Boise News

Idaho Politics: Legislature

Guest Opinion: All For One, None for All?

By Julie Fanselow, Guest Writer, 1-26-09

The last time we looked, Wayne Hoffman was simultaneously serving as spokesman for former Rep. Bill Sali’s taxpayer-funded congressional office as well as Sali’s political re-election campaign. Now, like many unemployed political hands before him, has launched a think tank. But unlike many furloughed flacks, he’s been given the plum of a Sunday column in the Idaho Statesman, one of his former employers.

(A brief aside: It’s interesting how so many people accuse the Statesman of liberal bias but it seems to regularly produce reporters and editors who go on to be reactionary Republican spokesmen.)

Few would disagree with the main point of Hoffman’s first column, published Sunday: We ought to have more transparent government spending. Democrats have been calling for that for years, and President Obama is moving ahead to be sure it happens, both for government in general and his proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan in particular.

I’m sure that all Democrats, Republicans and Independents agree with Hoffman’s premise. But Hoffman’s opening paragraph is worth a second thought since it belies the key difference between the two major parties. He wrote:

“I’m one Idaho taxpayer who is delighted that state government is undergoing major surgery. Every time the state adds 6 percent onto the price of the things I buy, I imagine ways I’d spend that money if I were not giving it to the government.”

Every time he spends money, he thinks about that? Clearly, Wayne Hoffman is obsessed with taxes more than your average Idahoan.

Like most people, I just pay the six cents. But every once in a while, when I’m prompted by someone like Hoffman to think about taxes, I don’t think about how I’d spend my tax pennies if I had them all to myself. Instead, I think about how – as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said - “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

I am pleased that most of my pennies – and yours, and Wayne Hoffman’s – pay for our public schools and universities, which are the engine of our state’s future prosperity.

Our state taxes also go to maintain roads and bridges. I’d gladly pay an additional penny on the dollar if it meant getting decent 21st-century transit in the Boise metro area of a half-million people, but the Idaho Legislature refuses to trust local communities to make local decisions.

Our tax contributions have also built several emergency funds which were intended to be used for just the sort of times we’re in now. Governor Otter has proposed using only a small percentage of these “rainy day” funds for Fiscal Year 2010, despite the fact he is proposing a historic cut in support to public education, and despite the reality that it ain’t just raining, it’s pouring.

Democrats agree that it’s wise to leave some money in these accounts in case the economic downturn lasts beyond mid-2010. We do not want to drain these funds for FY 2010, but – as House Minority Leader John Rusche said in the Democratic response to Otter’s State of the State address earlier this month – “We need to use a portion of these funds at this time, and we must use them appropriately, to preserve critical services for Idaho families and keep our eyes on the horizon for when the economy improves.”

“Keep our eyes on the horizon.” That’s nearly identical to a phrase President Obama used at the end of his inaugural address last week, when he said, “Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Just as we need a take-the-long-view perspective on the federal level, we need it in our state, too. President Obama also said, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.  Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward.  Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

Rather than using this downturn as an excuse to gut government services, let’s work together to make our government more efficient and accountable.

Rather than using this time as an excuse to hoard all we can for ourselves - with no concern for the common good - we must think about how we can seek budget solutions that will keep our state and communities strong and ready to move forward when the recession ends.

Julie Fanselow is communications director for the Idaho Democratic Party.  The Idaho Republican Party has been notified and invited to submit a guest op. of their own.

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