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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Courtesy of today’s (April 28, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Lawmakers discuss difficult session: Schmidt, Trail and Ringo talk ed reform, Medicaid cuts<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>By Kelsey Husky, Daily News Staff Writer<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>April 28, 2011<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Three local lawmakers presented overviews of what happened during the Idaho legislative session Wednesday to the League of Women Voters.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sen. Dan Schmidt called it interesting.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It was the worst Rep. Tom Trail had seen.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Rep. Shirley Ringo said it was ugly.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The trio mainly spoke about State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's education reform and cuts to Medicaid funding.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Luna had only good things to say about education when he was running for office, Ringo, D-Moscow, said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>"As soon as the session began, (he said) we needed big changes," she said, and by the end of the session, he was "thumping his chest" and taking credit for a great reform.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It entails limiting the collective bargaining powers of public school teachers, basing teacher pay on performance and integrating technology via laptop computers.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The legislation reduces the teacher salary schedule. Luna thinks the teachers will be rewarded by the pay-for-performance plan, Ringo said, but really, most won't be paid more than they were before the cut.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>On top of that, she said, his plan is to continue "hijacking" money from the state lottery and putting it into a discretionary funds account. Originally, that lottery money was to go to a building fund to maintain schools.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Trail, R-Moscow, compared Luna with the biblical figure Samson, causing some in the audience to laugh.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I hope he has the same fate, Trail said, "which I think stands a good chance." Samson, who unbeknowst to his captors had regained his prodigious strength after his hair grew back, died when he pulled down the pillars of the temple on his enemies.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Trail said the reform was the most dire hit to education since Idaho was founded.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Moscow School District is facing an estimated $900,000 cut in next year's state funding, from both declining enrollment and effects of the reform legislation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Ringo said the cuts to schools have planned increases for the next several years, and rural schools will be affected the most because they don't have much funding to begin with.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Another legislative action affecting Moscow area residents is cuts to Medicaid.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For every dollar Medicaid is reduced by the state, Trail said, the state program loses $3 of federal money. That brings the total reduction to about $100 million.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Trail said he received a telephone call from an elderly Moscow woman who has a disability, diabetes and a heart condition. She called because she needs transportation to a Coeur d'Alene dentist by July 1 - when Medicaid stops funding dental work - and wasn't having any luck finding someone to take her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>"I'm sure all three of us are going to get more and more calls just like that," he said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Schmidt, D-Moscow, who sat on the Health and Welfare Committee, investigated hospital Medicaid assessments.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Each hospital in Idaho pays an assessment to the state, which is actually a tax, he said. The state uses those funds to increase the federal government's match. However, eight Idaho hospitals are exempt. Schmidt was told it was because they were privately owned, for-profit hospitals that do not accept many Medicaid patients.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Upon further investigation by Schmidt, it was discovered the hospitals do take a fair amount of Medicaid patients but don't pay the state as other hospitals do. Two of these hospitals are in the Coeur d'Alene area.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Schmidt will be on the committee next year and said after the meeting that he will continue his investigation in the next session.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>----------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Idaho state legislators Tom Trail (left), Dan Schmidt (partially hidden) and Shirley Ringo (right) talk during a League of Women Voters&' meeting at the 1912 Center in Moscow.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=576 height=384 id="Picture_x0020_0" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CC0587.043110B0" alt=8968421.jpg><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Seeya round town, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Moscow, Idaho<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>