State Reps. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, and Donna Pence, D-Gooding, are slated to hold a series of town meetings throughout District 25, which includes Blaine County.
The pair will hold a public meeting on Friday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m. at DiVine wine bar at 400 S. Main St. in Hailey. Pence and Jaquet will be in Fairfield earlier that day, meeting at the Senior Center at 1:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Jan. 30, they will be at the Manhattan Café in Shoshone at 8:30 a.m. before continuing throughout the rest of the district, which also includes Camas, Gooding and Lincoln counties.
The 2010 legislative session began Jan. 11 and will likely run until at least April.
After her first week in Boise, Jaquet, who is a member of the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, sent an update on the Legislature, largely in response to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's State of the State address on Jan. 11.
"Before we are able to begin to build budgets, we will need to have a revenue projection," Jaquet wrote in her update. "The governor understated the state's revenues by about $80 million against the advice of his economic team. The Legislature's Economic Outlook Committee chose to postpone their recommendation until next week ... How we treat this year's shortages will affect the amount of money we have to work with for the next budget year."
Jaquet said she is also concerned about how higher education could be impacted by budget cuts because "in a recession more people go to school to get re-training. Class sizes, increases in tuition and fees, and the deletion of certain courses all contribute to workforce challenges and a trained workforce is one of the biggest requirements to locate a business in our state."
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
Rep. Wendy Jaquet will hold a town meeting in Hailey on Friday, Jan. 29. Photo by Mountain Express
