[Vision2020] Keith Allred is coming to town

[Bill London]

Untitled DocumentCheck out this article from today's Tribune about the Democratic candidate for Idaho Governor.  Allred is a great candidate with a sensible plan for stabilizing Idaho's government.  BL
Allred will be in Moscow tonight.  Here's the specifics:
WHAT:    A Town Meeting with Keith Allred, Democratic Candidate for Governor 
WHERE:   Hamilton Indoor Recreation Center,   Multipurpose Room,  1724 East F Street in Moscow
WHEN:    Thursday January 28th  from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

FORMAT:     6:00  to 7:00  Treats and conversation
                         7:00 to 8:00   Presentation with a comment period 

The Latah Democrats will provide drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

FOOD DRIVE:      Besides learning about Keith please bring a few cans of food we can share with the local food banks    

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Allred brings campaign to Lewiston
Democratic hopeful says he has better relationship with Idaho Legislature than Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter
By Sandra L. Lee of the Tribune
January 28, 2010

Keith Allred says he has a better relationship with the Idaho Legislature than Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter, a system in place to sample Idahoans' beliefs statewide, and a commitment from Democrats to let him do it his way if he's elected.

Allred, founder and president of the nonpartisan and nonprofit The Common Interest - an organization established five years ago to present factual positions on major state issues - was at Lewiston Wednesday to talk about his run as a Democrat for the governor's office.

His frustration with Otter, Allred said, is he's satisfied in the near term with dismantling state functions, but offers no vision for the future in return. Too much money is being left on the table given even conservative growth estimates, and too much of it is coming out of K-12 education that can't be made whole six months down the road if the money is there.

Every tax exemption should be examined individually as the first method of increasing revenue, he said, and the second shouldn't be the level of funding for public education but what the most cost-effective investment would be.

Putting the increased cost of higher education on students is the wrong way to go, he said.

It also makes no sense to cut Tax Commission employees who bring in millions more than the cost of keeping them on the job, Allred said. 

Maintaining an increase in the grocery tax credit, at an estimated cost of $15 million, is high on his priority list because it benefits the people hurt by the downturn, but it would come after education.

Allred said his method of doing things as head of The Common Interest wouldn't change if elected in November. He has Democratic support for his stance that he will appoint based on ability and not party and that he will pattern government after the principles of The Common Interest, he said.

That means, in essence, that on major issues, as many as 35,000 Idahoans, about 1,000 from each legislative district, would be surveyed for their positions and beliefs and that careful research of both pros and cons would replace party-line positioning.

"The whole notion behind separation of powers," Allred said, "is only those things that attract broad support get through and those with narrow support are screened out. That works incredibly well."

Using a constituency in that way is something he pioneered while teaching at Harvard University, Allred said, and he would like 
Idaho to demonstrate how well it can work. "Frankly, that's much of my excitement at running for office, to get back to what the founders intended."

Allred mentions frequently he is the fifth generation of Idaho cattle ranchers and learned lessons about problem-solving and never saying he can't do something from having a 1,200-acre ranch turned over to him by his grandfather the summer of 1981 when he was a high school sophomore.

The cattle market had plummeted, his grandfather had to work another job and needed Allred's help if the ranch was to be saved, he said. 

That's been coming back to him as Idaho faces the toughest economy in modern times, he said.

The people who show up at the Legislature when it's tax break time represent major corporations when it's proven the lion's share of growth comes from small business, he said. 

Otter, he said, "has been in the game a long time. It's stunning how poor he is at it."

Take, for example, Otter's signature transportation funding issue in the last Legislature. Otter was asking for a 138 percent increase in car and pickup registration fees but only 5 percent on heavy trucks, even though there was factual evidence the trucking industry already was paying less than its share, Allred said. 

Otter's representatives conceded that Common Interest had its facts right, but said the trucking industry was only willing to pay 5 percent more. "I asked if anyone asked car and pickup owners what they were willing to pay?"

The next day, Allred said he found a $10 million error in the bill and that was the end of it for the Legislature.

Otter tried to raise taxes and to do it while protecting special interests and not everyday Idahoans, he said. "That was a phenomenally stupid proposal."


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