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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=rsherman@uvidaho.org href="mailto:rsherman@uvidaho.org">Roger Sherman</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=uv-eye-opener@lists.onenw.org
href="mailto:uv-eye-opener@lists.onenw.org">uv-eye-opener@lists.onenw.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, March 23, 2007 7:22 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Uv-Eye-Opener] The UV-Eye-Opener Legislative Review
#11</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=3>Pass it on... yes, that means you. <BR><BR>
<DIV align=center><IMG height=67 alt=[]
src="cid:00a401c76d7c$eafc6410$e9ffa242@sueh" width=106>
<BR><BR></FONT><FONT size=6>UV-Eye-Opener<BR></FONT><FONT size=4>March 23,
2007<BR><A href="http://www.uvidaho.org"
eudora="autourl">www.uvidaho.org<BR></A></FONT></DIV><FONT
size=3><B>_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________<BR><BR>The
Legislature will end this week</B>­<B>psyche.</B> The veto of the grocery
tax credit bill on Tuesday pretty well knocked the wheels off of plans to
adjourn on Friday. On Monday and Tuesday each House was dealing with 30
and 40 bills a day. By Wednesday that had slowed to a crawl. Lots of
time was spent in caucusing, meeting with the Governor, taking field trips to
the City Club, waiting… Decisions may be being made all around us but no
one seems to know what they are. Talk is about a Tuesday or Wednesday
adjournment. Maybe it will be enough time for a rebirth of a grocery tax
credit bill, passage of a bill to conform to the federal minimum wage, a
solution to the GARVEE bonding impasse. And hopefully not enough time to
revive the big biz personal property tax break languishing on the Senate
calendar.<BR><BR><B>He did it.</B> It came as no surprise when the Governor
vetoed the Legislature passed version of the grocery tax credit early Tuesday
morning. He had been intimating for some time that when it got to him he
would put his red stamp on HB 81a. He made an eloquent defence of his veto in
the transmittal message to the House. “It remains my firm belief that the
best way to begin addressing both the inequity of the sales tax on food and the
legitimate obligations of state government is to target tax relief where it is
needed most. It is indisputable that low-income Idahoans spend a
disproportionate share of their incomes on food. It also is true that the
inequity faced by moderate- to high-income Idahoans – while real – is far less
stark and immediate. Fiscal policy that does not adequately take into account
the broader real-world repercussions on ordinary Idahoans is unacceptable to
me.” This is just the first part of the story. What’s next?<BR><BR><B>To
override or to deal, that is the question. </B>On Tuesday there was a lot
of talk about overriding the Governor’s veto­until it became clear that they
didn’t have the votes to do it. The question now is “Can the Governor
force the leadership back to the table?” On Thursday Otter vetoed HB121 to
ban smoking in bowling alleys, a bill important to Senator Brent Hill, the chair
of the Senate’s tax committee. If there was any question about why he
vetoed the bill, his veto message made it clear. “Given legislative concerns
about ‘social engineering’, particularly in regard to my proposal for targeted
expansion of the grocery tax credit, in the interest of consistency…such concern
would extend to this legislation as well.” House leadership says they need
to get something done on food tax--setting up all that is needed for a deal next
week. <BR><BR><B>Little Ironies. </B>There is a Guatemalan woman who
has worked as a custodian around the statehouse for a number of years. She
is bilingual though more comfortable speaking Spanish. Tuesday afternoon
Senator John McGee, the author of the rabidly anti-immigration bill SB1157, held
the door for her as she was pushing a wheeled trash can out of the Senate
chamber. She just said “Gracias.” And then there was the Governor’s
veto message, which he signed “As always­Idaho. Esto Perpetua.” Will
he be able to use that next year once English is the official
language?<BR><BR><B>When is God an exceptional word?</B> Last week,
Senator Denton Darrington, a stickler for the rules who often uses his knowledge
of parliamentary procedure as a weapon in debate, called out Senator Elliot
Werk’s use of the phrase “By God” and asked that it be considered “exceptional
language”. He made sure it was so noted in the Senate Journal. Werk
is a Democrat. On Wednesday, Senator Lee Heinrich used the phrase “God
forbid” in his closing debate to gales of laughter. When challenged on the
floor by the Senate Minority leader, Clint Stennett, the Senate president ruled
that his challenge was moot since Heinrich was finished speaking. Heinrich
is a Republican. God forbid that the rule be applied evenly, by God.
