COEUR d'ALENE - The pace is quickening in Boise this week as the Legislature approaches the end of the session.

Earlier this week, legislative leadership confirmed it wants to end the session three weeks from today.

The Kootenai County legislative delegation said things are getting fairly hectic, but new legislation should slow after the transmittal deadline on Monday.

While it is not a hard-fixed deadline, it signals the point in the legislative process where lawmakers want to stop the flow of new legislation and finish what is already in play.

"If someone comes out in the last week of the session with a transportation funding package that will pass, we will pass that," said Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene.

Malek, who sits on the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, said the committee is close to finalizing budgets, which will probably be complete by the end of next week.

He said the big issues like transportation funding, broadband funding and education funding need to be nailed down before the session ends.

He said other issues, like funding for a new mental health facility in North Idaho, will be coming to vote early next week. That appropriations bill includes language that would place the facility in either Region 1, which is the five northern counties, or Region 2 in the Moscow-Lewiston area.

"I had to do it that way to get the votes," Malek said, adding there is also language that would restore some funding for a mental health facility in Boise.

Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Post Falls, said there are big-ticket items on the docket, so he is not sure if they will get through all of them.

He said education funding and the career ladder bill, designed to increase teacher salaries over a five-year period, are going to take up most of the new growth the state expects to see over the course of the next five years.

"I am not sure how that one is going to do," Mendive said, referring the career ladder bill.

He said this concerns him because transportation is definitely in need of a long-term sustainable funding source.

"There are some people still trying to come together with something that will pass," he added.

With leadership pushing for the March 27 deadline to end the session, he said there will likely be a few bills that won't make it, but there is still a possibility that the session could be extended.

"I hope we make it. It would be nice to get out of there by then," he said. "I am hopeful, but we will see."

Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene, said her urban renewal bills will stay in play, and she's not too worried about the transmittal deadline.

"It's busy, but I don't think anybody is in a panic yet," she said.

Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, who is vice-chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said transportation funding is too important to end the session without fixing it.

"I would hate for that not to happen," he said, adding there isn't a lot of time to do that if the session isn't extended. "I don't want to wait another year on this.

"We haven't even seen a bill from the House yet," Nonini said, explaining all fiscal bills originate in the House. "So, it's got to start on the House side.

"Those guys really need to get something over to us so we have time to work on it in the Senate."

Nonini said the Legislature has extended the session in the past and can do that with a piece of legislation on March 27.

Nonini said the veterans home bill, which appropriates the state's match for a federal grant to build a veterans home in North Idaho, cleared the Senate floor unanimously.

He said he has an April 1 deadline for a federal grant, so he is meeting with the chairman of the House State Affairs Committee today to ask for an expedited hearing on the bill.

"I want get a hearing on Tuesday or Wednesday so we can work it through the House and get the governor's signature before April 1," he said.