On Monday night, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne delivered his eighth and final State of the State Speech in Boise to kick off the 58th Idaho Legislature second session.
On Tuesday, Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, and Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, blasted several of the governor's proposals and called for sweeping change in the Statehouse.
In a written response, Stennett said the representatives "will be more vocal about pointing out the failed policies of the past and more aggressive about offering our own fresh ideas for the future."
Stennett, Jaquet and Donna Pence, D-Gooding, represent Idaho's 25th District, which includes Blaine, Camas, Gooding and Lincoln counties.
"We see 2006 as the beginning of a new way of doing business—a paradigm shift that puts political power back where it belongs—with the people who put all of us here," Stennett wrote. "For too long, the Idaho Legislature and the executive branch have served special interest and big-business groups.
"For example, the governor clearly has not heard the cry from the people for property tax reform or regulation of coal-fired energy plants."
Stennett, who's the minority leader of the Idaho Senate, and Jaquet, the minority leader of the House, have waged a war on the rising cost of property taxes in the state and Sempra Energy's proposal to build a coal-fired power plant near Jerome.
For much of the past year Jaquet served on the Property Tax Interim Committee. Among other solutions, the Committee proposed more than $120 million in property tax relief to be considered by the legislature.
On Monday, Kempthorne made little mention of the big issue, suggesting only that families in dire need should be granted property tax relief. He did not express support for any of the ideas developed by the committee over the past year.
Instead, one of the governor's main proposals included giving away $63 million of the state's $214 million budget surplus to Idaho taxpayers to help them pay their utility bills.
Stennett called the proposal a "gimmick," and suggested the intended action—providing financial assistance to Idaho's most needy families—could be accomplished in more effective, less-costly manners.
"J.R. Simplot doesn't need another $50 dollars, but Idaho's working, poor families could use the help both in their family budgets and in their children's classrooms," Stennett said. "We could take a quarter of the amount and give it to community action agencies and help just as many needy people."
Jaquet feels the governor's fiscal policies are misguided, and that's becoming increasingly evident.
"What seems to have gone unnoticed in the past 10 years of Republican control is that our short-sighted fiscal policies have resulted in a colossal accumulation of unmet needs," she said. "We must change the way we budget these expenses if we are to put our state back on a solid financial footing."
For Stennett and Jaquet, that includes allocating more money for education, raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour, and providing a 4-percent pay raise for state employees and teachers.
"The Supreme Court recently ruled that it is the Legislature's constitutional responsibility to provide a safe place for students to learn," Jaquet said. "We believe that there is plenty of money in the $214 million surplus to take care of the current needs and establish a fund for the future. It's unacceptable for our children to attend unsafe schools."
With Kempthorne displaying only a fleeting interest in property tax relief, Jaquet plans to intensify the fight.
"Since the governor has failed to lead the way on substantial property tax reform, we will step up to the issue ourselves," Jaquet said. "While property taxes are paid to local governments, the Legislature sets the policies under which those local governments are allowed to operate."
She suggested increasing the property tax exemption to $100,000, raising the circuit breaker, repealing the developer's discount, and allowing communities more options to assess local option taxes to pay for infrastructure in high-growth areas.
As for Sempra Energy's coal-plant proposal, Stennett said there's widespread concern over its potential impact on the environment, including dirty air, mercury emissions and water depletion.
"Just as we should not sell off our public lands, we should not sell off our air and water quality so that a few individuals can profit from turning Idaho into an energy farm for the West Coast," Stennett said.
Most think the energy produced will likely be sold in California.
The legislators also stressed the importance of changing the way the Statehouse has operated over the past several years.
"From Washington, D.C., to the Idaho Statehouse, unethical behavior has crept into our politics and our government," Jaquet said. "In Idaho, the examples of lapses are plentiful." Stennet said the Statehouse has grown accustomed to favoring individuals and groups that can afford to pay the best lobbyists, and that era must come to an end.
"The checks and balances enjoyed by other states have been lacking in Idaho," Stennett wrote. "Our party intends to speak more forcefully about the value of dissent and the deteriorating results achieved by the current one-party system."
