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

[Chasuk]

On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 2:52 PM,  <ttrail at moscow.com> wrote:

>   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?

Spend the money on other things, like education.  Don't penalize
truckers any more than they already are; leave gas tax alone.
Increase vehicle registration fees on new vehicles that get really
cruddy gas mileage.

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

No idea what this program is, so no opinion.

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

Not a property owner, so no opinion.

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

Yes,  It encourages big companies to come to Idho, which we need.

>   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 opinion, as not enough info has been provided.

>   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?

No.  A $1000 endowment would be worth doing, but $100 endowment isn't
going to convince anyone to attend college in Idaho versus somewhere
else, yet it would still cost us money that would ultimately be spent
on beer.  The only real purpose it would serve would be that Otter
could say he supported education.

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

Undecided.

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

No.  This is essentially subsidized babysitting.  Give the money to
the mothers, so that they can hire the girl down the street to watch
her kids, which benefits the mother and the teenager.

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

No.

>  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?

No.  The state should stop victimizing so many people by people them
needlessly behind bars, and provide free or subsized drugs to the
addicts, but put the serious dealers behind bars for life without
parole for first offense.  Of course, my first choice would be to
legalize drugs, but the federal government would nix that.

>  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?

Definitely, yes.

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

Yes, and in the form of tax breaks.

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

Yes and yes.

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

Undecided.

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

No.  The studies would satisfy no one, yet still cost us money.  If a
study was done, let it be done by graduate students at the UI.