The final gavel has come down and the 2013 Idaho legislative session is over. Both the Senate and the House passed the $1.3 billion public schools budget. That budget is nearly identical to the one the Senate rejected last week, a move that prolonged the session by nearly a week.
Senators who wanted substantive changes such as shifting money from teacher pay to general operations did not get what they wanted. The victor in the budget squabble was John Goedde, the Republican head of the Senate Education Committee. He asserted the authority of his committee in blocking the powerful budget committee.
Budget writers had set aside money for teacher performance bonuses and technology pilot programs. Goedde maintained that such programs had to come from committees. On Wednesday the education committees gave budget writers the OK to fund bonus and technology programs with little difference from those contained in the original budget.
That allowed the budget committee to quickly pass a schools’ budget with only minor changes from the first try. That passed first the Senate then the House Thursday morning. The Senate Adjourned for the year before 11:00 a.m. and the House at 11:30.