The legislative battle over education — which is sure to be one of the hottest topics for the rest of the 2009 Idaho Legislature session — began boiling this week.

Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, got in one of the first punches during a House education meeting earlier this week when he asked Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna if he had a “magic carpet” to get Boise School District students to school.

Durst’s zinger came in reaction to Luna’s proposed changes to school transportation funding, a change that could cost the Boise district $1.45 million.

College of Western Idaho president Dennis Griffin delivered a presentation on the new community college to the House Education Committee on Wednesday morning.

In the presentation he detailed the school's expected enrollment growth from 1,200 this year to 6,972 in the 2011-2012 school year. Griffin also said the college is negotiating with two or three sites for an Ada County campus.

But, as with most colleges, people wanted to talk about athletics.

Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, congratulated Griffin because "your football team is undefeated."

2:31 p.m. — Wood: "We do have a lot of work left in front of us."

2:29 p.m. — The committee voted to print each of the five bills, but they have a long way to go.

Gov. Otter is holding a press conference now. That's it for the live blogging.

2:27 p.m. — The committee is making motions to print each RS. King said she is going to vote to print, but said it is a tough vote in these economic times.

King said a sixth bill here should be for local option authority.

Idaho arts leader Mark Hofflund had nothing but a knowing laugh in reply when Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Maxine Bell greeted him Tuesday just before the Idaho Arts Commission's budget hearing.

"And you will do with nothing, as you've always done," Bell, R-Jerome, told Hofflund, the Arts Commission's board chairman. "And you do a very good job."

Hofflund is also managing director of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and recently completed a three-year term as a member of the National Council on the Arts, an arm of the National Endowment for the Arts.

For the last week the Idaho Capitol Annex has been slightly abuzz with the news that the House transportation committee would take up Gov. Butch Otter’s transportation plan on Tuesday.

The $174 million, 150-plus-page omnibus bill unveiled by the governor Jan. 12 already has been diced up into five separate bills: increase the gas tax and vehicle registration fees, impose a rental car tax, eliminate the ethanol subsidy and shift Idaho State Police funding from the highway account to the general fund.

Office of Energy Resources administrator Paul Kjellander highlighted the Caldwell School District's on-going construction of two energy-efficient elementary schools and the district's county-wide measures to increase energy conservation during his budget presentation to the budget-writing Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee on Monday.

Kjellander said the district made $6 million in energy-saving measures and is realizing nearly $600,000 a year in savings.

"They've put their money where their beliefs are," Kjellander said.

The legislative budget writers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee no doubt have the toughest job at the Capitol Annex this year.

With the ever-changing budget projections and this year's cuts, no one wants to overshoot the real budget number and have to take money back from the agencies for a season straight year.

But there is also a problem associated with being too pessimistic, said Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise. If the budget writers go too low (below actual revenue numbers), then the state will lay off more employees than necessary or make further cuts.

Beware foreignoregonian!

A bill by Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, would expand the state's harassment law to include e-mail and Internet postings. The bill is in response to the infamous MySpace case, which led the suicide of a teen-age girl in Missouri.

Currently the law includes telephone harassment.

The field of potential GOP challengers to Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick has thinned by one.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna has been rumored as a possible contender. In December, The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, listed Luna as a prospect. This week, the unequivocal notion blog said Luna was “almost assured” to make the race.

Luna’s spokeswoman put an end to that talk Wednesday with this simple e-mail: “Superintendent Luna is not running for Congressional District 1 in 2010.”

President Abraham Lincoln could be named honorary governor of Idaho later this month under a resolution approved by the Idaho Senate on Wednesday.

Lincoln turned down an offer in 1849 to govern the Oregon Territory – now Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana – due to his wife’s objections.

SCR102 would make Lincoln honorary governor of the territory on Feb. 12, his 200th birthday. Legislatures in Oregon, Washington and Montana are considering similar measures.

A life-sized bronze statue of Lincoln will be unveiled at a ceremony on his birthday just south of the Capitol.