[Vision2020] Chutzpah

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (September 13, 2013) Lewiston Tribune.

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Chutzpah
Jeers ... to Idaho school Superintendent Tom Luna. Remember when the classic definition of chutzpah was a man who murdered his parents and then sought mercy from the sentencing judge because he'd become an orphan?
Now Luna is the picture of audacity.
First there was Luna 1.0. This was the firebrand who in 2002 ran for public education's top job as a foe of public education and lost.
Next came Luna 2.0. Luna actually challenged his own Republican Party to come up with more money for public schools. Voters responded by electing Luna in 2006 and re-electing him four years later.
Then there was Luna 3.0, the political bully who blindsided unsuspecting educators, students and voters with a series of bills to undermine teacher collective bargaining rights, install a rickety merit pay system and siphon off public dollars toward private purveyors of technology and online instruction - who just happened to be Luna's political backers.
With an overwhelming Republican legislative majority and Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter supporting him, nothing could stop Luna.
Except, of course, the voters.
For the first time since 1936, Idahoans last year reversed their elected legislators and rejected the Luna Laws by margins as much as two-thirds.
Which brings us to Luna 4.0. This is the humble Luna, the contrite Luna, the inclusive Luna, the school chief who walked into the Idaho Statesman's editorial board this week and admitted mistakes were made.
Mistakes?
As in telling the voters one thing before the election and doing something entirely different right after?
As in employing a strategy to vilify teachers in 2011 and then wrapping himself in Otter's education task force, which would repair some of the damage by dramatically boosting teacher pay?
As in dismissing the voters' verdict as a "bump in the road"?
Sounds more like the thief who isn't one bit sorry he stole but very much regrets going to jail.
With a straight face, Luna expects you to buy it. This is clearly a man pivoting toward the center on the eve of yet another election campaign.
If it works, don't be surprised to see Luna 5.0. He's waiting for you in 2015.
JEERS ... to Washington Auditor Troy Kelley. His office just gave Washington's Department of Revenue a pass after a whistleblower alleged the agency looked the other way on a millionaire's uncollected $2 million tax bill.
Trouble is, Kelley's inquiry was superficial.
Last year, Dennis Redmon, a 30-year revenue department veteran, accused the agency of deliberately dragging its heels in collecting use taxes due on an unnamed individual's private jet purchase.
Revenue officials took so long that the statute of limitations lapsed, rendering the issue moot.
Kelley's audit raised a narrow technical question: Were state procedures followed? Auditors could find no breach in protocol. But nobody asked the most compelling questions: Was the tax owed? If this isn't a violation of procedures, do the procedures need to be fixed?
Elected last year, Kelley is new to this job but you have to believe his predecessor, Brian Sonntag, would have pushed much harder.
CHEERS ... to Lewiston Public Works Director Chris Davies, utility bill director Deb Lewis, information services manager Dominic Ponozzo and Administrative Services Manager Dan Marsh
These are the folks who are about to deliver Lewiston's long-suffering residents from the sticker shock of quarterly utility bills.
Thanks to them, you've seen your last summer where three months of summer lawn watering gang up on your budget in September.
Beginning Oct. 1, the city will convert to a monthly billing cycle.
CHEERS ... to Dave Hoene, Trina Slocum and Ben Austin of Lewiston. It's not easy accepting help. Even tougher is doing so when people are watching.
But without their willingness to go on the record with the Tribune's Dylan Brown earlier this month, you may not know the harsh realities about living on food stamps.
Such as the fact that the assistance doesn't go very far, so you have to buy the cheapest, least-nutritious foods before turning to food banks and other sources.
That it doesn't cover a lot of necessities.
Or that there are many working people - in a state with the highest proportion of minimum-wage jobs - who qualify for food stamps.
JEERS ... to state Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise. Durst is splitting his time between Boise and Seattle, where his wife accepted a teaching job.
Neighbors say they haven't seen Durst as much. His home looked empty of furniture. Durst said he's living in Boise at least 50 percent of the time.
Durst intends to remain in office and no law can dislodge him. The state's residency standards are flexible. But how effective can he be when he's out of the state on a regular basis?
Durst is putting himself ahead of his constituents - who he apparently expects to accommodate his needs instead of the other way around.
CHEERS ... to Idaho Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. Hill concedes expanding Medicaid to Idaho's 104,000 working poor adults would save Idaho taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars now spent on bills incurred by the county medically indigent and state Catastrophic Health Care programs.
But it forces Idaho Republicans to resist their antipathy toward Obamacare.
"I'm an accountant, strongly persuaded by numbers," Hill wrote recently in the Idaho Falls Post Register. "I'm an idealist, governed by principle."
In other words, ideology - not the needs of 104,000 people, Idaho taxpayers or health insurance - is driving Idaho GOP opposition the plan.
At least Hill admits it. - M.T.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
  
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