By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

Sometimes in life things seem to come full circle. I’ve seen the Legislature respond to problems and put solutions in place only to find out later that the changes made either haven’t worked or have created new problems. So in an effort to fix those things we tend to go right back to where we started.

A case in point is the reworking of the Medicaid law. Over the years the Legislature has put things in place to make it plain how programs would be reimbursed, how certain populations would be eligible for the programs, and other provisions that have sprung out of years of confusing rule-making by the Department of Health and Welfare. There were, of course, good reasons for having done that but one of those reasons was not necessarily to save money.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a very large group of people assemble outside the auditorium where there was a joint House and Senate Health and Welfare Committee having a hearing about proposed cuts to Medicaid. It was one of those marathon meetings of which I have attended many. Out of that meeting and in conjunction with negotiations that were taking place behind the scenes, many changes were put into the legislation. On Thursday, one of those things that most folks say is difficult to observe (and some folks say is dangerous) was the writing of legislation by committee. The outcome takes us full circle putting us in exactly the same place we were several years ago. Most of the changes allow the department to make changes by rule rather than having it done by statute.

What was even more interesting about this process was that most people who are concerned with the cuts seem to be pleased with what was done. One of the areas most carefully considered was how the trimming of Medicaid will affect the developmentally disabled. Most around the table thought that we had at least addressed the majority of the concerns. Time will tell.

By now I’m sure that you’ve heard about House Bill 222 which would allow for concealed carry permitted individuals to carry weapons on college campuses. The discussion on that bill spilled over into two days, which is something I had not anticipated. The bill was sent to the floor of the house for further discussion and that too will be a lively one on the house floor. One of the issues that came up in the committee, was just how many law-abiding permit holders already take weapons onto campuses not knowing there are policies in place from the Universities that would prevent them from doing so. Even more alarming is that those folks who do not have concealed weapons permits are also carrying weapons on the campuses. It will be interesting to see how the vote comes out in the house.

We are moving full steam ahead at this point with several budget bills on the agenda for the coming week. The challenge now is to consider all of the house legislation and get it sent to the Senate and then getting all those Senate bills passed (or not) so that we can go home. In the western part of the state the ground is bare which is nowhere near what it looks like in our part of the world. I was commenting to Linda over the weekend that it seems like the weather has tipped over just a bit and that spring just might get here soon. Hold that thought, it’s still freezing every night and the ground is covered with snow.

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By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

President Dwight D. Eisenhower said once that,” Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.” And that’s how it is around these halls. It may look easy from a distance but it seldom is.

We crossed the first hurdle last week by passing the first appropriations bill that pays for fire suppression for the past year. It’s normal for us to start with the small budgets and finish with the big stuff. There are a couple of pieces of the puzzle that have to clear hurdles in the legislature before some of those large budgets can be set.

Last week saw the introduction of what we are calling the Medicaid bill. A lot of what is contained in this legislation are corrections that are needed in order to make the budget work this year. I’ve requested that we be furnished with how the changes will affect each program and discuss the number of people that will be involved in those changes. The reductions that are contained in this legislation affect the lives of real people. Those kinds of decisions are never easy.

It’s always good to get home and it was especially good this weekend as Linda and I traveled to Montpelier for the annual Lincoln Day celebration. In addition to the festivities superintendent Luna met with teachers, students, and parents in an effort to explain the education reform bills that are making their way through the legislature. As meetings go I thought it was very productive and was happy for the opportunity to sit and visit with a lot of the concerned parties about this issue. The best comment came from a parent who said that her concern was that there has not been enough emphasis placed on the family’s role in education.

We are always looking for the magic bullet, one that will solve all of our problems. I don’t know about you but my experience tells me there are no magic bullets, at least I have not been able to find many. Some of our problems are too large for the feds or the state or even the communities to solve. Real solutions to education will come best from families.

Sometimes to my own downfall I tend to look at the world in simple terms. Life has become very complicated. President Eisenhower got it right. Very few things are as easy as they seem, especially from a distance.

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By Representative Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

I’ll bet you’ve seen the posters around some businesses that come from a website called despair.com. I’ve rather enjoyed some of the sayings over the years and one that I ran across this last week has to do with what is happening right now in the legislature. The one I am talking about is a picture of a tornado and the title of it is Change. It goes like this. “When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can turn into deadly projectiles.” What we are experiencing here with the debate on education is certainly not trivial, but as we know the little details of things seem to become projectiles at some time or other.

