Idaho House kills library commission budget, Gov. Little kills IT budget as adjournment draws near
The Idaho House of Representatives was on the cusp of adjournment Thursday, when more than half of the House voted to kill the budget for the Idaho Commission on Libraries one of the last pieces of legislation left in the queue this session.
Shortly thereafter, Gov. Brad Little vetoed Senate Bill 1400, the budget for the Office of Information Technology Services. Taken together, those two developments inject uncertainty into what was supposed to be the second-to-last day of the 2022 legislative session.
The first sign of trouble was a long debate Thursday afternoon about obscene materials and pornography in libraries. The Idaho House killed the third version of the 2023 budget for the Idaho Commission on Libraries, House Bill 824. The bill failed 33-36.
The bill included $11.2 million in total funding, including $4.5 million in state general fund spending and $6.7 million in federal funding. Legislative budget writers already cut $307,000 for ebooks that was included in the original budget bill, House Bill 784, after legislators said some of the materials in the ebooks were inappropriate and accessible to children through their school libraries.
Read more: https://idahocapitalsun.com/2022/03/24/idaho-house-kills-library-commission-budget-gov-little-kills-it-budget-as-adjournment-draws-near/