For the week of April 9 - 15, 2003

End budget brinkmanship

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Right-wingers in the Idaho House crossed the line from frugality to foolishness when they voted to oppose a half-cent sales tax increase — an increase that will produce only $80 million of the $200 million in revenue Gov. Dirk Kempthorne says is necessary to sustain the state in next year’s budget.

Monday Democrats and moderate Republicans joined together to defeat ideologues who insisted the state can cut more from a budget that is already the victim of twin hammers including a previous $123 million tax cut and a battered economy.

The 39-31 vote was a squeaker—a look at things to come.

Radical ideologues, including Republicans Lenore Barrett of Challis, Bill Sali of Kuna, and Charles Ebele of Post Falls, insisted that filling the governors budget requests would fill the trough for the big hogs that feast on government goodies.

Kempthorne recently vetoed bills that would have drained the trough for the "big hogs" the radicals like to talk about.

These include 1,000 elderly Idahoans who receive home delivery of meals, another 500 who get housekeeping services, and 3,600 injured and disabled workers.

Kidney dialysis would have been canceled for 18 people, and 40 visually impaired people would have lost blindness-prevention or vision-restoration services.

The House radicals who have stubbornly stalled any budget measures except drastic cuts are on the verge of making the Legislature’s session the longest in its history. That’s ironic given that every day the Legislature is in session costs taxpayers $30,000.

The radicals’ recalcitrance in finding funding for state government is looking more and more like a desire to destroy it altogether. Theirs is not a kinder, gentler conservatism. Theirs is a mean, unkind and shortsighted fanaticism.

The impacts of such destruction would be devastating.

State government does what individuals and businesses cannot do alone: provide public education and see to the health, safety and welfare of its people. It guards and cares for resources.

It’s been clear since the Legislature’s January start that Idaho could not meet its responsibilities without a tax increase of some sort. Yet, the House Revenue and Tax Committee, where revenue bills must originate, dragged its feet for three months before getting serious about anything but budget cuts.

It’s time for wiser heads in the Legislature to prevail and end this silly and expensive game of budget brinkmanship. The Legislature should revoke its previous cut in the income tax and meet its obligations.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.