Bonner Sunday liquor sales OK’d

Bonner County has become the latest Idaho county to pass an ordinance allowing hard liquor to be sold on Sundays, in a bid to add tax revenue to the vacation region’s coffers.

The North Idaho county’s three commissioners voted unanimously this week to allow distilled spirits sales on Sundays in state-contracted liquor stores and groceries that have a proper license.

The decision reverses a vote by a previous county commission.

“I was opposed to this last time, and I’m still very opposed to this,” Commissioner Marcia Phillips said at Tuesday’s vote. “But as a public servant I don’t know how I can impose my personal beliefs on the people of Bonner County.”

Earlier this year, Owyhee County, in the state’s southwest corner, also passed a law allowing the sales in hopes of boosting tax collections.

Historically, socially conservative Idaho has outlawed Sunday full-bottle liquor sales in its 44 counties. That changed in 2004, when the Legislature allowed it – providing local county commissioners agreed to the practice.

Until Tuesday’s vote, Bonner County was one of 23 remaining counties where liquor could not be sold on Sundays.

Bonner County commissioners said stores in Idaho selling liquor on Sundays average as much as $3,000 more in revenue per month.

Idaho tax revenues beat expectations

Idaho’s general fund finished the fiscal year ending June 30 well ahead of expectations for tax revenue collections, another sign that the state’s economy is expanding, officials said.

The state wound up with a budget surplus of $211 million, or about $110.3 million more than Idaho forecasters predicted a year ago.

The conservative forecast in 2004 came as state financial officials were still concerned about lingering effects of a recession that had forced Idaho to slash its spending in 2003 and boost the sales tax. With Idaho’s rising fortunes, the state allowed the 1 cent tax increase passed two years ago to expire July 1.

“Our operating results are rewarding, and reinforce what we’re hearing in the national press about Idaho’s business climate,” said Keith Johnson, the state’s controller.

KMC gets high grade for its technology

Hospital and Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, just ranked Kootenai Medical Center among the nation’s 100 most wired health care organizations for the sixth time in seven years. The hospital also was among the nation’s 25 most wireless for the second consecutive year.

“We are committed to investing in new technologies that improve patient safety, advance the clinical decision-making process and provide more cost-efficient care for our patients,” Tom Legel, hospital vice president for finance and information systems, said in a news release.

In the last year, KMC has added computerized bedside documentation, which enables medical staff to read and update patient records electronically. The hospital has started a bar-coding system that reduces medication errors. Patients wear wristbands with bar codes that medical staff scan to match medications with identifications.

KMC also uses technology that allows doctors access to patient records via computer from their offices, homes or on the road.

Sacred Heart Medical Center and St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane also were honored for their technology.