As far as the cost of the websites, each agency or department handles that internally so there is no firm total cost available for setting up or maintaining a site.

According to Bill Farnsworth from DOA, most state agencies control their own websites and have the ability to put up a website without telling the state. “There is no procedure in place as far as if the agency wishes to let us know about a particular site that they stand up.”

Once DOA knows about a site, it is listed in the A to Z directory within Idaho.gov. “We try to capture everything, but we don’t get them (websites) all,” said Farnsworth, adding, “There can be some redundancy, some duplication.”

Farnsworth does believe that most agency websites are accounted for, but also says some agencies are better than others about notifying DOA about individual sites that may be up.

Not only is the decision to launch a site up to the particular agency, but whether or not to take it down is also at the agency’s discretion. “It is each agency’s responsibility to take down a non-viable site. It’s good to let the agency to stand up a site or take it down,” said Farnsworth. Farnsworth said agencies have a better idea of what is viable and not viable, so they are better judges when it comes to the issue of whether it should be taken down.

DOA does host some sites for smaller entities, such as smaller cities and smaller commissions, totaling around 110 sites, according to Farnsworth.

Still, there is confusion about some state sites, including one created to market the idea of locating F-35 jets to the Mountain Home air base. The jets were located elsewhere, but the site remains visible to anyone wishing to access idahof35.com.

According to Mike Rotchford with the Idaho Department of Commerce, the decision to leave the site up was based on the hope that the next wave of F-35s will be brought to Idaho. “At some point,” said Rotchford, “the old air frames will be phased out and when that happens next time we hope the F-35s will be coming to Idaho.”

Rotchford said that because the state is hoping the next phase of F-35s ends up in Idaho, the decision was made to keep the site up to “maintain a presence” for Idahoans to know what’s going on. The department also launched a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/idahof35, for people to keep current on the project and with military matters throughout the state of Idaho.

The question of website oversight arose in July in many states when the federal government announced that no new government websites would be created and existing websites would be consolidated. At the time, there were 2,000 main federal domain names. The goal, said the federal Office of Management and Budget, is to trim that number to 1,000 sites within a year. But, agencies also had different sites apart from the main ones. In total, the federal government has around 24,000 websites.

The Idaho government number of websites, probably no more than 500, and the federal number of 24,000 pale compared to the number of websites worldwide. According to howmanyarethere.net, there are 346 million websites worldwide as of June of this year.

“We’re going to follow the federal health reform, but we’re going to do it at a slower pace,” said Teresa Luna, the head of the Department of Administration, which oversees the state’s health plan for its workers.  “In exchange for doing it at a slower pace, we guarantee that we won’t raise rates at an exorbitant manner.”

State lawmakers ordered Luna to keep the state plan grandfathered, though she can report back next year if it would be cheaper to change the plan’s status, which would give the state more options in running its plan.

Workers on the state plan are still seeing some of the changes under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare.  Children of plan members can stay covered through the age of 26, and pre-existing health conditions of children under 19 must be covered.  By 2014, the current lifetime maximum of $1 million in health benefits will disappear.

Implementing these reforms cost the state approximately $1.5 million, according to Luna, which is less than 1 percent of the yearly cost of the insurance plan.

However, the Idaho state plan and other grandfathered plans across the country don’t need to follow other parts of the federal law.  Those provisions include eliminating added payments for going to out-of-network emergency rooms and free preventative care, which includes services such as cancer and blood pressure screenings.  A full list of reforms that don’t apply to grandfathered plans is available at the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.

Luna said she and others monitoring Idaho’s insurance plan are looking to more preventative medicine as a way to keep costs down.  “We’re going to start working on a program that will make wellness and preventive medicine more of a focal point,” she said.  “We’re hoping to learn more what our costs are and then limit those costs by making the right choices rather than fixing them after things have already gone wrong.”

Leaders of two groups representing state workers, the Idaho Public Employees Association and the Idaho Association of Government Employees, told IdahoReporter.com they weren’t familiar with the grandfathered status of the state plan.

To keep the state health plan grandfathered, Luna’s department needed approval from Gov. Butch Otter, who also signed off on several other waivers to let the state follow the federal reforms.  The other waivers could bring in almost $19 million in federal money for programs that the governor’s office said don’t implement some of the controversial reforms.

Idaho is among the majority of states suing to stop implementation of the federal reforms’ requirement that people buy health insurance.  Idaho’s case is currently in a federal appeals court and could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) approved getting rid of the 90-day waiting period. JFAC also will require the Department of Administration, which manages the insurance plan for state workers, to come back to lawmakers anytime they make changes to insurance benefits.

Teresa Luna, the interim head of the Department of Administration, said waiving the 90-day requirement could cost the insurance plan some money, but would make working for the state more attractive to job seekers.

Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, who owns an insurance company, said the waiting period works well in the private sector, but that it’s caused some problems for state agencies. He singled out state universities, which have trouble hiring professors due to the waiting period.

“I still believe that there’s a savings to the state,” Cameron said. He also said the state isn’t hiring that many workers, due to Idaho’s budget and economic situation.

