OPPOSE THE BOISE BOND!

GUEST POST by Grandma Kate (Boise, Idaho) — 

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Boise, a few major decisions will be made by the voters. Well, we would like to think that we are making the decisions. Folks who have been around the block a few times, however, and I am one of them, watch voters being hoodwinked, persuaded, sweet-talked, teased, cajoled, bribed and by whatever other means that can be thought of, to reach a decision that actually goes against common sense, patriotism, historical wisdom, consequences, and just plain eye-opening study.

For example, group laws. America's laws have always been for the individual. Groups are not suitable for special laws because for one thing the groups change. They are many times unseen, artificial and voluntary. But the main reason is so simple: if laws protect the individual what other laws could be needed?

The first group law in our country was the civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Until then the individual found protection within the necessary risks of human failure. I like picture language, so let's pretend that a special group has had a boundary set around it. Is it not immediately set apart? Has it not lost the possibility of merger and common goals with the others outside the boundary? I'm sure each of us falls into many groups, but the idea of fences, boundaries, and other barriers would play havoc with the American process. There are four nationalities mixed up in my genes and they get along together just fine in my American-ness.

All of these musings are to make us think about the land that is encompassed in Boise's city limits. Our city government wants to buy ten million dollars' worth of outlying property. They want to buy it so strongly that we voters are being pushed into debt. If they succeed, the land will no longer be available for private purchase and perhaps not even for development and use for the folks who live in Boise and pay the bills. Oh, and the land will not bring in taxes as long as the city owns it.

I like open societies, freedoms, history and the future. I like living in America (I've tried other places), and I don't like debt. So I must oppose the bonds issue, and I hope you'll join me in all those happinesses.

My Daughter's Letter

GUEST POST by Jim Chmelik (Idaho County Commissioner) — 

This was an essay my daughter wrote for The Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. The rules did not allow any research and the essay had to written in two hours in the confines of the classroom. The participants were given the question and then started to write. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Sorry if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes; I converted it from a PDF file.

Thank You,
Jim Chmelik

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Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It
Focus Question: How does one's personal heritage affect one's duties to our nation?
As American citizens, living in a nation of peace and luxury, we often forget where we came from. We often forget the blood and sweat poured into this nation. We often forget that it was our ancestors who risked their necks for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But this is where we come from and this is why we must preserve our American Heritage.

America was founded on a belief, a belief of freedom and justice. Thousands of soldiers died for this freedom that millions now take for granted. It took tremendous amounts of courage to stand up to Europe, the superpower of the world at the time, so that we, today, would not be suppressed. Even after the Declaration of Independence it took years and years of struggling and hard work to make the United State the best! This is our heritage. This is what we believe in.

As American citizens now, it is our duty to fight and believe in those same beliefs of our ancestors, for freedom, justice and pride. We hold these truths to be good. We believe that all men were created equal. We believe in the freedoms of speech, religion and the right to own private property. It is only by our Independence that we can live these freedoms. It was for these reasons why our ancestors died fighting. It is our personal responsibility to honor our heritage by fulfilling the legacy of our ancestors.

Preserving our heritage involves a duty to our Nation. This duty includes building upon our successes and working towards excelsior. As a citizen it is important to participate first in our families, then communities and government. It is by creating a strong base that we can create a strong and prosperous nation. We must instill these qualities of virtue and patriotism so that we can defend these truths. Take up the responsibility to fulfill your duty for the sake of your ancestors.

It is by knowing what we believe in, living our beliefs and educating our own family to live as patriots in America that we will preserve our freedom. Let us not forget where we came from. Let us not forget the lives lost for our freedom. Let us make our ancestors proud. So we hold our head high in this great nation, the land of the free and home of the brave. We stand in the light of those who came before us and build the future for our children to live as we have lived, only better. Remember our American heritage and fulfill the duty of preserving it.

Sarah Chmelik

WHO IS "GLITCH GIRL"?

GUEST POST by Parrish Miller (Boise, Idaho) — 

Have you heard of "Glitch Girl"? That is the name being given to the mysterious woman whose face graced the national obamacare website until just this week. Her identity remains unknown and the reason for her sudden departure remains a mystery. Learn more and see some of the latest memes at WhoIsGlitchGirl.com.

