Idaho taxpayers have every reason to question whether their affairs are being managed sensibly or whether the state Legislature's leadership is allowing side trips into the frivolous.
Consider the stubborn refusal of some Republican lawmakers to level the playing field for Idaho retailers against Internet retailers. For the fourth time in as many years, an Idaho House committee has failed to approve a sales tax on Internet sales by out-of-state retailers to Idaho buyers. Idaho-based retailers will have to continue to collect a 6 percent sales tax on counter sales here, thus handicapping them in competing with Internet retailers who pay no such tax.
Reasons for the opposition are obscure, although Statehouse reporters sense Idaho conservatives are "suspicious" of a nationwide movement to tax Internet sales.
However, one of the firebrand opponents to a fair shake for Idaho retailers is state Rep. Phil Hart of Athol, who has given his hearty blessing to an off-kilter money matter that is a throwback to arguments over precious metals versus paper currency. Hart wants legislation allowing Idahoans to pay state fees and taxes in silver. Picture some of Hart's disciples pulling up to the tax window with a wheelbarrow of silver medallions.
He claims this is to resurrect Idaho's dying silver mining industry. But the truth can be found in Hart's description of precious metals as "constitutional currency," which means Hart finds paper currency unconstitutional.
Then there's the health care conscience bill, which allows medical workers and pharmacists to decide which patients they'll treat and what medications they'll fill if their conscience bothers them.
How do hospitals and pharmacies prepare for this cop-out? Can workers legally be asked whether they favor abortions or stem-cell research and then be reassigned from duties that involve "procedures of conscience," perhaps with pay cuts?
Not to be left out of the Legislature's wayward ways, former Idaho Congressman Bill Sali showed up to attempt to include in a scheduling notification to parents on immunizations a statement that the immunizations would "endanger the life or health of their child."
And finally, while teachers and pupils are told the cupboard is bare for proper funding of public education, the Legislature and Gov. Butch Otter have joined 12 other states in a quixotic attack on the new federal health care legislation even before it has been put in place, at a cost to Idaho of at least $100,000.
Haven't the states complained of uninsured patients showing up at emergency rooms for treatment, adding huge costs to state health budgets?
Nonsense is no obstacle when it comes to lawmaking in Idaho.
