Tom Luna, Idaho schools superintendent, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee he wants the right to reject a scheduled 3 percent pay increase in the next fiscal year.

"I don’t want to take it," Luna said Thursday. "I want the opportunity to reject a pay increase."

Luna compared his desire to not "take this money at all from taxpayers" to lawmakers own resolution to reject a pay increase early this month. That resolution is before the Senate Thursday.

In succeeding hearings at the Capitol Annex on Wednesday, lawmakers will consider whether to again side with the Idaho Association of Realtors and reject rules toughening standards for septic systems.

The pending Department of Environmental Quality rule has received extra attention with news that a lobbyist withdrew a promised campaign contribution to DEQ board member Joan Cloonan after she joined a 6-1 vote for the rule in October. The lobbyist, John Eaton, told the DEQ board that if they approved the rule he would once again overturn it in the Legislature.

State Board of Education president Milford Terrell told the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday delivered an impassioned plea for funding for residency programs in the state even as the budget is shrinking.

"I don't expect the state to do everything for everybody," Terrell said, "but education and doctors are the primary need in the state of Idaho right now."

Terrell wants the state to eventually fund 40 seats at the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) program at the University of Washington's medical school. Right now, the state funds 20 seats at the school.

Buzz around the Capitol Annex this week includes talk of a potential special legislative session this summer to address the state budget.

The fiscal year ends June 30.

Staff inside Gov. Butch Otter's office say they've heard talk of a special session, but Otter has no plans to call one. Only the Governor has the authority to order a special session.

"I have heard rumors about that, but it isn’t coming from us. It is one of those hypotheticals," Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said Tuesday. "We will just wait and see where things are at. It is too early to tell."

The University of Idaho is preparing to cut about 5 percent of its faculty and staff positions.

The university is not allowed under the state constitution to use increases in student fees to pay for instruction, interim President Steven Daley-Laursen told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Monday morning.

The positions that will be cut are likely those currently vacant. Daley-Laursen said the university currently has 32 vacant faculty positions and 55 vacant staff positions.

Daley-Laursen detailed plans for the university in the coming fiscal year.

The Legislative Services Office puts out a weekly progress report, which is one way of measuring what is happening in the Legislature.

Through two weeks, this year's session is well behind the previous six years in terms of new legislation prepared and bills introduced.

The Legislature has produced 316 new legislation and changes, amendments and engrossments — that figure is at least 111 fewer than at this same time in any legislative session since 2004. Last year, for example, there were 521 such moves.

The 46 bills introduced is 15 fewer than at any point since 2004.

The first volley in this legislative session’s local option tax debate has landed in committee purgatory.

Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, submitted a bill to the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. It was then sent to the Ways and Means Committee, which is controlled by House leadership and has not yet met.

“Which means it’s dead,” Durst said.

Durst said he has been working on the bill since July and ran it past the State Tax Commission and the Attorney General’s office. He also took it to Sen. Brent Hill, the chairman of the Local Government and Taxation Committee.

Rumors that the Legislature's premier quote smith, Rep. Lenore Barrett of Challis, is ready to retire from lawmaking and delighting reporters are lies. Damn lies.

Jaws have been flapping since Barrett, 74, was blessed with her first biological grandchildren on Sept. 16, fraternal twins Christina Paul Barrett and Brooke Lee Barrett.

"Do I miss their warm little bodies and sweet kisses? Absolutely," Barrett said Friday. "But I'm only here three months a year. They have added to my life, but what that does is make me work a little harder to leave them something besides socialism.”

The tiny Senate Democratic Caucus — seven members in all — met Thursday and decided to offer five bills as caucus bills this session. The caucus was open to the media.

The Senate Republican Caucus also met Thursday afternoon and we will be getting a report from Russ Fulcher later. The Republican caucus was much less of an agenda-setting meeting. See below for Fulcher's comments.

Among the Democrats' proposed legislation:

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved cuts over and above the 4 percent holdbacks ordered by Gov. Butch Otter in the current budget year.

Otter had also ordered cuts to one-time funds.

Legislative budget staff worked with the Division of Financial Management and state agencies to identify and pull back money intended for special one-time uses.

JFAC’s actions include moving $26 million in dedicated one-time funds to the general fund and another $12 million reduction in one-time fiscal year 2009 original general fund appropriations.