[Vision2020] End of Legislative Session Summary from Rep. Trail

Sat Apr 5 20:49:43 PDT 2008

Rep. Trail,

  Here some of my suggestions. 

  Best,

  Donovan

  1.  Do you believe Idaho has a serious roadwork backlog that will cost
$200 million a year to remedy?  Should Idaho increase it gas tax?
  Should it increase vehicle registration fees?

  Idaho's roads, like many other states are horrible. But no, I don't think the state can afford to fix them right now. They are bad, but they are not as bad as many other states. 

2.  Do you want to continue borrowing money, through the Connecting
Idaho program, also known as GARVEE bonding for work on Idaho highways?

  We should only borrow money to pay for roads if the roads can be guaranteed to last as long as the life of the bond---pay as we go.  

3.  Has Idaho provided adequate property tax relief in past
legislative sessions?  If not, what additional tax relief would you support?

  Tax breaks for those not working and making under the average salary for the county. 

4.  Do you support the idea of giving tax incentives to large
industries, such as Micron Technology or Areva?

  Only unless they can demonstrate that we will benefit more greatly by doing so. 

5.  The state has more than 70 sales tax exemptions on the books, some
dating back to 1965.  Are all of them still viable, or have any outlives their usefulness?

  No sales tax breaks except for food and medicine. Services should be taxed. 

6.  A mere 26 percent of Idaho 18-24 year olds attended college in 2006. 
Gov. Otter wants to create a $100 college scholarship endowment during
his four year term.  Do you support this idea?

  100? Is that a typo? $100, why? That wouldn't even buy my pocket protector at the UI Bookstore. The single biggest thing you can do to help people in college is to limit the interest that can be placed on college loans. 

7.  Do you support teacher merit pay?  If so, how do you decide which
teachers deserve a pay raise?

  I think most people believe and support the idea that better teachers should get better pay than their peers. We should evaluate them just like the rest of the world gets evaluated, through peers, supervisors, record, performance, their students, their parents, and experience. 

8.  Should Idaho follow the lead of most other states and spend
taxpayer
money on  pre-kindergarten education?

  Parents should bare the extra costs of educating their children if they want their children to get additional education. 

9.  Does Idaho need to tighten its day-care regulations?

  Is there a problem with our current system?

10.  When 85 percent of inmates have a drug or alcohol addiction should
the
state, expand drug treatment in prison and community treatment designed
to
help keep people from winding up behind bars?

  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure--A. Einstein

11.  Should Idaho put state tax dollars into community health centers
that serve uninsured or under-insured Idahoans and keep them from running up
large emergency room bills?

  You should make it illegal for a hospital to charge more than 10% of the net income of any family for emergency services in a given year. Give that family 5 years to pay that debt, and do not allow that medical bill to be placed against their credit report until that 5 years is past. 

  Destroying a family over a medical bill that is already poor ought to be a crime. 

12.  With some 220,000 Idahoans uninsured should the state provide
incentives to help small businesses to provide health insurance?  Is
so, what?

  Yes.

13.  Does Idaho need tighter ethic laws?  Should ex-lawmakers have to
wait
before taking lobbying jobs with private industry?

  8 years waiting period. Also, no lawyers should be lobbyists. I think there is a danger when lobbyist are also trained to be able write and twist language to the degree that they can. Only professionals in a particular field should be lobbyist, to give helpful information to help  write the laws, not write them for the legislature to favor them over the people. 

14.  Who should make the decisions about where power plants should be
constructed?

  Take a vote. The county with the least resistance to a power-plant gets it. Give the county residents cheap power, and allow them to collect revenue from the other counties they supply power to. 

15.  Should the state's agencies study climate change and Idaho's
contribution to greenhouse gas emissions?

  No. I don't think they can do it in a cost effective manner. The money should be put into making Idaho more earth friendly, not studying how earth unfriendly we are. 

ttrail at moscow.com wrote:
  LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER WRAPUP

Constituents: 

The House and Senate adjourned late Wednesday afternoon April 2nd. 

I opposed SB1447 in the House State Affairs Committee. It was held in
committee by a 10 to 6 vote. This is the bill that would reduce State
Employee Retiree Health Benefits.

A Conference Committee made up of members of the House and Senate worked on
HB599AA this week. This is the bill that would eliminate business
personal property tax. The bill passed the both the House and Senate. 
The bill sets a $100,000 cap. A trigger mechanism will activate the process
-- state revenues will have to exceed 5% of the revenues of the previous
year. An owner with multiple stores in a county of the same type may
claim only one exemption; however, if he has a similar business in another
county he can claim one for that county. The bill will cost an estimated
$17 million instead of the original $110 million sought by IACI (Idaho
Association of Commerce and Industry)--big business. The bill should
benefit about 90% of Idaho small businesses. This is a good piece of
legislation.

We finally reached an agreement with the Governor and voted to restore 90%
of the funding - about $15,000,000 - to support drug rehabilitation
programs and the drug courts.

In looking forward at the unfinished business awaiting the 2009
Legislature, the Boise Statesmen outlined a series of issues that will be
faced and should form the background of the political discussion for the
campaign. These points are:

1. Do you believe Idaho has a serious roadwork backlog that will cost
$200 million a year to remedy? Should Idaho increase it gas tax? Should
it increase vehicle registration fees?

2. Do you want to continue borrowing money, through the Connecting Idaho
program, also known as GARVEE bonding for work on Idaho highways?

3. Has Idaho provided adequate property tax relief in past legislative
sessions? If not, what additional tax relief would you support?

4. Do you support the idea of giving tax incentives to large industries,
such as Micron Technology or Areva?

5. The state has more than 70 sales tax exemptions on the books, some
dating back to 1965. Are all of them still viable, or have any outlives
their usefulness?

6. A mere 26 percent of Idaho 18-24 year olds attended college in 2006. 
Gov. Otter wants to create a $100 college scholarship endowment during his
four year term. Do you support this idea?

7. Do you support teacher merit pay? If so, how do you decide which
teachers deserve a pay raise?

8. Should Idaho follow the lead of most other states and spend taxpayer
money on pre-kindergarten education?

9. Does Idaho need to tighten its day-care regulations?

10. When 85 percent of inmates have a drug or alcohol addiction should the
state, expand drug treatment in prison and community treatment designed to
help keep people from winding up behind bars?

11. Should Idaho put state tax dollars into community health centers that
serve uninsured or under-insured Idahoans and keep them from running up
large emergency room bills?

12. With some 220,000 Idahoans uninsured should the state provide
incentives to help small businesses to provide health insurance? Is so, what?

13. Does Idaho need tighter ethic laws? Should ex-lawmakers have to wait
before taking lobbying jobs with private industry?

14. Who should make the decisions about where power plants should be
constructed?

15. Should the state's agencies study climate change and Idaho's
contribution to greenhouse gas emissions?

These are provocative issues and will frame much of the debate leading up
to the 2009 Legislative session.

I'd appreciate your comments and ideas. You can reach me via e mail a
ttrail at moscow.com and telephone at 882-6077.

Representative Tom Trail

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