North Idaho Can’t Afford This Much Representation

State Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, sees something wrong with local governments hiring lobbyists to plead their case for more taxes. And so do I. In fact I’m surprised few have squawked about Kootenai County, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls anteeing up a combined $30,000 to hire a lobbyist - Chuck Lempesis and friends. One of Chuck’s first orders of business is to win Kootenai County a chance to impose a local-option sales tax. Post Falls Mayor Jim Hammond defended the hiring by saying: “The north is still under-represented down there.” Seems to me that Kootenai taxpayers are getting triple-teamed here. First, they pay for legislators to represent them. Then, their tax dollars subsidize the state associations of cities and counties, which routinely lobby for more taxes. Finally, local governments are coughing up $30,000 for the same thing. Alltus’ bill doesn’t have a chance of passing. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

The rats are nibbling away at initiative

I oppose term limits on principle. The ballot box and an informed public are better ways to throw the bums out. But I’m enough of a populist to be bothered by the Idaho Legislature’s attempt to nibble away at the successful 1994 term limits initiative. On Monday, the State Affairs Committee introduced a bill that would repeal the initiative’s limitations on school board service. Critics of the initiative believe Idahoans (59 percent of us) were duped by our discontent with Congress into setting limits for all local governments. If this attack on the initiative succeeds, you can bet your paycheck that our Boise-knows-best solons will try to exempt highway districts, city councils … and eventually themselves. And it won’t be the first time they thwarted the will of the people.

Kootenai County has its own L.A. law

The court system here is broken as badly as the one in Los Angeles. In her Close to Home column Sunday, Cynthia Taggart told of Rathdrum’s Kristine Crill, a woman trying to put her life back together after 13 years with an abusive husband. After she filed for divorce last year, Kristine said, her husband raped her and later stalked her. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to violating court orders to stay away from her. But he pleaded innocent to the rape charge. It was her word against his at the trial, and jurors believed Kristine’s husband when he said he wouldn’t raise a finger against her. They weren’t told of the times police rescued her from him or how she’d hid in shelters from him. Justice no longer is blind in this country. It’s universally incompetent.

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