[Vision2020] LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER 8—March 5-11, 2011

[Donovan Arnold]

Rep. Trail,
 
Please keep up the fight, with your personal health and in the legislature.
 
 I agree that a recall is a poor alternative to referendums. If the state would not keep cutting educational funding it would not need to keep increasing funding for prisons. They should raise taxes instead of eliminating funding for medicaid and education, we need those services. 
 
Best to you,
 
Donovan Arnold

--- On Sun, 3/13/11, Rep. Tom Trail <ttrail at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Rep. Tom Trail <ttrail at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER 8—March 5-11, 2011
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Sunday, March 13, 2011, 10:07 AM



LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER 8—March 5-11, 2011 
 

 

 
Constituents: 
 

 
This has been a rough week in the trenches.   Monday I was not feeling well and after a doctor's appointment on Tuesday I was transferred to St. Al's Hospital.     I had come down with a case of pneumonia.    I responded well to the antibiotics and on Friday my doctor felt that I had made enough progress that I could start back on Monday.    I did pair off on key votes during the week, and plan to be back at the fray (watchfully) this coming week. 
 

 
 1.   Public Education--SPI Luna's S1108 (teacher's collective bargaining rights) and S1110 (teacher-pay-for-performance) passed the House this week.  Nine Republicans joined 13 Democrats in opposing S1108 and 13 R's joined the D's in voting against S1110.  The major problem with S1110 is there is no source of funding at this time.    The third major piece SB1113 (technology, increased classroom size, and some 770 teacher layoffs) was killed in committee, but apparently will re-emerge in the form of new bill this week.    It appears that under the new bill districts will get less funding and more flexibility on how to spend it. 
 

 
 2.  Funding for Public Education--The general fund portion of public education is estimated to be $1.2 billion down $6 million from last year's budget.   However, that's with an expected 176 more classrooms in the state needing funding.   Many of the legislators who won in last November's election signed pledges not to raise taxes and that included any new taxes for education.  Traditional thought among legislators is that voters will not support any new taxes, and this is what SPI Luna said recently.   The voters spoke again Tuesday with overwhelming results in most of the levy elections across the State including Coeur d'Alene,  Twin Falls, Pocatello, and Idaho Falls.    On Tuesday the point is very clear--even in trying times--even when school districts' sole recourse is to collect levies on the always unpopular property tax--Idaho citizens are generally willing to dig into their pockets to support public education.   The truth is that
 our citizens at the grassroots level are the ones who put Students First. 
 

 
 3.  Recall Luna--Statewide attention has focused on a move to recall SPI Luna.    Frankly, this is a poor strategy.    The odds of recalling a state elected official is more than challenging.    Jim Weatherby,   Retired Political Scientist, from BSU, offered another route for those opposing the LUNA plan.   This is the referendum route.    Once the Idaho Legislature concludes their session then initiatives can be filed with the Secretary of State's Office.    Over 43,000 legitimate signatures on petitions would then have to be submitted.    If enough signatures were validated then the measures would go on the 2012 ballot requiring only a simple majority to pass.    This strategy has been successful five times in Idaho history with the last occasion with the voters rejecting Term Limits in 2002. 
 

 
 4.  Budget Increases for Prisons and Cuts for Higher Education--JFAC announced 4 percent increase for Idaho Prisons and a 5 percent decrease for Idaho's universities and colleges.     This has been a trend since the early 1980's.    While Higher Education's share of the General Budget was as high as 17 percent in the early 1980's it has fallen to less than 8 percent today.   The decreases have come primarily because of "higher" priorities for corrections and health and welfare.   As expected, the impact makes education more expensive for students.   The UI will be requesting a 8.4 percent increase for student fees. 
 

 
 5.  Highway 12 and Megaloads--Idaho Rivers United filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service seeking to force the agency to challenge the megaload shipments of oil refining equipment approved by the Idaho Transportation Department.   Two Conoco shipments have made it to Montana, but it is anticipated permit requests for hundreds more are just a matter of time.    If this occurs then the "fear" of Highway 12 becoming the international oil freeway to Alberta may become true. 
 

 
 6.  HB221--This piece of legislation outlines cuts to the States Medicaid services to the amount of $107 million which is down from the $120 originally proposed.  Given that Medicaid funding gets matched by the federal government, for every dollar in services cut at the state level, we lose over $3 in federal funds.   The bill is being revised to move the two most controversial cuts for adults with developmental disabilities:  1) cutting off developmental therapy services to anyone 45 years or older and 2) denying these services to hundreds of patients who fail to qualify for the waiver program. 
 

 
That's all for this week.    Please send me your comments, recommendation, and ideas.    My e mail is ttrail at house.idaho.gov and phone 
 
(208) 332-1184. 
 

 
Rep. Tom Trail

you can also view my updates on www.infotrail.com/idaho
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet, 
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110313/22a85701/attachment-0001.html