Have you heard of R.E.M.? I hope so!

If you haven't heard R.E.M. has a new record out, Accelerate. If you haven't heard it yet, it is pretty good. Some people are saying the best since Bill Berry left the band in 1997. There has been a lot of press about this album. The band was on Fresh Air on NPR and The Colbert Report (two very different programs). There are overall, great reviews for it. Here is one that I liked. Here is their performance from The Colbert Report.

Idaho Legislature...

The legislative session recently came to a close and there are many opinions about what was accomplished and what was not. But something that is always brought up during the session is "The State of Ada". This is in reference to Ada County (The Treasure Valley) trying to force it's opinion and rule on everyone else. Isn't that what is supposed to happen? Majority rule right? That is how the legislature got so one-sided, majority voted them in. So it only makes sense that where the majority of the people are so should go the majority of the resources. Don't agree? Look around where does Idaho rank in resource allocation? We are not at the top of the list I assure you. Have you seen how long it can take for new streets and roads to be added to Google Maps...lower population = lower priority. Now I am not saying that it should ONLY be divided by population, that won't work. But those who live in more sparsely populated locations CHOOSE to live there and resource allocation is one of the trade-offs.

There is a great post on Ida-Blue that talks about this disparity and the realities of it...Read on

Monday, April 07, 2008

The Great State of Ada

Some folks who don't live in Ada County call it the Great State of Ada. I see quite a bit of this anti-Ada/Boise sentiment by N. Idaho commenters at Huckleberries Online. Here's an example. DFO, the proprietor of HBO, poised the first question below, and a poster (Spencer) reframed it against Ada County.

Question: Who's to blame for the Legislature's failure to provide funding for Idaho road repair this session -- Otter? Or Republican leaders? (Spencer: How about asking if the legislature did the right thing by not raising $200 million in taxes to fix Ada county roads?)

I guess the point is, gee, they don't want their tax money spent in Ada Cty, which is understandable but parochial. So, let's have a look at the facts.

A excerpt from the Legislature's Fiscal Facts.

First off, note the overall per capita distribution of various funds (some not shown here, visible on the linked page). Canyon County gets the fewest overall funds per capita, and Ada Cty is second lowest. (Clark Cty is highest at $1,297.12). Kootenai gets more money p/c, though not a lot. The populous areas subsidize the less populous.

Doing the highway funds math, it breaks out like this. Ada Cty gets $58.75 in highway funds per person; Canyon, $63.03; Kootenai, $65.68; Bonner, $72.20; Boundary, $105.03; Shoshone, $112; Benewah, $131.32.

Ada Cty has about 24% of Idaho's population. It gets $21 mil in highway funds. 24% of total highway funds would be $30 mil, so Ada is shorted $9 mil. Adding in Canyon Cty increases the shortfall to the Treasure Valley to about $17.5 mil.

Granted, that's not $200 mil. But, if Canyon and Ada Cty had an additional $17.5 mil PER YEAR to spend on roads, I think that'd take care of the problem over time. Of course, roads in the rest of the state would deteriorate pretty badly.

It just shows me that we're all in this together. Carping about spending highway money in Ada Cty is silly; Ada is actually subsidizing the rest of the state. C'mon. Do you really want to keep all money in the county in which it's generated? Ada Cty will win. Get over it.

Please, Spencer and others in N. Idaho, I'd like your response to this. I'd like you to prove me wrong. If you can't, stop with the anti Ada/Boise rhetoric.

Posted by Alan at 4/07/2008

Conference Weekend...

This past weekend was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was a great conference, the new Prophet Thomas S. Monson was sustained as well as a New Apostle named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, D. Todd Christofferson. I had the opportunity to meed Elder Christofferson last spring while visiting Salt Lake City for Conference. Elder Christofferson was one of my fathers instructors when he was in the missionary training center in the late 1960's. So my father set up an appointment and we were able to meet with him and he and my father talked about thier lives and how things had changed with the Chruch in South America. Elder Christofferson served in Argentina and my father served in Chile. and had recently returned there for a visit. It was a great time to spend with the man that was to be a future Apostle of the Lord.

Here is the press conference following his sustaining.

It's the economy, stupid.

This is a quote fifteen years old and it is still relevant today. There are many issues facing our country today, the economy is just one of them. It is a large part of what will determine the next President of the United States. Anyone telling you that the economy is fine and that in Idaho we are weathering the storm need only to look around and the press reports and the Idaho Legislature. Last night on the news I saw Idaho House Speaker Denney say that the job of the legislature is to pass a budget and that the process that was started in January ended differently because the economy was not as strong as anticipated. In other words we are at the cusp of bad economic times (a recession). Then I just read two articles about business losses in the region, Micron had pretty big losses and in Tremonton, UT the La-Z-Boy factory is closing, 630 people will lose their jobs there. Tremonton is a small town 3.5 hours from Boise just across the border in UT. So we are not immune to the financial difficulties facing the nation. But people are still getting wealthy, just not the working people. The state legislature gives tax breaks for businesses while the average taxpayer making $30,000 or less can not even afford health insurance for his family. The family of which children will be paying the social security tax and medicare of the legislators who decided that they were not important enough to help.