POST FALLS - Six of the nine local legislators turned out Thursday evening to discuss their priority issues as they head into the next legislative session in January.

The legislative sendoff event was hosted by the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls chambers of commerce in conjunction with North Idaho College, North Idaho Building Contractors, Coeur d'Alene Realtors and the city of Coeur d'Alene.

About 60 people attended the event designed to give each legislator a few minutes to discuss their legislative priorities.

Sen. Bob Nonini could not attend the event, but had Post Falls Chamber CEO Pam Houser read a letter detailing his priorities.

Nonini said he plans to focus on education issues and transportation infrastructure.

He plans to look into allocating more of the state's liquor fund into the community colleges, and promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics projects in the state.

Nonini said transportation infrastructure will also be a big issue in the upcoming session.

Reps. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene; and Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens; did not respond to the chambers' invitation to speak.

Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, did respond to send his regrets because he was out of town.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d'Alene, said she wanted to ask members of the audience what priorities they have going into the next legislative session.

She also updated the audience on her experience at the orientation session in Boise last week.

Souza said new lawmakers spent three days last week learning the ins and outs of the legislative process.

"We learned everything from the open meeting law to how we operate our laptops," she said.

Souza explained the committee assignment process and the use of seniority in the selection process of desks on the chamber floor.

Souza said the most senior members were taking all of the desks in the back row and down the sides of the chambers so they could leave the floor easily when the need arises.

Because Souza is ranked 33rd of 35 senators, she's in the middle of the front row.

"So I won't be leaving very much," she said.

Ron Mendive, R-Post falls, said his main priority is the transfer of federal lands to the state.

"We need to find a way to get off the federal dole," he said. "For every dollar we send the federal government, Idaho gets $1.37 back."

He said it's simply a redistribution of wealth, and he doesn't support that. Mendive said the Legislature decided in 2013 to study the possibility of the state taking back its federal lands.

"I grew up in Kellogg and I spent a lot of time in the woods hunting and fishing," he said. "We grew up thinking these are public lands and it didn't matter who owned them because they were being mined and logged up until the 1990s."

He said that generated the wealth Idahoans built their economies around, but now he said the federal government has developed a forest plan that "locks people out of the forest and locks the resources in."

Rep. Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls, said he is new to the Legislature, so he recognizes that he doesn't have a lot of the answers just yet, but he does plan to keep an eye on federal and state overreach.

As for education, Cheatham said he believes the answers are at the state level, not the federal level.

Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, said with his committee assignments he plans to work on the Common Core teaching curriculum and Medicaid expansion.

"I have a very strong understanding of the Medicaid issue with my experience in health insurance," he said.

Redman is also a proponent of taking federal lands back into state hands. He said more than 60 percent of the land in Idaho is currently owned by the federal government.

He said the state of Utah had three universities study the idea of taking its federal land back, and they determined they could do it financially.

"And that is with cost of fire suppression factored in," Redman said.

Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene, said he was happy with his new spot on the House Appropriations Committee. With that comes a subcommittee assignment to the Idaho Education Network oversight committee, so he will still have some say in the education discussions.

"We are also going to be talking a lot about transportation this session," he said. "And we need to figure out our goals on education."

Malek said the "Add the Words" campaign will likely get a hearing this year, but he is not sure how it will fare.

"There a lot of things happening at the local level on that issue," he said, adding that is likely where that issue will be resolved.

There were about 10 minutes of questions and answers, during which Ground Force CEO Ron Nilson asked the legislators to explain how they are going get along after the nastiness during the Republican primary earlier this year.

"Since the primary, we have been meeting regularly," Cheatham said. "We are going to work together. We really are committed to getting the job done."