MP² Goes to College

GUEST POST by Sen. Steven Thayn (Gem County, Idaho) — 

Dear College Republicans and others;

This is a YouTube video introducing MP²

We will be in the following locations in November to discuss the MP² project:

• CDA on the 18th of November at the NIC SUB
• Lewiston on the 19th site yet to be determined
• Nampa on the 20th at the Nampa Civic center
• Boise at BSU on the 21st in the SUB
• Idaho Falls at University Place on the 22nd
• Pocatello on the 23rd at the ISU SUB

All meetings will be at 7:00 pm except at ISU which will be at 4:00 pm.

Senator Steven Thayn


P.S. Here is an essay with the flavor of MP²

Cause of Poverty
By
Senator Steven Thayn
America spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year to address poverty. However, this spending is mostly ineffective, even counterproductive, because of the lack of understanding of the cause of poverty. The root cause of poverty is lack of production.

Laborers that produce goods and services, which can be exchanged with their fellow laborer for goods and services, are not poor. The poor either do not produce or under-produce. The key to addressing poverty is to increase productive capacity of the poor. Current government social programs focus on equal distribution of wealth rather than on a more equitable distribution of work.

Poverty reduction requires access to natural resources, ability to work, and ability to accumulate or have access to capital. Natural resources + labor + capital = Prosperity This formula applies to nations and to individuals.

America is doing the exact opposite. It has embraced:

• entitlements that remove labor from the labor force
• radical environmentalism which restrict access to natural resources
• high taxes and deficit spending which destroy capital needed for economic growth

The current system of anti-poverty programs actually increases poverty while wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer funds and indebting the unborn to pay for imprudent poverty programs. It is time to transform entitlement programs.

It is more accurate to say poverty programs cause poverty than it is to say poverty programs cure poverty. The focus must change to helping people become productive. The MP² Project explains how to make the transition from our current system to a productive system.

A Letter to Boise's Mayor Bieter

GUEST POST by Tammie Casteel (Boise, Idaho) — 

October 4, 2013

Dear Mayor Bieter:

I attended the Bond Proposal Open House on August 22nd and performed some online research pertaining to the portion of the Bond that will result in additional funding for a fire training facility. I also attended the council meeting on September 11th in which you and the City Council voted unanimously to place the Bond on the ballet in November. The portion of the bond that relates to the fire training facility was $16,900,000 Million dollars.

My online research found that there was a major decision made by yourself and the City Council on November 27, 2012. This meeting was open to the public and was conducted at 12:00 noon on that particular date. You and the City Council agreed to implement Resolution R-401-12.

I researched this Resolution online and found that it pertained to a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the Boise Fire Fighters in which their Union contract was amended for changes made to implement the biweekly payroll system and changes to participation in the social security system.

Apparently, from reading this memorandum from Kevin Borger dated November 27, 2012, it mentions that the firefighters for the City took place in some kind of vote that resulted in the "opting out" of social security.

Article 3 of this contract also states that fire fighters will receive a 2.5% pay increase for the upcoming year.

Article 4 discusses that a referendum was held by the fire fighters in which the fire fighters opting out of social security. The contract specifies that this was a "loss" of social security coverage. In essence, the fire fighters voted to accept this "loss" of social security benefits. I will like to point out that the loss of this benefit actually resulted in a pay raise to the fire fighters of 6.2% (the amount that is no longer required to be paid by fire fighters into social security).

This is also a savings to the City as well. Because fire fighters no longer pay into social security, the City will not be required to pay a matching amount into social security.

This is a huge saving to the City and my tax dollars. Back in December of 2011, the Idaho Reporter reported on statistics relating to fire fighters salaries for the City of Boise. It stated and I quote "Records show 31 firemen earned more then $100,000 in 2011, totaling $3.3 million in salary. Another 42 earned more then $90,000 in a collective 3.97 million. Again, a larger number of firefighters – 66 – earned more than $80,000 annually. In all, the fire department is slated to pay out $22 million in wages this year, with the average worker earning slightly less than $80,000."

If we take the figures provided by the Idaho Reporter we have a cost savings to the city of $1,364,000 per year in Social Security Tax. ($22 million times 6.2%). That is a considerable amount of savings. The Idaho Reporter also stated that the average fire fighter in the State is paid $34,000 a year. Therefore, the City of Boise is substantially higher in salaries.

