<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">"It is reported that Rep. Leon Smith will introduce<br>legislation raising the fuel tax by 25 cents per gallon."<br><br>If true, Leon Smith is an idiot and an jerk! As is any other legislator that follows suit. It is the Idaho State Legislature's position that we need to slow the economy or make it better? Because people won't go anywhere, or look for jobs, or spend anything if it is less affordable to drive. It already seems like traffic is significantly reduced all over the state as it is since the pre-$4 a gallon mini-crisis we had. Make it $150-300 more a year expensive, they will leave home even less often.<br><br>It is a huge burden to have to look for a job, having no income, and then having to pay huge amounts of money handing in resumes and getting, and return applications for employment. There are already stores and businesses in the Boise area
with signs saying they are not accepting applications because they are getting swamped with inquiries for employment.<br><br>I am extremely lucky to be in the high demand area of medical services. But, lots of people I know, nurses and other CNAs and NAs are being let go because of lack of hours and increased qualifications for their current job, which the companies can demand now because there are 20 people waiting and willing to take their job. Now, I ask you, if nurses are getting canned, who the hell is safe? And what shape do you really think the economy is in?<br><br>I don't believe the unemployment rate is 7%. I think it is more like 10% and will go to 16%. The government lies in how it reports unemployment. It only counts people looking for full time work that don't work at all and are on unemployment benefits. There are lots of people working less than 40 or who don't fill for unemployment or who are not counted for one reason or another, such
as receiving other limited income, or just plain gave up.<br><br>From reading and talking to people during the last US Great Depression, it had an unemployment rate of 16-25% of the adult population. They didn't play games with who was and wasn't unemployed. If you didn't have a full time job, your not employed, it was that simple. <br><br>Best Regards,<br><br>Donovan Arnold<br><br><br>--- On <b>Sat, 2/7/09, ttrail@moscow.com <i><ttrail@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: ttrail@moscow.com <ttrail@moscow.com><br>Subject: [Vision2020] Legislative Update 4 from Rep. Trail<br>To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 7:53 PM<br><br><pre>LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER IV--February 1-7/2009<br><br>Constituents:<br><br> In general, the economic picture continues to be bleak and this <br>overshadows practically all discussions in the
legislative hallways. <br>January sales tax revenues dipped well below projections. Unemployment <br>figures may soon top 7.0% in Idaho. Bankruptcy figures have increased <br>over 50% in the past six months and home foreclosures are up as well in <br>Idaho. I stopped by a barber shop this morning and talked to one <br>customer. He worked with a John Deere sales and repair facility. Last <br>summer he said they had a staff of 20 and today they only have three <br>still with the operation.<br><br> The Idaho Congressional delegation will vote against the stimulus <br>package now before Congress; however, I haven't talked to anyone who says <br>we shouldn't accept any stimulus funds directed toward Idaho. Idaho <br>legislative leaders at least are talking about the need to plan for any <br>federal funds that come our way. Both the Legislative and Executive <br>Branch should work together to make both short and long term plans for <br>these
funds. We should best use dollars for their stated purpose to help <br>create jobs--these are in the areas of transportation infrastructure, <br>energy development, university research, and other comparable areas. We <br>need to have plans in place before the funds show up. We will <br>carefully have to examine the conditions attached to the stimulus <br>funds. Some conditions may unacceptable to the state. <br><br> 1. Transportation -- The Governor's plan for transportation <br>infrastructure will be presented next week to the House Transportation <br>Committee. The plan includes the following five proposals, totaling $174 <br>million. These include 1) raising vehicle registration fees, 2) raising <br>the gas tax, 3) redirect 5 percent funding from the Idaho Police to the <br>general fund, 4) elimnate the tax exemption for ethanol, and 5) and <br>taxing rental cars. It is reported that Rep. Leon Smith will introduce <br>legislation
