Idaho News and Politics Report: Cheers and Boos

Boos to the Senate State Affairs Committee and particularly my State Senator Kate Kely (D-18) for killing an election reform measure by a 5-4 vote. The measure would have consolidated elections and ended the practice of allowing school districts to hold elections whenever they’re of a mind to.

Instead, we continue to have stealth elections. Classic example: The Boise School District Board of Trustees has a $200,000 million budget to run the Boise Schools. Their last election was held the day after Labor Day, and board members were selected by 1200 voters, 1.19% of the vote. Democracy in action.

Also deserving a big time boo bird is Senator Darren Darrington:

The sticking point? Schools argued that the proposed system, where counties would be in charge of running the polls, would cost an estimated $1.1 million annually – much more than they now pay to do elections themselves.

Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo and a former teacher, said Friday that if sponsors had solved the funding problem for schools, he would have voted for the measure.

“I’m just one step away from support,” Darrington said. “They’ve got to cross that final threshold.”

The total cost of this to school boards would be $1.1 million as opposed to what they’re paying now. Let’s say for the sake of argument, the cost is $300,000. (If the Statesman wants to quote me and pick bones  So, we’ve officially to the point in the State of Idaho, where to people like Senator Darrington, our republican form of government and serious deliberation is worth less than $800,000?

But it gets better, if you read the more accurate and thorough Betsy Russell you find out that the School Districts will have to pay nothing if they hold bond issues in May or November, but they don’t want to do that as that would make them accountable to a larger percentage of the electorate.

Here’s the bottom, Idaho: your school boards and 5 members of the State Senate have decided to vote against the very principles of Democracy. What are you going to do about it?

Cheers to Rep Judy Boyle (R-Midvale) for leading the fight for fetal death certificates. It went down to defeat by a one-vote margin. If Boyle brings the bill back in the next session or next legislature, it should carry. It probably would have carried this time except for a poorly time vote by the House leadership.

Cheers to Senator Bart Davis (R) and Senator Kate Kelly (D) who have introduced a financial disclosure bill to require members of the legislature and those serving in statewide office as well as candidates for those office to disclose their income and assets. This is a point where Idaho should join the other 47 states that have financial disclosure requirements.

Boos to Governor Butch Otter: Not certain what they were thinking, but having failed to pass a fuel tax increase, the Governor has introduced a bill that increases registration fees on the newest cars by 38% and on older cars by 75%. Otter’s fee increase will hit the poor hardest. When this reachest the floor, you can pretty much queue the populist backlash to this.  To quote Bones from Star Trek, “It’s dead, Jim.”

Boos to Ada County Officials who allowed the personal information of arrestees including Social Security numbers to be posted on the web. Such blatant carelessness with people’s identity is the type of disregard for privacy I only expect from the Idaho Democratic Party.