Cause to be Alarmed

Just finished listening to the "Legislative listening tour" and is alarmed. No, downright scared for Idaho's future. Is not sure people have yet gathered the implications of the Idaho budget.

On education, parents of students in rural areas should be scared that the new budget cuts will significantly harm their children. The predominantly Republican legislature has treated education as their pocket book. But it going to have far-reaching consequences.

1. With the cuts, and the way school districts have just been handed less money means that transportation will be a big part of how they can cut down on costs. This likely means some school districts, especially those in rural areas, will chose to go to a 4 day school week. This will help school districts. But on that 5th day, parents will have to find day-care for children while they are at work. They can't work less, but their children will demand care.

2. Small schools, especially like those in Soda Springs and Grace, Idaho, will likely shut down. The children will have to attrition into other schools, some even further from home, hence increasing the transportation costs, and forcing the 4 day school week.

3. The way that the budget was decreased will put the burden of how to distribute the cuts onto local school districts. The state didn't chose where the cuts were made, but there will be a loss of programs and school districts will be forced into making the hard decisions.
This effectively is trying to insulate the governor from the hard decisions and he will try and get by without taking some responsibility. If the economy improves in Idaho, and budget projections are wrong, the state will run some surplus, but there is no promise that money will actually be spend back on education. they can take some money from the Education stabilization fund (also known as the "rainy day fund") but as the money goes back into the fund with the surplus, they can't use it for over a year. It won't help this year. It will harm a whole generation of children.
For higher education, they will have the same problem, even with the higher education stabilization fund, the help will come too late. A whole generation of students will be put one more year in debt to the banks and federal government. It is one more year we won't be able to attract the types of businesses Idaho needs to build a strong stable economy. The jobs Idaho needs to attract demand an educated population. These budget decisions will keep Idaho from rebounding as fast as the rest of the country and be creating a reputation for the state as a third-world country with little to offer in the way of people to do the services our own country needs.

The state has opted out of several programs that also protect our world from being hurt. The matching federal dollars to the Environmental Protection Agency has in the past encouraged jobs. We were being matched dollar for dollar for money to do water quality management. Not only are we losing air and water quality, we are also losing millions of dollars that went into the Idaho economy that we won't be able to profit from, especially the small businesses that depend on the spent dollars by Idaho workers.

For the Idahoans who are suspicious of federal government intrusions, the Republican legislature has made decisions that have made the situation worse. Now to obey the laws, the federal government will have to assume many of what the state government in the form of the Department of Environmental Quality, once did. They will be the ones doing the work and the federal government will be even closer to people's lives with no state buffer to protect them from mis-understandings.

For people on Medicare it is even worse. The federal government was matching 3 to 1 dollars spent on medicare for people in Idaho. Not only have we hurt the most needy of Idahoans, we have compounded the state's problems 3 fold as to how to care for the sick and needy. Some of them could have come back to school to get off of aide programs, but as tuition gets raised at public universities, it is pricing them out of their the best solution to their woes.

A whole generation of Idahoans and Idaho businesses are being punished by the Republican legislature's decisions. A whole generation of Idahoan's health and environment is being screwed by these Republicans and their ideas on government's place.

A leader is someone who has a vision for not just now, but for the future. Idahoan's Republicans have put ideology about government, the environment, and responsibility before vision.

If you aren't completely outraged that they can't lead, you haven't been paying attention.