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| published Monday, February 18, 2008 |
2392 Views
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This week, before legislators could start setting Idaho’s budget, they
had to decide whether and how to adjust state employees’ compensation.
Even in years of economic expansion, the legislature has told the
thousands of people who work for us that Idaho does not have enough
resources to invest in them on par with their peers in the private
sector. “Someday, there’ll be roses,” they kept promising.
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| published Monday, February 18, 2008 |
2422 Views
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Two
huge events overshadowed virtually every political story in Idaho this
past week: the massive public response to Sen. Barack Obama’s visit to
Boise on Saturday morning (over 14,000 people were in the arena and
over a thousand listened outside) and the unprecedented turn out for
the Democratic caucuses on Tuesday evening (over 21,000 people,
breaking the record by more than four times). The fact that Idaho was
hit by three more snow storms during that time did not dampen the sense
that Idaho political history was being made. Yes, the legislature still
met this week but according to several Democratic legislators their
Republican colleagues were a bit jealous they couldn’t participate in
the fun.
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| published Sunday, February 03, 2008 |
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Historically, many legislators were
family farmers and they stayed in Boise throughout the session. Lots of
snow simply reminded them that they should be in no hurry to adjourn
and go home to plant their crops. Big conglomerates now own much of
Idaho’s farmland and most legislators have other vocations. Today, a
majority of legislators who live in north and eastern Idaho travel home
each weekend. More than a dozen of them may have questioned the wisdom
of that last week as they struggled with snow storms to get back to
Boise. Yes, it is a record snow year and on Wednesday the Boise school
district cancelled classes for the first time since 1991. Early
predictions of a short session now seem naively optimistic.
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| published Wednesday, August 15, 2007 |
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With the total cost of the Iraq war and occupation now approaching half a trillion dollars ($456 billion and counting), Idaho taxpayers’ share of that cost is now more than $1.2 billion and rising. This report reveals what the $1.2 billion in our state could provide for families and communities if that money were invested instead in priorities in Idaho that have long been neglected.
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| published Tuesday, July 31, 2007 |
24007 Views
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Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times on July 30, 2007 notes that "When a child is enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip), the positive results can be dramatic. But President Bush has declared that he'll veto any Schip expansion on "philosophical" grounds.
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| published Tuesday, July 31, 2007 |
30447 Views
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Since about 1980, the federal government has adopted a tortoise's pace
in increasing the minimum wage, and increases in the minimum wage have
failed to keep pace either with inflation or with growth in average
wages. However, there is a hare — rather hares — in this race too, with
interesting lessons emerging.
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| published Tuesday, July 31, 2007 |
30498 Views
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Families all over the US have an additional reason to celebrate July 24 this year and for the next two years. This is the day we will finally see a long-delayed increase in the minimum wage. Our grandparents’ generation first enacted this moral principle in 1938 to reflect the basic American value that an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay.
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| published Wednesday, February 28, 2007 |
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Lee Drutman published a great article for TomPaine.com (and has written a great book called The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy) where he notes that it is not just the lavish gifts and outings that big corporate lobbyists pay for to influence public policy. It is their overwhelming investment in being there at every step of the policy making process. (link to the full article)
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| published Monday, February 05, 2007 |
44298 Views
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United Vision for Idaho's president spoke out in a guest opinion in the Idaho State Journal recently on the reality of global warming and the imperative that governments, communities and individuals take action now.
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| published Thursday, December 07, 2006 |
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such as the recent case of spinach contaminated with E. coli, highlight the policy choice facing consumers and taxpayers between cheap food and safe food.
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