UV-Eye-Opener Week of Jan. 8-12, 2007

published Tuesday, January 16, 2007

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Welcome back to the Eye-Opener! For the 10th legislative season UVI will be bringing you a weekly perspective on what's happening at the Idaho Statehouse from a progressive point of view. Please pass it on to your friends and colleagues. Let me know when you agree with me and when I am off base too. Roger

A new sheriff in town. It has been 8 years since we experienced a new Governor and a new Speaker of the House at the same time. This, and the specter of the previous governor haunting the Lieutenant Governor's office, 24 freshman legislators and new committee chairs all over the place, makes it hard to figure out how the game is going to be played this year. Clearly the leadership in the House is more conservative. The Democratic caucus in the House is now nearly 50% bigger than last year. (They still make up less than 25% of the House membership.) One of those Democrats is the first from Idaho Falls since 1978 no less! And the Governor's State of the State speech held some surprisesboth good and bad.

Otter's first stand. It was a laid back speech. Not as much firebrand rhetoric as you'd expect from this old rodeo cowboy. As with most speeches, what wasn't said, i.e. the details, is probably more important than what was. State employees would see a 5% increase in wagesnot too badbut they're going to have to pay more for benefits. You know, let's make it just as bad as the private sector. He said little about public schools, although he recommended a healthy increase in the budget. He kind of left the details to Tom Luna. Eek! On the more truly good side, he's recommended $38 million in needs-based scholarships for college students, which is 3 to 4 times higher than had been proposed elsewhere. He's even offering up nearly a million dollars to provide match funding for a detox center in the Treasure Valley. Not bad. Not bad.

Will wonders never cease? On the campaign trail, Butch Otter said that a rich man like him did not need a break on his grocery tax. He proposed that instead of taking the sales tax off of food, we should target the benefit to people who really need it-- those families who have trouble making ends meet month to month. On Monday he made good on that promise and proposed a reform of the grocery tax credit that will provide a credit to people whose incomes are up to 240% of the federal poverty level (now about $50,000 for a family of 4). The credit will vary according to income with a maximum of $90 per household member. This proposal will cost an additional $22 million. Meanwhile the Democrats are opposing this plan in favor of taking the sales tax off of food completely at a cost of about $180 million. We are excited that the debate has shifted to how to do it rather than whether to do it. That is a big step forward.

Get out of town by sundown. In the wake of national actions geared to creating local immigration law, the Governor launched an attack on those he described as "shoplifting citizenship." He said he would support a proposal from Senator John McGee of Caldwell that would require "every adult to prove they are valid US residents before collecting taxpayer funded benefits." We don't yet know much about the proposal but Representative Butch Otter was a vocal opponent of comprehensive immigration reform and voted for the Sensenbrenner Bill that sparked massive protests last spring. Otter has also opposed the DREAM Act that would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition when attending state colleges. Senators Craig and Crapo have been co-sponsors of the Act. As someone whose income was derived from the agricultural industry for many years, it seems a bit duplicitous for the Governor to target the workers who daily make Idaho agriculture possible.

Defying natural law? The Governor somehow forgot to mention his proposal to raise the minimum wage at the state level. Nonetheless a bi-partisan group of legislators plan to put forward a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $7.25, index it to the Consumer Price Index so it will go up with inflation, and make some changes for tipped and young employees. In the meantime at the federal level, the US House passed a minimum wage increase this week with Mike Simpson voting yes and Bill Sali voting no. But could he just vote no? Not on your life. Listen to this goofball's first rant on the House Floor: From the Spokesman Review: "New Idaho Congressman Bill Sali proposed a bill Wednesday to combat obesity by reducing the Earth's gravity, saying that's no more unreasonable than the Democrats' legislation to increase the federal minimum. Both defy "natural laws," he said." Um, at least he's not in the Legislature anymore.

Seats at the table. You've probably already heard that when it came to making assignments to the powerful Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, the House leadership broke precedent and gave the majority party an extra member on the Appropriations Committee rather than recognizing the growth in the Democratic Caucus. This effectively disenfranchised voters in Boise and Idaho Falls who elected 5 new Democrats. In other JFAC news, freshman Senator Jim Hammond of Post Falls was appointed to the Finance Committee replacing Meridian Republican Gerry Sweet who is working for Bill "Mr. Gravity Reduction" Sali.

It seemed a throwaway line in his speech, but to IACI it was like music to their ears. He told them to "..continue looking for opportunities to ease the burden on Idaho taxpayers, including the issue of personal property tax." Shudder. The Idaho Statesman reported on Thursday that IACI had commissioned a study that showed that repealing the personal property tax on business would have all kinds of beneficial effects. (The report is not yet complete, yet they know the results???) Personal property is mostly capital equipment and in some businesses is the bulk of their property tax bill. And dun dunta dah, that $100 plus million repeal would be shifted to your property tax bill. Thanks again, IACI. And while we're talking about IACI, they plan to mount an effort to eliminate the hard fought win of last year that resulted in the indexing of the Homeowners Exemption by the House Price Index. They may call for outright repeal or for some modification. I thought they got all they wanted in the special session. I guess greed knows no bounds.

Oh, Really? New District 11 Representative Steven Thayn reacting to the report from the Idaho Summit on Hunger (in an e-mail): "Hunger is not always a negative as the report indicates. Without hunger or the threat of hunger probably half of humanity would not get up in the morning and go to work. Hunger is one of the great motivators of humanity. It is one of the tools that I used as a parent to encourage my children to do their choirs [sic] as young children. When used properly, hunger can motivate people so they can experience the joy of work and accomplishment." Gulp.

Otter says he'd like to shoot him a wuf. Throw out the red meat, Mr Governor. At a rally Thursday morning which called for immediate delisting of Idaho's wolves from the Endangered Species Act, our new Governor declared that he was "prepared to bid for the first ticket to shoot a wolf myself." It has been reported that his Office of Species Conservation would like to reduce the number of wolves in Idaho to about 100 from the current 600 that are flourish-ing in Idaho. Ten packs of ten are the minimum required to keep wolves off the ESA listing.

The Showdown. For those of you who have been around the Statehouse lately, you've seen the drilling rigs, construction workers and cordoned off areas on the grounds that are there preparing the site for building the underground wings at the Statehouse. On Friday, Governor Otter who campaigned against them issued a "Stop Work" order setting up a real confrontation between him and Legislative leaders.