We as human beings tend to resist change with everything we have. It may be just because we have some fear of the unknown or that we just have a hard time getting our arms around a new concept. There is a lot of resistance around this place mostly from outside, from various groups that hate to see change occur in the way we educate students. I suppose I’m one of those who likes to be an innovator and I can’t blame Superintendent Luna for trying to bring about change. New methods are worth exploring and if all of the dire reports about how we are doing in education in Idaho have any validity, we definitely do need to do something. I’m just not sure that this plan is the something we need to do. Everywhere I went over the weekend I was asked about the “Luna” plan.

At the first of the week we had the young 4-H kids from our area come for the annual Know Your Government conference. It was a pleasure to sit with kids from our area and one of the first things they asked about was the new plan for education. I turned the tables on them and asked what they thought of Superintendent Luna’s program. To a person they said that they didn’t like the idea and had some concrete reasons why they didn’t think it was good. I told him that I thought they were very fortunate to live in the times they do, when they have access to so much information and the ability to learn so much from the resources they have. I asked them if they would be willing to help in the design of the next generation of learning in the classroom. They indicated a willingness to do so. I am impressed with the quality of kids that we have and that they are able to figure out ways of doing things that we in the older generation haven’t dreamed of.

There is one thing that I know for sure and that is that I do not have all the answers. What I would like to see us do at this point is to take a deep breath, step back and try to get buy-in over this next year into programs that teachers, administrators, students, and parents can help implement. I really think that’s the only way that education reform can happen with any degree of success.

Several years ago while meeting with teachers, I told them that I would be willing to meet with them anytime to discuss education and some of the problems that they face. That invitation is still extended. All good ideas take time to develop and to implement correctly. We mandate too much from the legislature, demanding things that do not improve education that just cost money. We need to stop mandating and this is the right year to start.

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By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

While I was growing up, it used to drive me crazy to hear some of the older generation talk about how good things used to be in days gone by. It must be my age, but I catch myself looking back to times that seemed to be less complicated. It reminds me a bit of when the phone line was put into Bone. I could tell that the contractor who was laying the cable came from a small town where there was little traffic. Whenever he would stop to check on his employees, he would stop right in the middle of the road with no thought of the heavy traffic that was going by. Since then I have often envied someone who could deal with things in a simple manner.

That doesn’t seem to be the way things are going around the Statehouse these days. The issues seem to be getting tougher and the hearings in the committees are longer and more complicated. Again this week it was necessary in the House State Affairs Committee to continue a hearing for a second day. The issues were concerning union activities and after a long discussion the two bills were sent to the House floor. My hat is off to the good people of Idaho who have been coming to these committee meetings these last weeks in a calm yet passionate manner.

Being busy around this place is a very large understatement. The other day I was trying to catch up on answering some of my e-mail. It seemed like for each one I opened and read and answered two more would pop up on my screen. Floor debate on two bills, one that has been called nullification, and the other having to do with peace officers and Indian tribes each took a full day. The first bill passed the House (I voted yes) and the second failed to pass (I voted no).

There is an old saying, “May you live in interesting times,” that was once thought to be a blessing but actually was given as a curse attributable to the Chinese. I can’t help but think that it does apply to us one way or the other depending on your point of view. We definitely do live in interesting times, and I can’t help but think after seeing some of the things that have happened over the weekend in other parts of the country, that we are fortunate once again to live in Idaho. While we are definitely having our own budget crisis this year, it is not nearly the magnitude it is in other states. I think a lot of legislators are looking for a magic bullet, but there is nothing on the horizon that looks magical at all. As my mother used to say, “The only way out of this, is through it.”

The budget committee hearings are pretty much at an end and that means that once a budget number is reached that the budgets will soon be set by the committee. If all goes well, and no one knows if it will, it gives the signal that there is about a month left for the work of the legislature this year. So keep your fingers crossed. I know I will.

By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

It’s what I call the extension cord dilemma. I think you know what I mean when you throw an extension cord in the back of your pickup, the next time you take it out it is in such a tangle that it takes you half an hour to get it straightened out. There is no way on earth that you could ever tangle a cord up that badly if you did it on purpose. That is sort of what happened around the halls the legislature this last week.

How could it be possible for three committees of the legislature to schedule what will probably go down in at least recent history, as the three largest hearings ever to take place at the capital. I can assure you that it was not orchestrated by any of the committee chairs. The House State Affairs Committee hearing on what has been called the nullification bill lasted for two days, Wednesday and Thursday. The House Judiciary and Rules Committee had a very long hearing Wednesday afternoon that dealt with law enforcement on tribal lands. Also, as you may have heard, on three consecutive days the Senate Education Committee had very long days of hearings on Superintendent Luna’s education reform bills. All in all it proved to be quite a week.