<BR> <BR><B>The Boise State College Republicans set off a firestorm</B>
this week in a flier advertising an appearance by former County Commissioner and
congressional candidate, Robert Vasquez, who is infamous for his strident
anti-immigrant positions. In the flier the College R’s entice participation in
their event by offering “Dinner for two at Chapala’s Mexican Restaurant! Climb
through the hole in the fence and enter your false ID documents into the Food
Stamp drawing.” Whew!! Was that supposed to be funny? Is this
what gets set in motion when their role models, the real Republicans, demonize
immigrants? The tone set by the English Only debates in the House and
Senate, and the debates on public benefits, gave way too much license for
bigotry. <BR> <BR><B>The opponents of SB1157 won the debate but the
bill passed anyway</B>. Senator John McGee’s bill to require all recipients of
public benefits to verify citizenship, passed the House Thursday morning 47 to
21 after powerful debate. After suggesting that underlying this bill was
both “sub-stance and symbols”, Representative Raul Labrador, a Republican
immigration attorney who grew up in Puerto Rico, proceeded to slice the bill to
ribbons. He said that in committee no one could answer the most basic
questions like “How much money will this bill save?” and “How much fraud is
there in the system?” He suggested to his colleagues that they would not
pass any other bill that failed those tests. He then reminded his
colleagues that a companion bill that would have sanctioned employers for hiring
undocumented workers failed in the Senate. As for symbols, “We are talking
here about punishing the criminal without punishing the people who benefit from
the crime,” Labrador said. In the “I couldn’t make this stuff up”
department, Phil Hart, who faces charges with the IRS for not paying his taxes,
commented that “this is a bill about stewardship of the taxpayers’ money.”
Yeah, right.<BR> <BR><B>Whose money is it? </B>When I used to look at
those books with pictures of Native Americans from the 1800’s, like Chief
Joseph, said Senator Edgar Malepeai “I saw a lot of pride…I did not see that in
the eyes of the people I worked with when I worked on the reservation for 10
years”. With gaming and more economic development on the reservations
“…now I see pride again.” He was debating on HB249 that sets a deadline
for negotiations between the tribes and the state about who will benefit from
the fuel taxes on gas sold on the reservations. While proponents argued
that they “just want to come to a fair resolution,” opponents see the bill as a
breach of faith by the state. The bill was sent to the Governor on a vote
of 19-16. Malepeai warned that with the passage of this bill “our relationship
will go back to the dark ages.” <BR> <BR><B>The K Street project
comes to Idaho? </B>Remember when Tom Delay tried to purge the DC lobby
corps of all Democrats and decide who they’d like to lobby them? Some
Delay wannabes in the Idaho Statehouse think they should get to choose who
lobbies them. An AP story came out this week that recounted how Lawerence
Denney, the Speaker of the House, successfully encouraged a development company
seeking favors at the statehouse, to dump its lobbyist­old hand, Jerry
Deckard, who supported Denney’s opponent for Speaker­and use former
representative Julie Ellsworth, who was just unseated in November. It’s
legal in Idaho. Senator Kate Kelly had tried to get revolving door
legislation introduced in Idaho this year but was thwarted by a legislature
offended by any mention of ethics. Her legislation would require that
former legislators not lobby their former colleagues for 2 years after leaving
office. <BR> <BR><B>When is a closed primary not a closed
primary? </B>Keith Allred of the Common Interest may just pull off a
miracle. He has been trying to convince legislative leaders to adopt
what’s called a <I>modified</I> closed primary that requires party registration
but allows independents to choose where they want to vote. This contrasts
with the proposal by House leadership that would have allowed county party
chairs to decide if independents voted in their primaries. This move is
mostly defensive since the Idaho Republican Party is threatening to sue the
state unless they require some form of closed primary. It is likely to
come up next week. For more info, check out <A
href="http://www.thecommoninterest.org"
eudora="autourl">www.thecommoninterest.org</A>. <BR> <BR></FONT>
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