A local option view from Northern Idaho

I've noticed that the local option issue isn't generating much press not bloggage outside Southwest Idaho, but Coeur d'Alene city councilman Mike Kennedy made this comment at Huckleberries Online:

I certainly support local control and local option authority, but this bill is a complete sham. This is going to centralize control in Boise more than ever, and ensure that local folks can't get a fair say in how we determine our futures locally I sure hope the Idaho Senate kills this wrong-headed election-year bill. This bill is about GOP primary politics in southern Idaho, not good government. If this idea is so good, why don't we put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that every single special interest sales tax exemption passed by this legislature should be put to a vote of the people and has to be passed by a 66 2/3 majority? There is no difference. I hope our North Idaho legislators don't get duped by this southern Idaho power-play bill.

Let's just be clear that "southern Idaho" doesn't mean Boise but the GOP power players from Star, Donnelly, and Oakley. But if some Boise bashing is what it takes to kill this sucker, I'm fine with that.

Comments

[sharon fisher]

good for him. I hope it spreads.

[Wordsmith]

And he means, Boise as the legislative place of action in that the legislature meets here, not the citizens of Boise.

[Eagle person]

I'm from Mike Moyle's district and a lot of people here are in favor of the constitutional amendment because of the LID formed by the city of Eagle which has taxed each household $1000 for the purchase of the water company. In fact that's probably an issue that will come up in the Republican primary. Why weren't the voters allowed to vote for or against this water company tax? I'm all for local improvement taxes but they need to be approved by the voters.

[Julie in Boise]

Eagle person, thanks for the visit. I wholeheartedly agree that people ought to be able to vote on local option taxes. My beef with Moyle's approach is chiefly that it refuses to recognize the regional nature of many issues (transit especially, since we already have a regional transit system). I also find it overly restrictive with the November-only provision and the 66 2/3rds threshold. Sixty percent should be high enough; that's what most other local option taxes require.

Finally, if the amendment is so important, why didn't Moyle introduce it during the local option debate last year?

[Julie in Boise]

Yeah, wordsmith, I actually get that. But the underlying meme is the disdain that most of the southern Idaho GOP legislators feel for the city of Boise because we've become a Democratic stronghold and a threat to their dominance - and they don't want to see our politics spread westward into the 'burbs and Canyon County.

Make no mistake: That is a major reason behind this amendment.