This may be one explanation why the Idaho Legislature often seems stuck in the distant past:
House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, a Republican rancher from Star, has declared that allowing voters to decide whether to vote on spending local-option taxes on public transit is a bad, "liberal" idea, and that such taxes should be spent solely on roads.
Well, now.
Non-partisan Wood River Valley business and civic interests who have been struggling to develop an efficient public bus system should invite Rep. Moyle to Blaine County and ask him to show where new roads could be built to reduce automobile commuter congestion. State Highway 75 already occupies the only corridor available for a major road up and down the county's spine.
And since when did allowing voters to decide the fate of local taxes become "liberal"? Read Moyle's reaction to Democratic proposals to allow a local vote on taxes for transit:
"If they (Democrats) would introduce good ideas, they would be considered. Liberal ideas won't fly. The local option tax is a prime example."
Rep. Moyle's classification of local democratic decisions as unacceptably "liberal" also penalizes the Boise area, which needs to expand its public transit to handle the burgeoning population and to reduce road traffic and pollution.
More roads may fit into the dreams of asphalt- and concrete-industry lobbyists. But the reality is Idaho needs dramatically more flexibility in developing public transportation at the local level in the absence of more visionary state funding.
