This week Gov. Butch Otter vetoed parts of two bills to wipe out a $16.8 million investment in community-based substance-abuse treatment. He admitted that more community-based treatment is needed in Idaho but claimed there isn’t enough evidence to show that programs such as drug courts are working. In fact, an evaluation shows they are working.
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Two bills were introduced last week to create a system where Idaho voters would have to make their party preference known publicly and one of those bills would then restrict them to voting only in the party they affiliate with. They are being introduced, in part, because of threats by Republicans to sue the state if the legislature does not create a closed primary system that keeps Democrats and Independents out of voting in Republican primaries.
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When schools are forced to look to profits from junk food vending machines to make ends meet, legislators ought to be more than just concerned about bad nutrition, they ought to take responsibility for investing in schools.
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Even as legislators give away more of our tax base to powerful corporate interests, they are making it harder and harder for ordinary taxpayers to solve local problems. A constitutional amendment to add to those obstacles is being promoted as a way to "protect" taxpayers yet the pattern of tax break bills that legislators have passed show that it is anything but. Read More »

Legislators are poised to give yet another tax windfall to Idaho's biggest corporations in HB 599, accelerating a shift of the tax burden to individuals and homeowners and further undermining Idaho's ability to invest in community assets that help us all such as schools and public safety. An amendment to honestly limit the bills application to small businesses was killed. Read More »

Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Senate Education Committee is killing a bill to clarify which Idaho students ought to be included as "in-state." He not only refuses to hold a hearing but when students came to present a petition with hundreds of names on it, his leadership panicked and called for more security. Nathaniel Hoffman was there and wrote a great description that illustrates what happens when lawmakers become so cozy with powerful interests that they cannot recognize ordinary Idaho students when they show up. Read More »

Legislative leaders were so willing to help Idaho's biggest corporations strengthen their ability to enforce agreements with former employees not to work for the competition immediately after they leave their job. Yet, those same legislators have refused to let you as public employer have even a modest version of the same protection. Key public employees can immediately take what we have invested in them and immediately go to work for lobbyists who lobby their former agency. Read More »

Astonishingly, the Idaho State Senate this week voted down a very modest resolution that would have initiated a process for the state to take some responsibility to help reduce greenhouse gases. Millions of individuals are doing their part. Cities and counties are taking action. Congress is working on strategies and even President Bush is beginning to acknowledge his administration can no longer deny the evidence. The legislature - not sense of responsibility on the part of the majority. Read More »

A majority of legislators have again washed their hands of responsibility for setting standards to protect children in day care centers and their responsibility to invest public resources to enforce those standards. While they eagerly tap into the public's investment fund (our tax base) to give away more and more tax exemptions, they pretend that their hands are tied and cannot protect kids because they don't have the money. Read More »

Ten legislators have effectively destroyed the careful work of a diverse coalition of people to protect farm, ranch and forest lands. It took several years for groups from the Idaho Cattle Association to the Nature Conservancy to come up with a tool that protects the land, is a realistic option for families that own the land and that help stave off the cost of sprawl. Read More »