The 90-day waiting period would disappear on July 1, when the new state budget starts. New hires would get medical, dental, and vision benefits starting on the first day of the month after they’ve been hired.

Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said it’s good the department can’t do any damage to employees’ benefits without bringing a plan to lawmakers.

Idaho Fourth District Court Judge Patrick Owen threw out Syringa’s suit on July 15, saying it didn’t appeal the decision through the proper administrative channels before starting the lawsuit.  Syringa lost out on the $60 milion IEN contract to Qwest and Education Networks of America.

Owen later issued a notice saying he hadn’t considered all the facts of the case, and would reconsider his decision.  His new decision, issued July 23, closely mirrors the original decision, but mentions a May affidavit from Syringa CEO Greg Lowe.  The state wanted to strike Lowe’s comments from the case, but Owen disagreed, and used Lowe’s affidavit in reaching his decision.  However, that affidavit didn’t sway Owen’s ruling in the case.

After the initial ruling in the case, Mike Gwartney, the director of the Department of Administration, said that it vindicated the state’s purchasing processes and the integrity of the department’s employees.

Syringa has not responded to IdahoReporter.com’s request for a comment about the lawsuit.

Syringa was shut out of IEN when the state awarded the contract to the telecommunications company Qwest and Education Networks of America (ENA), which had partnered with Syringa on a bid.  Not getting that contract led to Syringa filing the lawsuit, and also affected the budgeting process for IEN and the Department of Administration during this year’s legislative session.

“By ruling in our favor, Judge Owen vindicated the integrity of our purchasing processes as well as the integrity of our employees,” said Department of Administration Director Mike Gwartney, who was one of the defendants named  in the lawsuit.  A Friday news release from the department said the court decision vindicates the department’s decision and its leadership, and that it allows the state to move forward with implementing IEN.  At one point, lawmakers contemplated pushing the kill switch on IEN.

IEN is a program to expand high-speed Internet access in public schools and allow high school students to take a wider array of classes.  Using IEN, students in one classroom could interact in real time with a teacher in another part of the state or the country teaching the class using video-conferencing software.

During the bidding process for the IEN contract, the partnered bid between Syringa and ENA scored higher than Qwest’s bid, according to documents filed in court.  The Department of Administration awarded the contract to Qwest and ENA, but not Syringa, which would’ve offered broadband Internet services similar to Qwest.

Fourth District Judge Patrick Owen ruled Thursday that the state could legally split up the ENA/Syringa bid, and ruled summarily against Syringa’s claim of breach of contract against the Department of Administration.  Judge Owen also ruled that Syringa should have gone through an administrative appeal before suing the state to stop the contract with Qwest.

Officials with Syringa could not be reached for comment regarding the decision.

The controversy surrounding IEN also includes the long-term funding for the program.  Currently, a grant from the Albertsons Foundation, federal stimulus money, and competitive grants are paying for IEN’s expansion.  Those sources of funding will run out within the next few years.  IEN also gets some money from the federal E-rate program, which provides subsidies for schools for new technology.

The spending plan for IEN and the Department of Administration was one of the final pieces of the state budget approved by legislative budget writers.  The Legislature also approved changing the makeup of a the panel that oversees IEN.  That change gives lawmakers and the superintendent of public instruction more seats on the panel and limits the control of the Department of Administration.

The governor approved most of the legislation with his signature, but let four plans become law without signing off on them.  Two of the newly-approved laws are connected to the next budget for the Department of Administration, which includes the next round of funding for the Idaho Education Network (IEN).  In a letter to lawmakers explaining his decision not to sign those pieces of legislation, Otter said he wanted more educators and private sector representatives on IPRAC, the panel overseeing IEN.  Lawmakers restructured IPRAC to give more authority over IEN to the superintendent of public instruction and lawmakers, rather than the head of the Department of Administration.

Otter also allowed a $1 fee increase on death certificates to become law despite his concern that it could lead to similar fee hikes for other vital records and certificates.  The director of the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, which manages birth and death certificates, raised similar objections during a hearing on the plan in the Idaho Senate in March.

The governor also allowed a plan to give more purchasing authority to some public universities and colleges without signing it into law.  Boise State University President Bob Kustra hailed that proposal for providing needed flexibility to higher education when state funding is being reduced.

Besides approving all parts of lawmakers’ taxing and spending plan for the next 15 months, the governor also approved legislation that would shield hunters’ names from public records requests, require voters to present ID at polling places, criminalize hoax bomb threats, change the age of consent in cases of statutory rape, require schools to post financial data online, and change the pay for the governor and other statewide elected officials.

Though the changes received a 34-0 vote from senators, Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, raised some concerns about the changes.  She said sitting on IPRAC would require a large time commitment for lawmakers, and could lead toward a full-time Legislature.  She also said it could expand the power of the Legislature too far.  “It comes perilously close to blurring the lines between the separation of powers of the state,” she said.

The plan now heads to the governor’s desk.  Read IdahoReporter.com’s story on House passage of the plan here.

