Christmas is a time for giving, and last year, the city of McCall threw its employees a $5,490 dollar Christmas party at taxpayer expense, according to records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
City records indicate the party – referred to by city officials as a "Holiday party" – was held at the McCall Golf Club, and included $2,783 for dinner, and $2,707 for gifts and gift certificates.
By Torrie Lacy
Idaho businesses will see at least a 70 percent percent increase in their unemployment insurance taxes next year. That's on top of the 70 percent increase businesses are coping with this year.
Each spring, the mysterious being we call Taxman plays the part of the Tooth Fairy. Taxman says if I put a little check mark next to the political party or parties of our choice on my state tax form, the political organization I have selected will miraculously get a dollar.
"This won't increase your tax or decrease your refund," Taxman informs me. Huh. It won't cost me anything, and yet they'll get a dollar. I wonder how that works. Much the same way my son and daughter find a dollar under their pillows after they lose a tooth, I guess: magic.
The aesthetics of downtown Boise have gotten a $20,000 boost, in the form of decorations on five traffic control boxes. Acording to city records, the money came from the Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant program, the same source that was tapped for $25,000 to install 15 bike lockers downtown.
Tough times call for tough fiscal choices. So when the City of Boise grants $25,000 for 15 downtown bike lockers, some may wonder about the city’s spending priorities. After all, Boise has laid off employees and is holding several positions open at the Boise Police and Fire Departments. So why did the city install the 15 bike lockers, eight at the Capitol Terrace Garage and seven at the Eastman Garage, at the cost of more than $1,600 each?
Each year I get a better understanding of why masks of politicians are so popular at Halloween. Government is scary.
Faced with a choice, I'd much rather race through a moonlit cornfield toward the sound of brain-eating, chainsaw-wielding zombies than toward Big Government. At least I know what to expect of the zombie. (My critics will argue I prefer the zombie because I have no reason to fear creatures that eat brains, but I digress).
Idaho has an Open Meetings Law, but what exactly is meant by the words “open meeting”? That question is at the heart of a battle brewing in Owyhee County.
From the Coeur d'Alene Press
Idaho has a law that prevents the state’s residents from shopping for the lowest possible health insurance premiums. The restriction is simple: No one can sell insurance in Idaho without being authorized by state regulators to do so, even if that insurer is already legally recognized to operate in another state.
In lieu of a single payer national healthcare system run by the Federal Government some Congressional Democrats are proposing to establish national healthcare cooperatives owned by their policy holders instead. This has a nice ring to it and cooperatives represent a long standing tradition in the United States – people with a mutual interest getting together to pool resources for a mutual benefit and achieve common goals.