Eye on Boise: Crapo holding town-hall meetings across Idaho

BOISE – U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo is in the midst of an unprecedented series of town-hall meetings across Idaho, hitting towns large and small, talking about the national debt and taking questions.

“We started last October,” Crapo said. “It really lends itself, I think, to a more intimate discussion.” He’s held the sessions in towns as small as Moyie Springs, Craigmont and Ucon; and as large as Boise, Meridian, Hayden and Coeur d’Alene. He’s been to Iona, Ammon, Kuna, Elk River and Athol.

In April, Legistorm announced that Crapo had held more town meetings in 2015 than any member of Congress, with the tally then at 38 for the calendar year; he’s now held more than 115 since October, with a total of 154 scheduled through September.

Crapo said he used to hold just a few town meetings a year in larger population centers, which often drew 300 to 500 people. At the small-town gatherings, he more typically draws around 30. Both types are valuable, Crapo said: “I’ve had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the people.”

As a side benefit, the longtime GOP senator from Idaho Falls said he’s even gotten to some small communities he’d never visited before. “I actually thought I’d been everywhere in Idaho,” he said. “I’m meeting a lot of new people and having a tremendous opportunity to learn.”

The seed for the effort germinated at a staff meeting last fall. “I said to staff, ‘Well, why don’t we have a town meeting in every town in Idaho?’ ” he recalled. Staffers quickly checked and determined there were some 200 incorporated towns in the state. He’s hit more than half now, but he’s also held meetings in some unincorporated towns.

“We give an hour to each meeting,” Crapo said, and he sometimes holds as many as half a dozen in a day. On Tuesday, for example, he hit Filer, Hollister, Castleford, Buhl, Hagerman and Bliss, which marked his 115th town meeting in the series.

Funding for the sessions comes out of Crapo’s regular office budget, which hasn’t increased because of them; most are held in public buildings, and the office has cut back on other staff travel to devote the funds to the town meetings.

Crapo, a Republican who is seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate, has no announced opposition. His communications director, Lindsay Nothern, said the town meetings have largely been exchanges about issues, with most questions about national issues and the senator’s take, but others focusing on local issues, like refugee resettlement issues raised last week in the Magic Valley. “People are generally receptive,” Nothern said. “There’s disagreement in the room, but also a lot of give and take that’s really sincere.”

Some wondered if Crapo would seek a fourth term after an uncharacteristic drunken driving arrest in December 2012; he’s long been known as a teetotaler and his Mormon faith forbids drinking. Crapo apologized after the arrest, pleaded guilty, and said he’d been wrong to begin drinking occasionally to relieve stress and had sworn off alcohol. The incident, now nearly three years in the past, appears to have blown over; no one’s asked about it at the town meetings. Nothern, who’s attended “just about all of them,” said, “It has never come up.”

Airbnb rentals taxable

People who rent out rooms in their homes to the public for temporary lodging are liable for sales and room taxes on those rentals, the Idaho State Tax Commission says. The commission reminds Idahoans they need to collect and remit those taxes.

“As more people open their homes to paying guests, we want to make sure they’re aware of their tax obligations,” said Randy Tilley, Audit Division administrator for the Tax Commission.

Both the 6 percent Idaho sales tax and the statewide 2 percent travel and convention tax apply to any sleeping accommodations rented for stays of 30 days or less, according to the Tax Commission; so do local-option sales and room taxes.

Toner-less Legislature?

In a Maine Supreme Court opinion that was submitted to Idaho justices last week in the instant-racing case, a footnote addresses the Latin phrase “sine die,” used to describe when the Legislature adjourns for the year.

“Sine die, the Latin term for ‘without day,’ has become a part of legislative parlance, despite the fact that it is not actually contained in the Maine Constitution,” the state’s justices wrote. “Although Latin scholars pronounce the term ‘see-nay de-ay,’ Maine legislators, and those who work with the Legislature, have historically pronounced the term ‘sigh-neh dye.’ We do not opine on the correct pronunciation.”

In Idaho, the best use I’ve seen of the term over the years was a few years back on the final day of a legislative session, when I spotted a photocopy machine in a statehouse hallway on which someone had taped a sign, saying: “Out of Toner – Sine Dye.”