[Vision2020] Legislative Newsletter V
Rep. Tom Trail
ttrail at moscow.com
Sat Feb 13 08:24:08 PST 2010
<style type="text/css">
->
</style>
Legislative
Newsletter V—February 7-12, 2010
Constituents:
This week I’m
going to take a different approach and report more about some of the
activities and issues that I’m working on.
1.
UI
Students Win One for the Gipper—Rep. Ringo and I both spoke in favor
of the resolution citing the Vandal Football Teams Humanitarian Bowl
Victory, and the fact that the Vandal Football Team members have the
highest grade points in the WAC Conference.
Apparently the UI
students have won another victory as well. I was approached by
UI Student leadership in early January with a complaint. Last year the University Administration had set a
new policy to charge students taking an approved overload (18 credits
hours or more) and for each credit over 18 hours the fee was basically
double. This seemed strange to me because the University
Presidents, State Board of Education, and the Legislature have all
urged students to try and complete their undergraduate programs in four
years. Many of the complaints came from some of the 270
students taking 18 or more credits. They said that they were
urged to complete their programs in four years and in order to do so they
had to take an overload of courses. This to me was a
disincentive and in one sense punishing the students for trying to reach a
goal that University administration had set for the students.
I had legislation drawn up and shared it with the UI administration and
the State Board of Education which called for all overload fees to be the
same as regular credit fees. I was informed by Marty
Peterson, UI Advisor, that the UI has reconsidered their policy and
will work with the UI students and revert back to their old policy of
uniform credit fees.
2.
Money
and Politics—Our House Ag Committee received some attention from Dan
Popkey, a reporter for the Idaho Statesmen, in a front page story on
Friday. Popkey reported that one of Idaho’s most powerful
businessmen has allied with an underground movement of raw mild drinkers
to take on the biggest force in Idaho agriculture—the $2.1 billon
dairy industry. Frank VanderSloot, the founder of Mealeuca
Inc—with sales of $850 million per year tried to kill a new rule
aimed a bringing scores of small raw dairies under the Department of
Agriculture. But for one vote the Idaho Falls wellness products
magnate would have succeeded in overturning the rule. The Ag
Committee approved the rule on a 5-4 vote after a great deal of
testimony. Consumer safety was a primary reason why I voted for the
rule. The Department had been involved in a 2 year negotiated
rule making process and the lobbyist hired by Mr VanderSloot just showed
up with his concerns two weeks ago, and was not involved in the
process. Mr. VanderSloot is also one of the largest
contributors to the Republican Party. Political pressure was applied
through the Governor’s Office for the Committee to reconsider their
decision; however, everyone stood firm. The Department will
work closely with both parties in working on extended rule making this
coming year.
3.
Idaho
Human Rights Commission—Governor Otter in his State of the State
address indicated he wanted to eliminate funding for the Idaho Human
Rights Commission. Members of the Moscow Human Rights
Commission contacted me and expressed their concern when Director Roger
Madsen of the Department of Labor volunteered to incorporate the
Commission into the Department of Labor and come up with the funding to
keep the Commission whole. I contacted Director Madsen and
I’d like to quote from his letter to me:
“I appreciate
the concerns the members of the Moscow Human Rights Commission have
expressed to you about the future of the Idaho Human Rights
Commission. But let me assure you and those commission members that
the independence of the Idaho Human Rights Commission will not only be
preserved if the commission is merged with the Department of Labor, but it
will be enhanced. As a Department, we are excited about being able
to provide the logistic and administrative support that will enable the
Idaho Human Rights Commission to continue doing the work that is vital to
maintaining our state’s commitment to equality. Our
involvement in areas of efficiency and effectiveness will focus on
maximizing the commission’s resources in support of its goal to
eradicate discrimination where it exists. Rest assured, Rep. Trail,
that if the merger is accomplished, the work of the Idaho Human Rights
Commission will remain a top priority for our
state.”
4.
Public
School Funding—After visiting with all of the school superintendents
in December in Dist. 6 it was very apparent that the districts were going
to have major funding challenges during the next two years. I
drafted legislation that if enacted would allow local school districts to
voluntarily opt out for a two year period from preparing to meet the 2013
increased math and science standards approved by the State Board and the
Legislature. The standards were approved in
better economic times and the financial outlook for many school districts
is bleak for the next 2-3 years. A statewide survey indicated at
this time 57 school districts favored a two year opt out. All
districts supported the increased standards over the long haul, but many
simply do not have the resources to carry them out at this time (it could
be viewed in one sense as an unfunded mandate). I met with SPI
Tom Luna, representatives of the School Superintendents Association, and
of the School Boards Association, yesterday for an hour to discuss the
matter. We met again this morning and agreed
to improve the legislative draft and to continue our dialog this next
week. I talked to JFAC Co-Chair, Rep. Maxine Bell about
the proposal, and she said, “Go for it. Our school districts
need some added financial flexibility” The savings could
be as high as an estimated $6 million/year.
5.
Legislative Items—This week I worked on several legislative
initiatives:
a. Preservation of Historic Agricultural Barns and
Sites—I’m co-sponsoring this resolution with Rep. Steve
Hartgen of Twin Falls. The RS was approved for
print.
b.
Recognition of Idaho Farmer Markets—Jaime Burns, who
runs a 25 acre farm in the Treasure Valley brought this resolution to my
committee. I will be co-sponsoring the resolution along with
Senators Nicole LeFavour and Tim Corder. The resolution was approved
for print.
c. Legalization of
Industrial Hemp—I co-sponsored this measure with Reps. Brian Cronin
and Eric Anderson. The measure was defeated on a tie
vote.
c.
Protection of Personal Data—This measure will be heard in
State Affairs and would give added assurances that Idaho State citizens
personal data would be more adequately protected when handled by state
employees. The same measure sailed through the House and
Senate last year without a negative vote last year and was vetoed by the
Governor (the same day he vetoed 35 bills). I’ve been
reassured that the Governor will not do the same thing again this
year.
6. Funding State Parks
and Recreation--Sen. Schroeder and I have developed legislation that
proposes to put an idea on the fall ballot for a vote. The concept is to
allow the voters to express whether or not the State Tax Commission could
deduct $5 from each income tax return submitted by taxpayers. Another idea is that when you reregister your car
that you would have to purchase a Parks and Rec sticker to put on your
license plate for $6. In either case the idea is to help raise funds for
Idaho Parks and Recreation.
Well that’s all
for this week. Please give me your comments and suggestions.
My e mail is ttrail at house.idaho.gov and
phone
(208)
332-1184.
Rep. Tom
Trail
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100213/ef06fba5/attachment-0001.html
More information about the Vision2020
mailing list