Voters spoke, but lawmakers must still work
By Wayne Hoffman
In 1942, Idaho voters thought they were getting a pretty good deal. A proposal, in the form of a citizen initiative, was for every senior citizen to be granted a pension, funded at taxpayer expense. Idaho voters were clearly enamored with the idea. They voted 68 percent in favor of the concept.
But then the Legislature came to town, and lawmakers were confronted with a multi-million dollar expense for a new program, no revenues to pay for it and no clear direction from the governor to solve the problem. Gov. C.A. Bottolfsen left it to the Legislature to deliberate on the matter. Several weeks passed before the governor called a joint session of the House and Senate to announce that the so-called “Grants Act” had “gone to war” and should be repealed by lawmakers, who obliged.
Good thing, too. The state couldn’t possibly afford the entitlement, which in those times was $16 million. Today, the program itself would cost $200 million, assuming that people still lived to about 65 and the state were still small and mostly rural. It’s easy to imagine that, were the Grants Act in place today, it would rival public education and Medicaid in size and cost.
I bring up the issue just to point out that voters occasionally take an action that still requires immediate review of a subsequent Legislature. It is neither unprecedented nor is it offensive. It’s our system of government, and God bless it.
In November, Idaho voters rejected education reforms passed by our Legislature in 2011. That’s in keeping with our system of government that allows voters to approve or reject legislation placed before them.
I see nothing particularly startling or wrong with the idea that the Legislature would continue to discuss the topic of education reform. I don’t recall voters admonishing lawmakers from ever talking about education again. Nor did they say the Legislature should take a respite from the topic. Taxpayers spend $1.2 billion a year on public schools; the Legislature would be remiss to discontinue discussion about how that money is spent and whether the public policies surrounding public education were correct or in need of alteration.
I also think the Legislature is going about the issue the right way. Rather than tackle the issues that were the subject of countless TV and radio ads, the Legislature is looking at those questions that never rose to a level of public discourse:
Should labor negotiations between school boards and unions remain closed to the public?
Should teachers receive tenure? Should labor unions automatically be granted a seat at the table with the school board or should those unions have to prove that they represent a majority of the professional staff? Should the school board have greater powers when it comes to teacher employment and budget management?
These topics are fair questions, and the questions are being presented by the Idaho School Boards Association, which represents the people elected by voters to run the schools our children attend.
To say that “the voters have spoken” and abandon any kind of discussion about public education until 2014 or 2015 does a disservice to schoolchildren and their parents who expect and deserve action now.
Wayne Hoffman is the executive director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
The Luna laws were right out of ALEC (The Union Organization of Corporations) that write bills given to over 2000 legislators in all 0 states to submit as “their own” to Profitize from Non-Profit Taxpayer funded schools for the benefit of Corporations.
The Laptop Technology is a good example as Luna is on the board of directors of the Technology company that would have benefited directly if the Luna Law had not been repealed.
It appears the Idaho Freedom Foundation is just a “spin off” of the American Legislative Exchange Council – Profiting from Public funds.
I hope folks don’t drink from this trough.
http://www.alecexposed.com
The Laptop Luna Law is mentioned in this program from PBS, Bill Moyers
http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-united-states-of-alec/
I notice the petition on the “freedom foundation” to slam Obamacare. But nothing about the One Million families that declare bankruptcy paying medical bills with credit cards and home equity loans and retirement funds in the USA. No other country allows Medical Bill bankruptcy. We spend 17% of the GDP for medical care that is ranked 35th in the world. We have 55 million that would not have health care had if not been for Obamacare.
When I read For Profit arguments of Public Funds, I “inspect what I expect” and most of the information is just the same “Corporate Profitizing of Public funds”.
Obamacare is not perfect but as the $1 Billion last year that the insurance companies had to give back to the insured for overcharging, that would not have happened if Obamacare was not in place. Insurance Companies and health care services don’t like to give back $1 Billion.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform
I listened to the local “Choose the Right” and Limbaugh along with Beck and Hannity Corporate Spin in Idaho until I visited with the kids at the Occupy Wall Street events, they turned me on to “Social Media” and the Truth instead of Corporate Spin.
Thanks to the college kids, I am now getting the truth, from the Internet and the various Social Media. Now that I have Satellite Radio, I never listen to any of the 11 stations in South Eastern Idaho who are “Choose the Right” polarizing for the benefit of Corporations and Profitizing of Public Tax funded schools.
Mike,
I think they turned you onto the liberal side only. As long as you have a whipping boy, nothing will get resolved.
Thanks for keeping one side popular (right), couldn’t do it without you.
We have 4 million people that died while having healthcare last year. Didn’t do them any good, did it? So, just having healthcare is not a solution. But per you x number died without healthcare. They would have died anyway probably but ignore that aspect.
Oh, Obamacare fines you for not having healthcare, so anty up you 55 million, we’re tired of paying for you. Per IRS it’s going to cost $20,000 each family. Good luck if you couldn’t afford the previous incantation.
