Committee gives women’s group unanimous support
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the budget for the Idaho Women’s Commission for next year, which in itself is unusual.
For years, a few committee members have objected to the idea of a women’s commission – most notably Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, who long maintained that women already have improved their lot and there’s no men’s commission. But Richardson said Thursday that he met with a member of the commission and gained new understanding of what it does, including helping guide displaced homemakers to needed state programs and services. Now, he supports the commission. “I have great respect for some of the things they have been doing,” he said.
But this year’s squabble over the less-than-$40,000 budget actually was among the female members of JFAC, who had questioned whether the funding was unnecessarily being spent on an executive director position. In the past week, JFAC members Reps. Margaret Henbest, Shirley Ringo, Kathy Skippen and Maxine Bell met with the governor’s office and three members of the women’s commission and pinned down just what the staffing needs are for the commission, which have to do with coordinating meetings, responding to numerous phone calls and e-mails from clients, and publishing a $7,000 legal guide for women every other year. In the end, the women legislators crafted a budget that funds about one-sixth of the executive director’s salary and directs the rest of the agency’s budget into its services.
Historic drop in cigarette sales
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden was back in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, where, as co-chairman of the national Association of Attorneys General Tobacco Committee, he made this announcement at a news conference: U.S. cigarette sales in 2005 dropped 4.2 percent from 2004, the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999.
But the really remarkable number is that cigarette sales in the United States have dropped more than 21 percent since the 1998 settlement between state attorneys general and tobacco companies that resulted in huge payments to states, along with new restrictions on tobacco advertising and marketing.
A statement from Wasden’s office noted, “The 378 billion cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 represented the lowest number of cigarettes sold … since 1951. This decline is even more impressive because the United States population has more than doubled since that time.”
Of course, Idaho is counting on cigarette tax proceeds to fund various state projects, including the renovation of the state Capitol.
Could the end be in sight?
JFAC had a full schedule Thursday after setting budgets Wednesday for an array of Health & Welfare divisions, the judicial branch and others, but then announced it would take Friday and Monday off before setting the hefty Medicaid budget on Tuesday. There would still be various loose ends to tie up, but the basic budget-setting process would be done. Conventional wisdom has it that the legislative session ends two weeks after JFAC finishes its budget-setting work.
Tax chairwoman to retire
House Revenue & Taxation Committee Chairwoman Rep. Dolores Crow announced last week that she won’t seek re-election and will retire from the Legislature after her 12th two-year term. “I have very much enjoyed working for the citizens of the state of Idaho, hearing their concerns and trying to find solutions to their problems,” Crow said in her announcement. “I’m proud of the fact that I was able to protect the interests of the state’s taxpayers and lower taxes during my time in the Legislature.”
Crow was first appointed to the Legislature by Lt. Gov. David Leroy in 1983. She served eight years as chairwoman of the House Environmental Affairs Committee and four years on JFAC. She is in her eighth year as House tax chairwoman – a key position, because all tax legislation starts in the House, making her something of a gatekeeper over new tax legislation.