However, the City apparently decided to give this savings back to the firefighters. The City, per article 4, states that in lieu of paying social security tax the City will pay up to 6.2% of the fire fighters wages into PERSI choice 401(k). I will like to point out that this resulted in a wage increase of an additional 6.2% as well.

Additionally, the contract discusses the fact that the referendum also resulted in a few fire fighters being exempt from Medicare tax as well. The savings to the City would be 1.45% of those particular employees salary. Again, the City decided to give this savings back to those particular fire fighters. For those fire fighters that are no longer subject to Medicare tax the City has agreed to pay 1.45% of their salary into the Cities health insurance plan.

Finally, the contract states that the City agreed to seek for refunds of social security and Medicare taxes for both the City and the employees. The City agreed to pay over all refunds to the employees. I would hope that this would only apply to the employee's share of Social Security and Medicare and not to the Cities share.

I have discussed this matter with a tax professional and was told that there is nothing under the Internal Revenue Code that would require the employer to ever have to pay over their share of Social Security taxes to the employees if they filed for a refund. If the City paid their share of Social Security refunds to the employee it would have been done so voluntarily. Since nothing is mentioned in the contract that the employer was required to pay these refunds to the employees, I will assume that you and the city council voluntarily agreed to pay the Cities share to the employees.

As a business owner and residence of the City of Boise I respectfully submit to you the following questions:

1. When was the decision made to give the employer share of the refund, plus interest, to the eligible firefighter voter?
2. Who was involved in making this decision?
3. What years did the City receive refunds of Social Security taxes on eligible firefighters?
4. How much was the actual refund amount that the City received for their share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from these refunds?
5. Were the Boise City taxpayers given information about the vote and the City's decision to voluntarily give its share of the refund, plus interest, to the eligible fire fighter voter?
6. How long is the City required to voluntarily contribute 6.2% into the PERSI choice 401(k) plan for eligible fire fighter voter?
7. Did the 2.5% pay increase as stated in the Union contract actually go through?

The eligible firefighter voters legally and voluntarily decided to "opt" out of Social Security. It was not a benefit that was taken from the fire fighters. In effect, if Boise City gave the eligible firefighter voters its share of the refund, plus interest, — whether in cash or as a contribution to a retirement plan — the firefighter received a sizable benefit that the City of Boise taxpayers may not be aware of. I ask the City of Boise to provide the details to this financial transaction by answering the above questions. You can either send your written response to my address in Boise or to my E-mail. Both are shown below.

Respectfully,
Tammie Casteel

Four Years and Counting

GUEST POST by Darr Moon (Custer County, Idaho) — 

It has been a difficult four years for those of us who still believe in well-defined and constitutionally limited government. You'd think by now with all the stones thrown at the tea party that we'd just crawl under a rock and go away. That's what the media and the big government type hopes for, but I'm assured they haven't done the math. There are more of us than there are of them. Four years into the battle of ideals and we are now hardened warriors, not the naïve news junkies of past or the sit around coffee houses and complain types. We've been called "tea baggers", bigots, racists and homophobes by all sorts of political apparatchik but the smear campaign doesn't stick because the truth is apparent for all to see. And so the truth must be told and the white light of reason shone on the fear mongering incendiaries who cling to their big government ideology and their green bibles.

It may seem that we are losing every battle, that the confines of government continue to press further, but the truth once again is that government is losing badly. The recent roll out of the ObamaCare website is only a minor example of government failure. Look under the hood and you will see that America is broke with nowhere to hide the burdensome debt now at $17 trillion, young people are unemployed and most people now are under employed. The number of actual unemployed is over 21 million. We live in a society where almost 48 million people are on food stamps and 1 in 5 go hungry and where electronic gadgetry has replace mom or dad in millions of broken homes. Do you think it is free enterprise tapping the life from all these souls?

Now that everyone is talking about insurance coverage within our state health exchange, why haven't we had the conversation about rising medical costs? Could it be that we've been herded once again into a pen by fear mongers? Instead of breaking free our chains of government security and letting the entrepreneurial expertise of the free market lower medical bills as it naturally would, the drum beats for more government involvement sound. Put your trust in government and see the result. Failure after failure.