Kids are your teachers? That’s backward.
So, when is Obama going to give back some tax money that he stole from me. He didn’t rebate anything from Medicare last years and the insurance that HE ASSIGNED me too didn’t either. $1 billion stretched out among 320 million people is about $3 each, wow. Per IRS the new Obamacare health policy will cost $20,000 each family. $3 really goes a long way, don’t you think? (1,000,000,000/320,000,000=3)
Stay hunkered down in your bunker, worse things are coming. Want to sell your house? 4.3% tax on house sales to fund Obamacare. That should do wonders for the housing market. 22 other taxes that are getting people laid off right and left, thanks Obama. Oh, insurance exchanges that don’t let you choose, I forgot those, thanks Obama, the one you said I had to have sucks.
Nadya Suleman (known to gossip magazines as “Octomom”) recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after accumulating roughly $1 million in debt. Tabloids and gossip blogs have criticized Suleman’s spending and lifestyle, but she’s far from alone in her financial woes. Legal technology provider Epiq Systems estimates that 1.21 to 1.25 million Americans will file for bankruptcy this year, down from 1.38 million last year. According to dailykos, 62% are medical bankruptcies, which translates to roughly 750,000 not 1 million. Still too big and yes, medical gets the blame, still after all the Obama hasn’t done. No reform in ObamaDoesn’tCare is there, none at all.
Too hell with rebates, get the cost of health care down so the premiums aren’t so absurd and unaffordable. That would do more than anything.
Now, after Don, Chuck & ike among others have tried to get your attention, do I think the above will sink in? Nope, not in the least. You’ll come back with your youtube and Rolling Stone that are so well, questionable at best and your rant against ALEC that is also questionable. Never learn, do you dude? Blame, blame, blame the other guy, one of Saul Alinsky’s favorite tactics that Obama wears out. Be sure to call me racist for having noticed it, solves so much.
I don’t answer to you sir, you are just a conduit for more mis-information. I will let the references I disclose speak for themselves.
I would suggest you post facts and the links to the sources if you want to have any credibility. Just because you hear it on the
“Choose the Right” media or find it on the Internet that supports your position and prejudice without checking out the source, does not make it so. I dig deeper comparing different sources.
I notice you like to “attack” persons who have differing views and like to Yell shut up, just like others who are Extreme Right, well, in the past I have let it go, but no more. I can Yell just as loud as you.
I am not Liberal or Conservative, just an American who is tired of being lied to by Corporations and Billionaires and the polarization that has gripped our nation for the benefit of the Rich and the Corporations who are the same folks, while the majority struggle. ALEC is just another conduit, like Fox, of Corporations.
War has been declared on the Middle Class 4 decades ago, we just did not figure it out until recently.
Try buying a few books from Amazon and reading them, or watch PBS and stop being brainwashed by “Choose the Right” media of Fox and Limbaugh and others. You might be enlightened.
As my grandfather told me, “When you stick your head in the Sand, your Butt is still sticking out”.
I have learned one thing from the Choose the Right Media, that I cannot ignore what they spew around the clock every day until elections roll around. The Mis-information flows around the clock, so I have to stay more engaged and fight back against the Propaganda machine of the Corporations who have Polarized this country for their benefit.
I am not going to allow a Nazi like Propaganda machine of the likes of 1933 in Germany without a fight.
Indeed you don’t answer to me, but I then wonder if there is anyone you do answer to. Your information from youtube is accurate and mine never is? That’s a stretch. There are no censors on youtube, not even close.
I get my links from a variety of search engine and don’t go with the “Choose the right” whatever that is. Google, Bing, webcrawler and a bunch of other search engines all can’t be biased. Quote search engines turn up a lot of mis-quoted stuff.
If I’m yelling “shut up”, I seem to have missed where I said that. I did suggest ever so loudly that the same “unchecked” link is still unchecked, no matter how many times you post it, True.
If you’re not liberal you sure repeat their spin and doctoring with amazing regularity. I’d never accuse you of being conservative.
War in the Middle East started thousands of years ago and is still going on. They tried to export it about 40 years ago. Our response was pathetic.
I’ve got way too many books here and my reading list is huge. And yes, I buy from Amazon, a lot more than you do, it would appear. I also can’t get FOX and I never watch Limbaugh, you do. I’m an independent something you’re not willing to admit. But accuse me of things I never do, solves so much.
You might be surprised to find out who runs the propaganda machine, it’s not who you think it is. Be sure to use the term nazi, even if your side merits the term more. You have no clue as to what a real nazi is or was.
Wish you had been in Germany in 1933, I grew up with a bunch of people who had. Learned a lot from them and primary among the things I learned is some are gullible and will remain so, in spite of my best efforts.
You fight is internal. I’m simply trying to get you to see things that you’re obviously ignoring. And for that I’m glued to the TV watching FOX. Nope. Seldom watch TV, very quiet in the house right now, just me typing on the laptop. Didn’t watch the super bowl sunday either. Waste of time.