The Idaho House met Friday morning. Or, at least, most of the Idaho House met Friday morning — 27 of the 70 members were absent or excused during roll call.

The House did little more than the morning prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. No business was conducted in the eight-minute session.

The call to adjourn until Monday was a close voice vote — a form of protest from those who do not want to return to Boise.

Five senators were absent for Friday's proceedings, which lasted just a few minutes longer than the House session.

Boise County Republicans have condemned Gov. Butch Otter's recent vetoes aimed at convincing lawmakers to increase taxes for transportation.

County Chairman John Blatter has written state GOP officials to convey the Boise County Party's action on Monday, after the governor vetoed 10 bills. On Tuesday, he vetoed another 25, hoping to convince lawmakers to raise taxes for roads and bridges.

Blatter suggested that Otter may be threatening prospects of his re-election in 2010.

The transportation impasse prompted Idaho Democrats to waive their policy of holding open caucuses for the second time this session.

The Democrats asked a reporter from the Lewiston Tribune and two lobbyists for the construction industry to leave just before 11 a.m. so they could discuss a proposal being floated by the House GOP.

One of the staff sages at the Legislature notes how the decline of the family farm helps explain why 2009 looks to become the second-longest session in Idaho history come Friday.

The words of wisdom come from Terri Franks-Smith, the House's fiscal officer, an attache since 1973.

"In the early 1970s, the legislative session never ran beyond mid- to late-March because many more members were hands-on involved in agriculture," Franks-Smith said Tuesday. "The weather began to change and they were ready to go home. They would compromise quickly because there are only so many growing days."

Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis told reporters that he rewrote his “going-home list” this week because his old one had gotten too beaten up.

Here is Davis’ list and where the Legislature stands on it:

“I don’t know that any of those have to pass, but all of those have to be dealt with,” Davis said.

Budget: The Senate is pushing House appropriations bills to the bottom of its calendar. The House is doing the same with Senate finance bills. Davis wants to deal with the issue of payroll cuts before moving those budget bills to the governor.

UPDATED 3:54 p.m. Much has been written over the last few months about Gov. Butch Otter’s insistence that federal stimulus money not be used for ongoing costs.

“We’ve been very clear. We don’t want to use these funds for ongoing purposes,” Otter’s spokesman Jon Hanian said again Wednesday.

But Thursday, the governor’s budget director said that road maintenance is an ongoing cost.

House Business Committee Chairman Max Black has been jokingly recognized on the floor of the Idaho House for his confrontation with a union carpenter last week.

Black accepted a “Legislative Bail Bond Gift Certificate” in good humor Thursday morning, calling it an “infamous award.” Rep. Rich Willis, R-Glenns Ferry, a retired Idaho State Police officer who was nearby when Black mixed it up with carpenter Max Murphy of Boise, presented the certificate.

“During this whole affair (Willis) ran ahead of me, and would stop every two minutes and laugh,” Black said.

10:40 a.m.: Vote: HB 135 2-cent gas increase FAILS. Vote is 32-37.

10:22 a.m. Seven lawmakers have spoken so far. Four oppose, three support.

9:59 a.m. Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls supports the bill. “We have stuck our heads in the sand up until now. We are down to this 2 cents. ... I urge your support for the is piddly little bill.”

9:58 a.m. Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, opposes the bill.

9:52 a.m. The House has begun debating HB 135 -- a two-cent increase on the state's 25-cent-per-gallon gas tax.

The Legislature’s budget-writing committee will decide Wednesday morning how to handle the previously approved 5 percent payroll cost reductions for state agencies.

The 20-member committee voted earlier to mandate a 3 percent across-the-board pay cut and leave 2 percent to the discretion of agency directors.

Now, the committee will decide whether to reduce the cuts to 3 percent immediately by using stimulus or rainy day funds or to put in trigger language tied to economic recovery that would allow Gov. Butch Otter to reduce it to 3 percent later.

The Idaho House on Tuesday approved a bill prompted by federal wolf reintroduction and aimed at criminalizing the introduction of dangerous or vicious non-native animals to the state.

Though GOP Rep. Lynn Luker, a Boise lawyer, said the bill would have no impact on the federal government or its agents because of sovereign immunity, House Bill 138 passed 46-24. The feds introduced wolves into Idaho as part of a recovery program under the Endangered Species Act, among the laws most despised by Idaho conservatives.