Keough Gets Education In Lawmaking

Sen. Shawn Keough waited and waited to present her first bill to the Senate Education Committee.

First it got put off for a day, because other items dragged on too long. Then, when it was the next item on the agenda on Friday, committee Chairman Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, kept shuffling the agenda, moving Keough’s bill to the bottom.

When the Sandpoint Republican finally got her chance, her fellow committee members peppered her with questions about the measure, which would make it a misdemeanor for a parent to insult a school bus driver or other school employee in front of the students. The bill expands an existing law that already outlaws insults to teachers in front of the kids.

Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, asked Keough, “What if one of these people deserves it? What does one do as a citizen, when you have a legitimate beef with a school bus driver?”

Keough responded, “Try and control yourself and be courteous, and insult the school bus driver or the teacher or the custodian at another time - instead of in front of the children.”

Interjected Sen. Laird Noh, R-Kimberly, “They can call their legislator.”

At committee members’ urging, Keough agreed to revise her bill to protect volunteers as well as paid school employees, although she has only until Monday to meet a deadline for introducing bills.

Keough wasn’t discouraged. “I thought it was productive, and they had a good point about volunteers,” she said afterward.

A swell spelling bill

Among the weighty issues lawmakers are pondering this session is a bill to change the name of the Idaho State Pharmaceutical Association to the Idaho State Pharmacy Association.

Sen. Moon Wheeler, R-American Falls, explained that the association had revised its official name from pharmaceutical to pharmacy, and the law needed to be changed to match. But that wasn’t all.

“Besides the clarification,” he said, “nobody could spell pharmaceutical anyway.”

The deciding blunder

Sen. Clyde Boatright missed his chance to kill a bill he disagreed with, when he voted with the 5-4 majority to approve a measure imposing a $55-a-year fee on restaurants and food establishments to help fund once-a-year health inspections.

Idaho, unlike surrounding states, charges restaurants no fees to cover the costs of the inspections. And the state doesn’t have the funding to keep up with the law that requires inspections once a year.

Last spring, Gov. Phil Batt lit into the restaurant lobby for its long opposition to fees, saying they’re a reasonable cost of doing business. So this year, the restaurant lobby is sponsoring the legislation.

Boatright, R-Rathdrum, opposes it because he doesn’t want operations like booths at county fairs to have to pay a fee. But he misread the measure, and voted in favor by mistake in committee this week. That allowed the bill to squeak out of committee and go to the full Senate.

If at first you don’t succeed

Idaho’s optometrists may have lost in court in their battle with ophthalmologists, but they’ve come back fighting. Optometrists got legislation introduced Friday that would give them the right to perform laser eye surgery - something the state Optometry Board tried earlier, and the ophthalmologists successfully challenged in court.

Ophthalmologists say only fully trained medical doctors should perform surgery.

There was little discussion as the bill was introduced amid a crush of other pre-deadline legislation.

Small wonder. Its title sounds pretty innocuous: “To further define the practice of optometry and to make technical corrections, and require a valid license to practice optometry.”

Driving them batty

If you have to turn on your windshield wipers, there’s probably a visibility problem where you’re driving, right? So why not require that whenever you turn on the wipers, you have to turn on the headlights?

That was the logic Sen. Cecil Ingram, R-Boise, used this week to argue for legislation. But after chewing the issue over with other senators, he voted against introducing his own bill (it got introduced anyway).

Observed Sen. Robert Lee, R-Rexburg, “Some of us accuse the Legislature of being here without our lights on.”

, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, send a fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.