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I get a feeling someone here has it out for North Idaho and it's becoming rather redundant and disruptive to the overall health of the Idaho forum. Surely there are sins regarding Southern Idaho lawmakers as well.
I'm a north idahoan and I'd like to know about the problems with my region. Nothing is solved by ignoring problems. I love it here, but trying to silence criticism about it is counterproductive.
I've lived here a good while now and have been paying my taxes faithfully and I don't like seeing them wasted by anyone, republican or democrat. Lots better uses for that money than padding politicians backsides on plane rides.
I can hold these ideas in my head at the same time with no dissonance at all:
1. What they did was wrong, creates bad appearances, and not in the best interests of the taxpayers
2. What they did borders on a triviality in the context of all the budget issues in the state
3. What the reporter did was a partisan distraction, and not in the long term best interests of the state
And BTW, you were off by two orders of magnitude. It's not 27 cents, it's 0.27 cents per resident (not taxpayer).
The cost of flying Air Force 1 runs about $200k per hour BTW. To make a fair comparison here you would need to evaluate the total cost whatever trips you considered discretionary for a year, not just a single trip.
It doesn't make sense how you start off saying this is a trivial piece of meaningless opinion "reporting," and then conclude by saying behavior will change as a result of the article.
You only consider it partisan because it affects your team. It could have very easily been the Dems doing it, and the same article would have been written.
You have a comprehension problem. I didn't say the reporting was trivial, I said the issue of spending an extra 0.27 cents per resident is trivial.
I know how difficult it is here to fly in the cheap seats sometimes. I don't think that all the Legislators who have to fly in the higher priced seats sometimes, when they can't get a cheap seat is any political sin. But the ones who only fly in the spender seats are wasting some of our money.
But compared to something much more egregious, like Theresa Luna staying in the job she was supposed to retire from by her own statement, and then getting over $11,000 more in her paycheck than her replacement just ain't right. Its the big stuff like this that encourages the waste of the smaller money. Small or large, it all comes out of our pockets, not theirs.
Many Legislators fly from S. Idaho as well. Its 378 miles from C d'A to Boise, and 322 miles from Montpelier to Boise. The biggest difference is the difference in time between flying and driving. It takes 4 hours to drive to Boise from Montpelier, and 7 hours from C d'A. Either way, the Legislators are still on the clock and are being compensated for their travel.
I don't believe there is any fair comparison between State officials and Federal officials that can be made when it comes to travel. The differences are simply too great.
Our Congressmen are elected to a full time job and our state Legislators are elected to a part time job. And that's only for starters. The full list of differences would take all day to write.
I think the most essential part of this discussion is the fact that every single voter is represented by people who have never won by 100% of the votes, and none ever will. Every one of our Legislators represents those who opposed them just as much as those who favored them. All of them need to realize that being part of a majority (or a minority) does not mean they just joined a club.
If they have to put their personal beliefs aside to do the right thing for their constituency from time to time, that's what needs to be done.
If that means raising taxes for major needs that are common throughout the state, that's what needs to be done.
If that means that they must vote for a pressing problem that is affecting another part of the state outside their region, that's what needs to be done.
Most of all, if that means putting symbolic gestures aside to address practical needs for Idahoans, then that's what needs to be done. We didn't elect any of them into a private club where agreement is always easy and agreeable to all. We elected them to do a job that can be very hard sometimes, especially when there is heavy disagreement going in and coming out.
Their work is professional. If any Legislator starts taking a defeat or a triumph personally, or thinks they alone know everything about every issue, then they've been on the job too long and need to go. Idaho is no person or party's private fiefdom.
Cracks me up that this "isn't a big deal" to some of you. How much more partisan do you get?
*sigh* Where one pot stirrer goes the other isn't too far behind.
Yes, it's alarming how wasteful politicians are. Welcome to politics and the human condition. But as others have stated, republican, democrat, or green leaf, it makes no difference. The only ones making this a partisan issue here seem to be on the darker side of the primary color wheel.
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