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| published Monday, February 05, 2007 |
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. “[Molly] also told [progressive activists], even when she was battling cancer and Karl Rove, that they should relish the lucky break of their consciences and their conflicts. Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was." John Nichols on Molly Ivins who died Wednesday.
Was the wasp flying around the House Revenue and Taxation Committee room Wednesday morning really the ghost of the former chair, Dolores Crow, as someone suggested? If one of the four bills dealing with the sales tax on food ultimately passes, it will certainly be a significant departure from the days when Crow denied the need to address the regressivity of Idaho’s sales tax. So she probably wouldn’t have been happy. The four bills, which were introduced on Wednesday, will be heard next week. Two eliminate the sales tax on food in full or part. The other two reform and increase the grocery tax credit and make non-income tax filers eligible for the credit. As the final proposal was being discussed someone swatted and killed the wasp. Could it be a sign?
. Hopefully by now, most Idahoans know that genocidal killing has been going on in Darfur, Sudan. But I didn’t know until last week that Idaho’s Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERSI) had investments in at least 8 companies with egregious records doing business with the Sudanese government for a total of $41 million. This is a very small piece of the over $11 billion PERSI invests. A burgeoning effort to get the pension fund to divest itself of this blood money has so far been rebuffed by the PERSI board making legislators reluctant to sponsor measures to force the board to do the right thing. For those of you in the fund, remember this is your money and there is something you can do. The bill will be introduced next week.
, but I thought this was kind of interesting. I reported last week that a compromise had been reached between the Governor and the Legislature to build one story rather than two story underground wings. Seems there is a lot of precedent for being chintzy on building projects. According to Senator John Andreason, who before serving in this role, headed the Legislative Budget Office, says that the building that everyone calls “the Towers” was actually supposed to be two towers. It’s only one. The LBJ building (that’s for Len B. Jordan) was supposed to have five stories as was the accompanying parking structure across the street. They each have three. So truncating building plans is apparently an Idaho tradition. But do we need the space? The state government is leasing about 900,000 square feet of office space around Boise. You be the judge.
Yup. In a speech to chamber officials and business people from around the state, Otter all but put Idaho up for sale—a charge he flatly denied during the campaign. “If you hear of a business lead,” he was quoted as saying , “…just call the general sales office for Idaho, and that’s the governor’s number.”
over a bill to reinstate a Certificate of Need process (CON). Under this process, hospitals and other medical providers would have to go before a health care authority to determine if their various expansion plans were in the best interest of the community. Back in the day, for example, the two hospitals in Boise split services between them so that one had the trauma center, one the neo-natal facilities, and so on. CON was in place in Idaho up until the mid-80’s when the hospitals pushed for its removal so that they could compete for patients. Flash forward to 2007, the hospitals are asking the Legislature to reinstate CON to stop competition from docs who are setting up stand-alone surgical centers and other types of specialty care. It’s a Catch-22. On the one hand these stand-alone facilities provide quality care often at lower prices than hospitals can. On the other hand we ask hospitals to take all comers and to be open 24/7 so their services are more expensive. In yet another clash of the titans, I am mainly feeling sorry for us poor consumers caught in the middle.
Idaho’s Rainy Day fund was put in place to smooth out the rough spots in an economic downturn. Legislators can draw from the fund to make up any budget deficits that impact program funding. A few years ago lawmakers decided that the fund should be no larger than 5% of annual revenues although groups like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in DC say states should have at least 5% and more like 10% to protect essential services. On Monday, the House voted unanimously to support Rep. Jim Clark’s bill to raise the limit to 8%. The Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Dean Cameron, hasn’t liked this type of bill in the past and plans to hold it until Republican leaders have set spending priorities for the session, including a grocery tax plan and school funding.
If you’d listened to the Republicans on the State Affairs Committee this morning, you’d know what they think. When SB1037, the Fair Elections Act, came before them the hostility was palpable and the skin was especially thin. “I find this bill a personal insult,” Joe Stegner of Lewiston complained. “Aren’t you stifling the free speech of all the people who can’t give you money?” Senator Bart Davis asked the bill’s sponsor Senator David Langhorst. SB1037 would create a public fund to finance election campaigns rather than the current system of financing campaigns with private dollars from mostly corporate sponsors. Gary Allen, a Boise attorney who has worked on campaign finance issues since 1992, even got in a BSU football analogy. “When the coaches made the BSU players compete for their positions, that’s when the team got stronger…It is good for all of us if you have to compete for your job at every election.” After killing the bill on a party line vote, the opponents of the bill fell all over themselves to make sure that we understood that everyone here serves with integrity and, as Stuart Smalley might say “gosh darn it, people like us.”
exclaimed the Senate’s President Pro-tem, Bob Geddes, in response to SB1038, which called for disclosure of personal finances by legislators and state officeholders. Idaho is one of only 3 states in the country that does not require any type of disclosure. Again there were the protestations. This time Mike Jorgenson of Coeur d’Alene took the lead. “I believe my colleagues are all of good moral character” and blah, blah, blah. How quickly they forget. It’s only been a couple of years since Senator Jack Noble of Kuna was forced to resign for failing to disclose his interest in a piece of legislation that would have specifically benefited his business. The truth is we just don’t know (and they don’t either). At least the bill’s sponsors, including Senator Clint Stennett of Ketchum, seem to get it. “This bill is not an indictment of us,” Stennett said.
, according to pro-choice advocates. I guess the Speaker didn’t talk to the right people. Although previous efforts have ended up in court, Russ Fulcher of Meridian introduced another bill this morning to require parental consent before a minor can get an abortion. Fulcher explained that they’d given up ground so that the bill could pass constitutional muster. While Bill Sali was in the Legislature advocates for parental consent were always over reaching and ending up costing the state a lot of money. The bill was printed once most Senators were satisfied that they were not courting another lawsuit.
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