• Lawmakers passed a penny increase in the sales tax, which will raise $160 million. But the Legislature also agreed to exempt from the 6 percent tax contracts that were entered into before the sales tax took effect on May 1. That will cost the state treasury $9 million

• The Legislature also passed a 29-cent increase in the cigarette tax starting June 1, bringing the tax to 57 cents a pack. That will generate $23.5 million for the general fund.

• Lawmakers rejected a federal tax break that would have cost the state $25 million a year for 3 years on equipment purchased after Sept. 11, 2001.

• More tax collectors will begin work for the State Tax Commission under a budget approved by the Legislature. The tax collectors are expected to gather unpaid taxes of between $7 million and $9 million annually.

• Counties are allowed to seek voter approval for local-option sales taxes to pay off jail construction debt and to reduce property taxes.

• Lawmakers said companies that made no money and are unable to use an investment tax credit for their equipment investments can instead take a personal property tax break.

• On a more minor scale, the Legislature created a new sales tax exemption for property used by charter schools.
 

Education

• The Legislature agreed to join in an Albertson Foundation program that would allow school districts to share student information. The foundation will pay for the program in its formative years.

• A new law breaks apart a 12-year-old school facilities lawsuit, pushing the issue to local courts and forbidding school districts from suing the state.

• Lawmakers overhauled the budget for public schools, ultimately appropriating $936 million for K-12 in a spending plan that limits the amount of money the state should have to pay out annually for property taxes, teacher pay and, in one year, student busing. The Legislature took $7.1 million and set it aside in an emergency account.
 

Higher education

• On the final day of the session, the Legislature approved Gov. Dirk Kempthorne´s plan to borrow money to pay for $68 million in construction projects at colleges and universities around the state.

• Lawmakers approved a budget for colleges and universities that gives the schools $218 million starting July 1. That´s about $5 million more than the schools are getting now.
 

Unions

• In one of the most tense debates of the session, the Republican majority and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne overcame Democrat and moderate opposition and banned unions — namely the powerful teachers union — from collecting money for political reasons in automatic payroll deposits.
 

State government

• Lawmakers agreed to expand the Idaho Drug-Free Workplace Act to include public employers, allowing state and local governments to participate in the drug-free workplace program.
 

Death penalty

• Idaho´s death penalty law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, but the Legislature quickly reinstated it by requiring juries, not judges, to decide when a death sentence is appropriate.

• Another Supreme Court decision forbids states from executing the mentally retarded, and Idaho changed its laws to reflect this, too.

• Boise Democrat Rep. David Bieter and a broad religious coalition failed to pass a two-year moratorium on the death penalty in Idaho.
 

Abortion

• Anti-abortion activists didn´t take the issue head-on this year, working instead to make a change in the state´s Children´s Health Insurance Program that would have offered insurance to unborn fetuses. The bill died in a 37-33 vote on the House floor.

• Another plan, to take a federal family planning grant away from Planned Parenthood of Idaho, was defeated on a 10-10 vote in the legislative budget committee.
 

Lawsuit changes

• One of the largest and most powerful coalitions of lobbyists, businesses and physicians ever to converge on the Idaho Statehouse pushed through a controversial change in what the state allows juries to decide in civil lawsuits. The new law caps “non-economic” damages — such as pain and suffering — at $250,000 and limits punitive damages to $250,000 or three times the compensatory damages, whichever is greater.

• Lawmakers also decided to keep broadcasters free of liability for actions they may take in using the new Amber Alert system, used to help find missing children.
 

Alcohol, beer and wine

• The Legislature opted not to tax alcoholic beverages to fill the state´s budget holes, but the lawmakers did tack on a 2 percent “surcharge” to pay for popular drug courts, which were losing their funding through cuts.

• Counties will now have the option of allowing dessert wines, ports and sherries to be sold in grocery and convenience stores. This bill had failed for years, until now.
 

Highways

• Lawmakers allowed the trucking industry to carry heavier loads on select southern Idaho state highways as part of a 10-year pilot project.

• The Legislature approved a budget of $429.8 million for the Idaho Transportation Department.

Crime and punishment

• A new law will require county officials to publish names, pictures and addresses of violent sexual predators when they move to Idaho communities.

• The idea has failed for years, but this year a bill passed to double the fine for failing to wear a seat belt and allowed drivers to be fined if any minors aren´t wearing seat belts in the car.

• State law now makes it a felony to use the Internet to entice a child to engage in a sexual act.

• The Legislature agreed to spend $109 million on the Department of Correction, putting more money into treatment programs in the hopes of getting inmates out of the prison system. The Idaho State Police´s operating budget is $49.4 million, with almost $17 million coming from the state´s general fund.
 

Agriculture

• Lawmakers approved a bill that says the “local public interest” in the state´s water-rights law cannot be used to block controversial projects.

• They expanded the state´s smoke-management laws to cover the 10 northernmost counties and limited the ability to sue farmers for crop residue burning.

• A new law requires county commissions to enact laws to regulate Confined Animal Feeding Operations.
 

Ethics, money

• Third-party political groups will have to report any campaign expenditures of more than $1,000 in the final weeks of an election.

• In a fallout from Boise´s recent controversy, the Legislature voted to require cities to create internal accounting controls.

• The Legislature agreed to support a study of judicial elections and how those races are financed.
 

Wolves

• The state finally took over the job of managing gray wolves from the federal government.
 

Health care

• The Legislature mapped out a plan for the next two years to offer reduced Children´s Health Insurance Program coverage for more uninsured children, and to offer “Access Cards,” which would work like prepaid phone cards, for some low-income adults and children to purchase private health insurance with the help of state and federal money.

• The Legislature agreed that new federal regulations shouldn´t keep Idahoans from having insurance coverage that protects them in recreational activities. A new law says insurance companies must protect people regardless of their love of motorcycling, skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding and horseback riding.

• The budget for the Department of Health and Welfare includes more money for adult dental services, but it also requires family insurance companies to pay for infants to get the Prevnar vaccine.

Land use and property rights

• The Legislature approved a 50-year lease of state lands to the Tamarack Resort — formerly WestRock — near Donnelly.

• Two bills that won approval are meant to protect property rights. One allows property owners to require local governments develop a “takings” analysis when it appears a local government´s regulatory act will cost the property owner. The other requires local governments let property owners know they have the right to request the takings analysis.