Gov. Lets Final 3 Bills Become Law, Sans Signature

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter allowed the final three bills on his desk to become law without his signature.

Among the measures: A bill that restores funding protections for schools with enrollment declines, but shifts the cost of the program to the districts.

Idaho previously allowed shrinking districts to keep 99 percent of the funding that came with a departed student, for one year. Those protections were eliminated in reforms proposed by schools chief Tom Luna in 2011.

Luna said Idaho shouldn’t give schools money for “ghost students” a year after they’d left. Otter listed that same reason Tuesday when explaining why he didn’t sign the 2012 bill that restores the program, at districts’ expense.

The Spokesman-Review reports Otter didn’t veto any of the 342 bills that passed the 2012 session.

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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com