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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Personality shows on House floor, but it doesn’t stop legislation

Betsy Z. Russell

BOISE – SB 1111, which passed the House unanimously, will provide a new self-funded benefit to help permanently disabled law enforcement officers with their family’s health insurance costs.

The bill won’t help former Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Mike Kralicek, who was shot in the face Dec. 28, 2005, by a handcuffed man suspected of stealing a beer keg. Despite months of intense physical rehabilitation, Kralicek’s mobility is severely limited, and his wife quit her job as an emergency room nurse to take care of him.

The legislation, however, will help others like him in the future. When the House voting board first lit up, it showed red lights, indicating “no” votes, from Reps. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, and Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries.

“I was just playing around,” said Clark, who explained that he initially pushed the “no” button to make the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, sweat a little. Both Clark and Harwood switched their votes before the voting was closed.

Jorgenson, asked about the incident, said, “I think it’s typical Jim Clark. The fact is, nothing like that surprises me when it comes to Jim.” He added, “It’s too bad people can’t just vote on a bill and not mix personality into it, and Jim’s got a lot of personality to mix.”

Harwood had an explanation similar to Clark’s. “We were just messin’,” he said with a grin. “The final vote’s what really counts, right?”

Irony on the agenda

Back to back, a Senate committee this week passed two resolutions – one that the sponsor said tells the federal government to stop “enticing” the state with money, and one that asks the federal government to send money to Idaho to start an M.D. degree program.

Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise, said, “I simply cannot let this moment go by without pointing out the irony.”

The first, HJM 4, from Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, declares Idaho’s sovereignty from the federal government and orders the feds to “cease and desist” from violating that sovereignty, including by dangling federal money.

“We’ve been enticed over the years,” Harwood told the Senate committee. “This memorial sends a message to Congress to quit enticing us.” It passed on a voice vote, with several “no” votes.

Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, then presented HJM 7, a memorial asking Congress to send Idaho federal money to offer a medical degree. Thompson said he prepared the resolution at the request of Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee. “HJM 7 is a tool that will help in identifying and making available federal funding for an … M.D. program in the state of Idaho,” Thompson told the panel. That resolution cleared the committee on a unanimous vote.

Controversial bill does little

A controversial bill passed the House this week on a 48-21 vote, after an hour-long debate. The bill, HB 216a, says Idaho pharmacists may refuse to fill prescriptions because of objections based on their conscience. Oddly, Idaho already permits pharmacists to refuse to dispense medication because the state has no law requiring them to fill all prescriptions. The bill, as originally written, would have applied not only to pharmacists but to any employee of a pharmacy, including cashiers or delivery people, but that was removed from the bill.

Nevertheless, there was strong debate for and against the “pharmacist conscience” bill in the House. Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, who is a pharmacist, said, “This bill really makes things much more complicated for us in a world that’s already much too complicated.” Other opponents argued that the bill would hurt businesses by forcing employers to stand by while a rogue employee denied people access to prescriptions left and right, offending customers and reducing business profits. The objections could be to any medication, for any reason, though the bill was promoted by groups that oppose abortion and contraception. Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, said, “Name me the pharmacist that would refuse to provide drugs for the elderly for dementia or for Alzheimer’s. I don’t think there are any.” He said, “This is good legislation.”

Nonini: ‘I’m not mad at all’

After Rep. Bob Nonini’s forceful debate against gas tax increases this week in the House, the Coeur d’Alene Republican was asked why he was so mad at Gov. Butch Otter. He responded, “I’m not mad at all.”

Nonini’s debate included calling Otter’s executive order mandating accountability measures at the Idaho Transportation Department “nothing more than a sales technique” by the governor to get the bill passed, and saying it was “not worth the piece of paper it was printed on.” Nonini said that’s simply his style of debate. “I just get pretty passionate; it’s just my nature, I guess,” he said.

He repeated his contention that the executive order is a “sales technique” and said governors can issue and cancel executive orders at will. Nonini also said when he drove 400-plus miles up U.S. Highway 95 from Boise to Coeur d’Alene last weekend, looking for road problems along the way, he found few.

“I just did not see a lot of potholes, pavement crumbling away – and I specifically looked,” he said. “Traffic flowed nice. Frost heaves, chuck holes, crumbling shoulders – I didn’t see any of that.”

Betsy Z. Russell can be reached toll-free at (866) 336-2854 or bzrussell@gmail.com.