1st of the 58th

Well, the First Regular Session of the 58th Idaho Legislature begins today. To that I say...*yawn*.

If you want to keep track of what our "citizen legislators" are up to, you can visit the official legislature website which is included in my links on the right side of this page (->) or through the Idaho Statesman's Legislative page also on the right side of this page (->) or through the IPTV Idaho Reports page also on the right side of this page (->).

In addition, tonight at 6:00pm local time, Governor Dirk Kempthorne will deliver his State of the State address. I will be back tomorrow to remark on his words, and to gear up for the craziness that is Idaho legislative politics.

I hope they can top the previous years’ great legislative topics:

● Trying to constitutionally banning the already illegal act of gay marriage

● Placing a 10 Commandments monument in the capitol building using state money (according to State Senator Gary Sweet R-Meridian, it’s not a religious issue, but the responsibility of elected representatives to uphold the laws of Almighty God)

● Cutting funding for higher education while passing tax cuts for the wealthy then passing a regressive sales tax increase that effects the poorest among us the most…then wanting to stay in office just to sunset the sales tax increase (hurting higher education even more)

● Explaining that is was “Communist” to make kindergarten compulsory for Idaho children

● Demonstrating your commitment to “No Un-funded Mandates” by passing an un-funded faculty/staff salary increase on to Idaho colleges and universities

● Asking “Why should we spend more tax dollars for higher education?” “Students will make up the difference as always”

(in case you were wondering, these examples came from the very first the 3rd cent post back on April 1st.)