval of $96 million to repair ailing roads and bridges, where the state has an estimated $262 million annual shortfall.</span></p><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>Read more here: <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html#story">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/04/16/3754119/otter-not-prepared-to-call-special.html#story</a></span></div></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><img src="cid:E4D208C6-7230-4BD1-8E4E-548967E0D6B8" alt="image1.jpeg" id="E4D208C6-7230-4BD1-8E4E-548967E0D6B8"></div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Idaho/OtterBS.JPG">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Idaho/OtterBS.JPG</a><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>