[Vision2020] It's a Draw in Boise, But Not Between Winners

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Spokesman Review and Jim Fisher at:

[PDF File]
http://tinyurl.com/FisherArticle
 
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It's a draw in Boise, but not between winners
Jim Fisher
Friday, April 24, 2009

Let's answer right now the question of who will win the standoff between 
Gov. Butch Otter and the Idaho House's Republican majority over 
maintenance of state roads:

Neither.

A governor who lets his top legislative priority of the last two years sit 
unaddressed by leaders of his own party until after most legislative 
sessions have ended, and then starts vetoing bills en masse to force his
will on legislators who never had any intention of supporting him is 
inept. A legislative session is a time for the chief executive and the 
legislative branch to come together, which has happened in Idaho even when 
they were of different parties. But when a governor and a legislative 
chamber in which 75 percent are members of his party can't do that, it's a 
train wreck.

A good engineer would have seen it coming, and looked to build a coalition 
with those Republicans on his side and members of the other party who had 
every reason to support investing in good roads. Instead, Otter almost 
went out of his way to alienate Democrats, by insisting that public 
education and state workers be forced to suffer the pains of economic 
recession because those outside state government were. And he didn't drop 
the stiff arm until the Republican tide against him rose further, when he 
got more Democrats to support a higher gas tax by playing nice.

None of this should be taken to justify those House members who refuse 
even to raise the gas tax 2 cents to meet a big backlog in road 
maintenance, though. At least Otter is right on the issue, and they 
couldn't be more wrong.

People who know what they are talking about say each dollar not spent on 
road work now will cost $6 later. People who don't know what they are 
talking about, including legislators like Riggins Republican Rep. Paul 
Shepherd, say the Idaho Transportation Department needs no more money at 
all to get needed work accomplished - "if they'd just prioritize," 
Shepherd says.

Oh, sure.

The problem with the current House is twofold. First, voters have elected 
the biggest group of right-wing Republican ideologues to the House in 
several decades. And second, the leaders those members chose have put 
loyalty and ideology over responsibility in making committee assignments.

Speaker Lawerence Denney put Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, who refused to pay 
his federal income tax for seven years, arguing in a book the tax was 
unconstitutional, on the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

And he made Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, an antagonist of teacher 
unions and an opponent of early childhood education, chairman of the 
Education Committee. And who is Denney's Transportation Committee 
chairwoman? Rep. JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, who is not only one of the chamber's 
most rigid conservatives but who with her late husband operated a small 
trucking company.

If you are looking for winners among this bunch, you are wasting your 
time. But not everybody connected with this legislative session should be 
counted a loser. There is still a minority of House members, from both 
parties, who have put the needs of the state first. And there is still the 
Senate, which despite a loopy moment or two has proved a corner of 
adulthood in Boise's big Romper Room. - J.F.

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Seeya at the CommUNITY Walk, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't 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."

- Molly
Ivins

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