IFF - Idaho Freedom Foundation

            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.

     In Part 2 of this series, we’ll look at the projected numbers of both Little Rock and Boise’s streetcar systems, and how they’ve shaken out five years later.  We’ll compare how the Little Rock River Rail is financed, and how Boise would finance its proposed streetcar system.  Finally, we’ll look at how development and business has evolved in Little Rock since November 2004, when the River Rail went into operation.

For the better part of the last 18 years, the Greater Boise Auditorium District has had a bewildering kinship with the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau – a relationship in which the bureau has a no-bid deal to spend $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars with almost no oversight from the auditorium district that provides the funding. When a local hotelier asked legitimate questions about how the money is spent, the bureau refused to provide details, and the district remained aloof. 
   

When Rep. JoAn Wood of Rigby sees agency travel expenses at nearly $19 million, she immediately wonders if Idaho state government can get by with less. But that's how much money the state spent on airfare, hotel rooms and automobiles from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, according to an analysis of state spending data by the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
 
"What if it were $14 million? That would be $5 million saved right there," said Wood, the most senior member of the Idaho House of Representatives at 14 terms and counting.