Huckleberries Online

Crump: Senate Disses Poor Idahoans

Posted by DFO

March 11, 2009 1:18 p.m. • 3 comments

When I was 3, my dad - a Power County wheat farmer - died. Without being asked, our neighbors harvested his crop, using their own fuel and equipment to do it. When it came time to sell the wheat, they hauled it to the grain elevator in Pocatello. My mother offered to pay them for their trouble, but they all declined. … We don’t make a big deal about it, but Idahoans look after each other. So whenever somebody - in this case the Idaho Senate - does something to violate that spirit, it makes me angry. And as an Idahoan, it should make you mad too. Eighteen of the 35 members of the Senate voted last Friday against legislation that would have allowed utilities like Idaho Power to establish programs to help struggling customers keep up with their electricity and gas bills with help from other ratepayers/Steve Crump, Twin Falls Times-News. More here.

Question: Have you had friends and neighbors help you through tough economic times?

Three comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Tumblewords on March 11 at 3:22 p.m.
Oh, sure I have. And I’ve helped others. Guess that’s what it’s all about. I wonder about folks who say they’ve done it ALL on their own, never had any help from anybody. To them, I say, ‘Really? Hmm.’
Whippersnapper on March 11 at 8:59 p.m.
This column is bogus. Idaho Power is asking the state legislature for permission to tax all their other customers to pay for the less fortunate. How about asking all the other customers if that’s okay with them? The guy says the legislature voted down a law that would have “allowed utilities like Idaho Power to establish programs to help struggling customers.” What baloney. The power companies already help a certain number of people by letting them pay late or benefit from voluntarily-given money from customers. If the power companies want to do more, they can. They just can’t take money from people without their permission. Thanks to the legislature for not allowing this to slip by.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.