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Eye on Boise: Idaho State Police understaffing causing safety concerns
BOISE – The Idaho State Police is so understaffed that Col. Ralph Powell, ISP director, says it’s causing safety concerns for both officers and the public. A state study that examined the number of miles of state and federal highways the ISP patrols concluded that it needs 94 additional troopers; it also concluded that ISP needs 14 more detective positions just to maintain current caseloads.
Eye on Boise: Online tax revenue key for schools, Luna says
BOISE – Idaho Schools Superintendent Tom Luna is calling for collecting Idaho’s state sales tax on online sales as the best way to ensure the state can afford to improve its school system. “Any tax code that does not take into account consideration of online sales tax and the migration of commerce toward online sales is shortsighted,” Luna told lawmakers. “I believe the answer is simple: We need to collect every penny of sales tax that is due.”
Eye on Boise: Fulcher decries Otter’s wolf control fund
BOISE – Sen. Russ Fulcher is ripping Gov. Butch Otter’s proposal for a new $2 million wolf control fund. “I don’t know what we need to spend $2 million for,” Fulcher said on a Boise talk radio show this past week, after Otter announced the new fund in his State of the State message. Fulcher, who is challenging Otter in the GOP primary, said Otter’s plan would “create another bureaucracy in order to manage this.” Otter’s proposed state budget for next year calls for spending $2 million in state general funds to start up the new fund, and then adding contributions each year of $110,000 from hunting license fees and the livestock industry to sustain the fund. “This three-pronged approach will provide the revenue needed to more effectively control Idaho’s burgeoning wolf population and ease the impact on our livestock and wildlife,” Otter said to applause.
Idaho lawmakers leery of Otter’s state worker pay plan
Idaho has funded one 2 percent raise for state employees in the past five years, prompting lawmakers to balk at Gov. Butch Otter’s proposal to pass them over for raises again next year.