The great Ponzi scheme is about up though. The youth of America will soon realize that without their diligent effort working a life time at menial jobs will this old and infirm establishment survive. In fact when they realize they've got to pay for the excess the progressive regimes have created, heads will roll. Occupy Wall Street will look like a Sunday picnic in MacArthur park. When those $100,000 student loans can't be paid back because the promise of good jobs is discovered to be just another con job by those firmly ensconced in lucrative ivory towers many will hang from lamp posts.

The world of progressivism is dying and the world of free men is dawning. No amount of media hype or political rhetoric can hide that fact. It sad that the lean forward progressive movement steered by our many leaders over such a long time will cause such havoc, but then again, can you think of any collectivist society that hasn't eaten their own. The simple truth is for all to see and understand, but ignorance has trumped reality in these days of all about me. Just as gravity affects all mass, this bubble of inflated egos and over paid nitwits will burst. This is why we at the Custer County Tea Party have been at it for four years. Only by those who understand the principle of free men will our nation be free again. The task is immense so onward, onward, steadily onward soldiers, we've got a long way to go and many ignorant souls to turn.

In Liberty,

Darr Moon
Custer County Tea Party, Born October 27, 2009

Update on Idaho's State Exchange

GUEST POST by Rep. Janet Trujillo (Idaho Legislative District 33) — 

On October 16, 2013 Frank Chan resigned from the Your Health Idaho board to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The same day the exchange awarded his company a no-bid contract worth up to $375,000. The story broke when associated press reporter John Miller posted his story Idaho insurance exchange official quits, gets deal. Chan's company, Boise-based Applied Computing, will serve as the exchange's information technology consultant.

In the Associated Press story Amy Dowd, Your Health Idaho executive director, said she gave Chan the contract without advertising it under an "interim procurement policy." While the policy hasn't gotten final board approval, it now allows her to quickly sign contracts without seeking potential interest from other vendors."

Members of the board commented the award of the contract was a surprise. Why is this such a surprise? Earlier this year Idaho's Legislature exempted the exchange from state procurement rules, allowing its leaders to largely set its own policies on deals with private vendors.

The governor's office didn't sign off on the contract. "Our role was to accept Mr. Chan's resignation before a contract was offered," a governor spokesman said. Earlier this year, Chan was appointed by Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to help oversee the Internet marketplace. Should the governor's office have objected to such a proposal?

Amy Dowd has said. "Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of time." I disagree with this statement. The Idaho State Exchange has allowed the Federal Exchange to take over exchange functions in order to have the time to get up and running. There is no need to award contracts without following the competitive bidding process.

Monday evening prior to the Tuesday morning board meeting Frank Chan canceled his contract since it has faced a lot of criticism from many legislators (including myself) and the public. The debate over the contracts is sure to be a major discussion this coming session. Not only will the contracts be discussed but so will the fact that the exchange is allowed to raise fees without oversight. The exchange's management has already considered raising the fee it assesses on insurance purchases from the current 1.5 percent up to 2.6 percent within the next two years.

My recommendations, the board should recuse Frank Chan's company from bidding during the competitive bidding process. The state exchange is operating under a "draft" procurement policy. The board must finalize this policy immediately. Due to poor decision making, many are calling for Amy Dowd to resign her position.

Complete lack of accountability is one of the many reasons I chose to vote "NO" on implementation of the state exchange, the citizens deserve nothing less than transparency and confidence in government agencies including the exchange.

$34 million Boise City Bond Vote

GUEST POST by Pat Felts (Idaho) — 

Three open houses to inform Boise voters about the November bond election had a total of 63 attending.

Recently the city council, with two members absent, unanimously voted to put the following on the ballot: $18.4 million for one of the main votes including 1) upgrade or replace four aging fire stations 2) build a new central fire training facility for Boise and surrounding communities on Joplin Road.

Questions: 1) Can't the existing Intermountain Fire Agency be used? 2) Why not build a new center in a more accessible location, used and supported by all communities?

The other main vote will include $15.5 million a) for more foothills open space, b) develop three new parks and add amenities to two existing ones.

Questions: 1) Why aren't present foothills open spaces adequate? 2) What per cent of proposed open space will be acquired from private ownership? 3) Will the public be allowed to use the new acquisitions, at the cost of $10 million? 4) Why $5.5 million for parks when the 80 existing parks, in the yellow pages, plotted on a Boise map are fairly evenly distributed?