For many years, the people who work for us through state government have seen their real wages decline, their health care costs increase and the workload increase as well. Despite hopeful signs in January that some of that ground might be made up this year, the legislature appears ready to provide only minimal pay increases which will likely be more than offset by shifting more costs of insurance onto employees. Read More »

On January 31, Idaho finally introduced a bill responding the unanimous national call to divest from foreign companies that are funding genocide in Sudan. Many states have already accomplished this and it ought to be passed in Idaho unanimously like a federal law calling on divestment. But, strangely, Idaho's public employee retirement system is opposing the measure. Read More »

We, the public, pay to build the skills and connections of key public officials. So it makes sense that when a private company offers them a job because of those assets, they cannot lobby their former agency for at least a year. Private companies impose even tougher conditions on their top employees. They call them "non-compete clauses." Yet, legislative leaders are balking at living by similar standards. Read More »

Many people have made a huge effort this year to discussing how to help teachers and students increase their achievement. Two alternative plans have been put forward. It may all be be for naught because of a majority of legislators are loath to increase public investment in public schools. Read More »

Finally, there is a bill to add basic protections for people so they aren't fired, or denied housing or education simply because they are gay. Many other states provide this protection in their human rights laws and now Idaho has a chance to join them. Unfortunately, the chairman of the committee that ought to hold a public hearing on the bill says he will keep it in his drawer unless the committee informally votes in favor of it first! Read More »

The job of our state to balance the budget, invest in basic infrastructure to strengthen our economy, and to deal with the immediate crisis created for families who lose jobs in this recession, is largely ignored by the stimulus package that appears to be headed for passage in Congress. Read More »

Even though one of the most offensive loopholes in the tax code has been exposed, the wealthy corporate dealers who benefit have spent so much money lobbying and giving campaign contributions that the Senate appears to be letting it slide for another year. It is all the more offensive coming at the same time that Congress and the President continue to spend massively in Iraq and expect sacrifices from everyone else. Read More »

A special committee of legislators voted last week to recommend that Idaho's tax breaks ought to be fair for everyone, not just the taxpayer that gets to skip paying taxes. Not only that, they came up with a list of eight criteria to use to evaluate fairness and identified the first 14 existing tax breaks that ought to be "reviewed." That's the easy part, but at least it is farther than any previous legislature has gone. Read More »

This week, a committee of legislators will be meeting for the second time this year to talk - but probably do nothing - about the problem that Idaho's tax code is chock full of special tax breaks that are seldom evaluated but now total well over a billion dollars. Lobbyists representing interests that have financed their campaigns will be there to pretty much guarantee that not sunset recommendation comes out of the committee. Read More »

The State Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill passed the House on Tuesday, Sept. 24 by a solid margin. Calls made from people affected all over the US made a big difference in increasing the margin over the passage of an earlier version in August. So much is at stake that I am surprised when I hear people say they chose not to call after they were notified that a vote is pending. Read More »