raising the fue tax by 25 cents per gallon.<br><br> 2. K-12 Funding -- Legislative leaders are committed to keeping the <br>public education budget whole through the rest of the year even if it <br>means dipping deeper into the state's education rainy day fund. The fund <br>which was at $114 million at the start of the year is now down to $53 <br>million. Tax revenue has come in about $100 million less than a year <br>ago, and there are some estimates that we could face a 15% decrease in <br>tax revenues this year. SPI Tom Luna has asked for a decrease in about <br>$75 million in the K-12 budget for the FY10 year. An interesting <br>scenario is that there are funds in the tentative stimulus package which <br>would restore K-12 funding back to FY08 levels, and this could also apply <br>to Higher Education. Once the vision becomes clearer it will make for <br>interesting discussions/<br><br> 3. Local Option Taxes -- several proposals have
been talked about in <br>recent weeks in the Legislature. The main discussion has turned to <br>whether to grant this authority by statute or by amending the State <br>Constitution. Personally I support the local option tax proposal, and <br>voted for the bill last year that would have granted it via the State <br>Constitution path because it was the only game in town. This year I <br>would support the path via statute -- a 60% vote of the citizens and <br>50% of the money going to property tax relief and the other 50% to a <br>specific project (an example -- in Latah County the Joint Law <br>Enforcement Center)<br><br> 4. Palouse -- Clearwater Forest -- One of the issues of importance <br>facing local citizens is the potential impact of a proposed U.S. Forest <br>Service land swap which would exchange 48,000 acres in the Lochsa area <br>near the Montana border for about 18,000 acres in the Palouse-Clearwater <br>area. Most of the land
in Latah County lies between Elk River to the <br>Washington State border. If the exchange were approved then a private <br>development company -- Western Lands would benefit and manage the <br>18,000 acres in Latah County. Your Legislative delegation has major <br>concerns about the negative impact that such a land swap might have. It <br>is estimated that over 150,000 Idahoans utilize the forest land in Latah <br>County each for hiking, hunting, fishing, bird watching, and other <br>activities. Your legislators met with Tom Reilly, Forester out of <br>Orofino for the U.S. Forest Service, representatives from Western Lands, <br>Mike Stivers from Sen. Crapo's office, and other legislators. We've <br>asked for contacts that Western Lands has had in managing projects in <br>other states, and also that the Forest Service would conduct more public <br>hearings in Latah County. We talked to the County Commissioners about <br>the issue this week
and said that we would follow their lead when they <br>make a public statement. Personally I am opposed to the proposal.<br><br> 5. Homeland Security boots out terrorist cat from the Moscow-Pullman <br>airport. How many of us have appreciated that the Moscow-Pullman <br>airport had Dash the Cat to add some class to our local airport. Many of <br>us who used the airport looked forward to this friendly feline. <br>However, it is apparent that in reality Dash was a deep undercover <br>terrorist cat trained by Al Qaeda and just waiting to launch an attack on <br>local citizens. Homeland security agents became suspicious when they <br>saw Dash with a deadly weapon -- she unsheathed her claws.<br> Agent suspicions also grew in intensity when they realized that over 4 <br>years there had not been a single high jacking, terrorist attack, the <br>sign of a single rodent, and not a single case of bubonic plague at the <br>airport. This perfect
record was just too good to be true.<br> Dash was last seen being escorted under armed guard and the rumor is <br>that she is being shipped off to Catanamo for intensive interrogation. <br>Citizens of Moscow can now rest assured that their government by spending <br>millions to assure our protection against terrorists has no doubt pulled <br>off a major coup in capturing one of the major terrorists of our <br>times. A bit of humor in these times makes life seem a bit brighter.<br><br>I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions. My e mail is <br>ttrail@house.idaho.gov and phone 208-332-1184.<br><br>Rep. Tom Trail<br><br><br>---------------------------------------------<br>This message was sent by First Step Internet.<br> http://www.fsr.com/<br><br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br>
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