“There has been a lot of concern over the Idaho Education Network,” said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls.  He said the changes to the board that monitors IEN, the Idaho Education Network Program and Resources Advisory Council (IPRAC), would change the culture of the program.  The changes would shift control of IPRAC and IEN from the Department of Administration to the superintendent of public instruction and give IPRAC more administrative power over IEN.  The Department of Administration has faced criticism from lawmakers for the handling of IEN, and a lawsuit from a company that lost out on a service contract for IEN.

Six of the 13 members on the reshaped IPRAC would be legislators.  Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, raised concerns that the makeup of the new board could violate the state constitution’s separation of powers.  “More and more the line between the legislative branch and the executive branch is getting blurred in Idaho,” Kelly said.  “That raises a concern for me.”

Jason Hancock, the chief deputy for Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, said the lawmakers on IPRAC would have some power usually reserved for the executive branch.  “They are being given executive functions here,” he said.  “There is real decision-making authority.”

“There needed to be the separation, and yet there needed to be strong oversight at this point,” Mortimer told Kelly.  He added that the other seven members of the council overseeing IEN could trump the votes of the six legislators.  Mortimer added that having a diverse makeup of the council is good for the program.  “They all have a common interest, in my opinion, in making sure that the IEN and the education process is successful.”

The proposal to shift oversight for IEN and the next year of IEN funding next face a full Senate vote.  It passed the House Friday.

The Idaho Education Network (IEN) is the culmination of the state’s efforts to link up Idaho’s high schools and colleges and provide flexibility in delivering curriculum to students.  The bill, which came out of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) Thursday, is intended to allow the state to expand the broadband network and give the Legislature more oversight into the operations of the program.

Under the plan laid out by legislators, IEN will receive $3 million in grant money from the Albertson Foundation, which has pledged the money for the project for the next two years.  The plan would also alter the makeup of the Idaho Education Network Program and Resource Advisory Council (IPRAC), which oversees IEN.  The chairman for the House Education Committee, currently Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur D’Alene, and Senate Education Committee chairman Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur D’Alene, will be given seats on the advisory panel.

According the Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, who sits on JFAC, the money will allow a better flow of information and the realignment of the advisory council will give the Legislature more oversight into the affairs of the program.  McGeachin said that the realignment will also increase accountability for IEN by shifting the administration of the program from the Department of Administration to the Idaho Department of Education.

The budget now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Funding for IEN was approved as part of the administration department’s budget, which is the last to be set by JFAC.  “This has been probably one of the most difficult budgets that I’ve worked on this year,” said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, a member of JFAC.   A decision on the administration budget had been delayed as lawmakers waited for a mediation between the Department of Administration and Syringa Networks, a collective of telecommunications companies that filed a lawsuit over not winning a contract to provide service for IEN.  Reports are that the mediation between Syringa and the state failed.  Several lawmakers called the lawsuit an 800-pound gorilla looming over the IEN issue.

The vote for the administration budget was approved on an 18-2 vote by JFAC, though there was concern from some lawmakers.  “I’m still very uncomfortable,” said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, who voted for the plan.  “Because of the lawsuit, no matter what action this body takes, it gives the inference that we’re siding with one side or the other … That’s not our desire.  We’d like to see the Idaho Education Network go forward.”

Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, said lawmakers should allow the private money from the Albertsons Foundation go to IEN.  “They have dealt with the state before, and they are going into this with their eyes wide open,” Wood said.  The Albertsons Foundation also provided funding for the ISIMS project, the state’s last attempt to expand Internet access at schools.  “If these were general tax dollars, I may very well have a different opinion about what’s going on here,” he said.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said she’d heard that if lawmakers didn’t include the $3 million for IEN, the budget might be vetoed by the governor.  Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna had said that not funding the $3 million would be akin to pushing a kill switch on IEN.

Lawmakers didn’t go that route, but did include requirements that the managers of IEN, the Idaho Education Network Program and Resources Advisory Council (IPRAC), report back to JFAC every three months.  Those quarterly reports would include changes to the IEN business plan, a list of schools, businesses, and state agencies that have been connected to IEN, and the companies that are providing services through IEN.  Cameron said the requirements are more milquetoast than he’d prefer, but will give lawmakers some oversight.

“It’s pretty focused on shining a light from now on,” Ringo said.  JFAC also introduced legislation that would reorganize IPRAC.  Currently, the superintendent of public instruction has broad authority in how many people can serve on IPRAC.  The changes would add four legislators to IPRAC and allow the superintendent to appoint six members to the council that manages IEN.  The director of the Department of Administration and the director of the Idaho Digital Learning Academy would also be on IPRAC.

“We want it to be accountable and we want transparency,” Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said about IPRAC.

The Albertsons Foundation is offering $3 million for IEN for the next two years.  After that , it is unclear where IEN will receive funding.  The budget for the administration department, including IEN, now needs approval from the Idaho House and Senate.  The plans to change IPRAC membership will head to a legislative committee before facing full votes.