Finally, A Place At The Boise Table

We were tempted to write off the 1998 Legislature because it did little to address school building needs and U.S. Highway 95 reconstruction. But that would be unfair.

Lawmakers had a productive session, although they bogged down in the abortion debate. They passed Gov. Phil Batt’s prison reform, appointed a committee to study the sales tax distribution, approved a charter school experiment and stood for human rights.

Importantly, North Idaho was heard.

For years, we’ve complained that North Idaho got short shrift in the Republican-dominated Legislature. Not any more. Area legislators were factors this year.

Against the odds, state Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, pushed a proposal to fix U.S. 95 to within six votes of the governor’s desk, further than it ever got before. In doing so, he set the stage for state Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, to pressure his Joint Finance & Appropriations Committee for money to reconstruct a particularly bad stretch of the “goat trail” near Coeur d’Alene. Now, U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth has picked up the baton and is close to landing $10 million for that vital project.

The Highway 95 effort was the best example of North Idaho legislators flexing their collective muscle. But there were others. Riggs and state Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, were able to exempt North Idaho roadways from legislation that allows overweight trucks to use state roads for the next three years. Unfortunately, state Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, played a key role in passing the controversial bill when he flipflopped and cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of it in committee.

Elsewhere, state Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, was one of the most active legislators, winning passage of four bills including one that forces the state to save for a rainy day. Clark’s budget stabilization bill will require the state to bank 1 percent of the general fund in high-revenue years, to offset budget shortfalls in down years. State Rep. Hilde Kellogg, R-Post Falls, lobbied successfully for an interim committee to study the sales tax. Currently, the distribution of sales tax is based on an antiquated formula that penalizes fast-growing retail areas like Post Falls.

North Idaho delegates generally supported an unsuccessful attempt to reduce Idaho’s two-thirds supermajority law; Batt’s call to cut prison time for certain minor offenses, saving millions of tax dollars; a $200,000 appropriation to help AIDS victims pay for medicine; and a strongly worded commitment to human rights.

North Idaho certainly did not get all it wanted from the 1998 Legislature. But it got a lot more than it usually does.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria For the editorial board