You may be curious as to what my thinking is on House Bill 117 which is the bill that directs our state agencies not to further implement the Affordable Health Care Act. During the last session of the legislature we authorized and directed our Attorney General to file suit in an effort to have the national health care bill declared unconstitutional. Our suit was consolidated with that of twenty-five other states and the case was tried in the state of Florida. With the ruling on our case that declared the law to be unconstitutional, it only makes sense that we should not move forward in implementing it. I think if we moved ahead with implementing the law that we could very well be in contempt of court. At least it seems like it is not reasonable to continue with implementation when the very judge we asked to make the decision told us that we were right, that it is unconstitutional to require every citizen to buy a certain product. House Bill 117 merely says that we are going to follow the judge’s order. We expect floor debate in the House early in the week.

The volume of e-mail coming on education reform has been astonishing. There has been so much going on this past week that it has been impossible to keep up. On top of the two mornings of very long hearings, the afternoon committees have kept me busy as well. I can’t remember a session where there has been so much to do all at once. In talking with some of my colleagues they are finding that the same is true for them.

This education legislation is turning out to be one of the more interesting issues I’ve ever seen around this place. The three days of hearings have convinced the sponsors that there are some changes that need to be made. I am thinking that we should be careful and as always the devil is in the details. I don’t think there is a way that I can support mandatory online classes for kids. I think there’s a better way to accomplish what we’re trying to do in modernizing education in Idaho. Further I think that there has to be buy-in from all concerned, kids, parents, and teachers. No matter what we do in the legislature, if there is no buy-in, the program will face tough sledding. I am also concerned that the more regulating we do in the capital, the less innovation there is in the classroom. Stay tuned for the changes. There are likely to be a bunch.

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By Representative Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

The other night I decided it was time get a haircut. As it usually happens a conversation breaks out between the haircutter and the client. Noticing that I was from out of town, she asked where I was from. I told her that I was from Eastern Idaho and she told me that she had never been east of Pocatello. She then asked me what brought me to Boise. I said, “Oh, I am one of those people that you may love to hate.” She then asked, “Are you a senator?”

The preliminary revenue numbers for January are in and they indicate that we are up slightly from our projection at the end of last session. Even though that is the case there are still some fairly large holes in our budget. The budget still seems to dominate our conversation. The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee is seeking input from the various committees about the department budgets. It’s interesting that even during these tight economic times some of the departments continue to ask for increases and new line
items in their budgets. To the governor’s credit he has eliminated most of those line items in his budget request to the legislature.

There have been a couple of controversial bills introduced in the State Affairs Committee. One is known as the Nullification Bill and the other is the Telecommunications Bill. We are anticipating a very large crowd to come on Wednesday for the Nullification Bill and are making preparations for the hearing to be held in the auditorium on the Senate side of the capital. Some are concerned that our taking action of this kind, especially after our court case about national health care legislation was declared to be completely unconstitutional, could be detrimental to our case. And as usual we are hearing from attorneys on both sides of this issue, one of them being the state Attorney General. It will be extremely interesting to see what the hearing provides in the way of good solid information for the committee.

As for telecommunications, that is a very long ongoing discussion that has been going on for several years between the various telecom companies and the cities. Some of the companies want us to change the law so that there is a statewide franchising system which would only require them to have to negotiate one contract for the whole state. As you can imagine our e-mail boxes have been filling up with comments from several of the cities. I think the members of the committee are taking a wait and see approach to see if some of the differences can be ironed out between the various parties concerned.

It seems that around here, as it is down on the farm, that sometimes the simple stuff is overlooked on the way to the solution to problems. The heater in the Suburban went on the blink and that was my weekend project. We tried everything, replacing the controls, tearing out the dash and checking the fan motor, checking all electrical connections and checking all the relays. It turned out to be a simple ground wire fault. Something so simple but so time consuming to solve. This may not be exactly how it works around here, but I have to think that there mig

If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to the full-feed RSS.ht be simpler solutions to solve our budget woes this year. Maybe this is just another one of those things that we love to hate.

By Representative Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

During the Revolutionary war, Thomas Paine wrote a series of articles entitled The Crisis. He wrote, “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” While the crisis that we are facing at this present time may not be anything like the Revolutionary war, the times definitely are a challenge.

We keep looking for some good news as it pertains to our budget and revenue and at the close of this last week we just don’t seem to be able to find the good news we’re looking for. The revenue numbers for January will soon be in and we will know better how the economy in Idaho is performing. Everyone around here is crossing their fingers for a positive result.

I don’t recall a time when we have had more hearings into budget matters then we have had this year. It seems that the various committees of the legislature are more engaged in looking at how the budget might be put together. The House Health and Welfare Committee invited several provider groups to speak to the committee about how to save money in the Medicaid program. Due to a previous commitment, I was unable to attend the meeting but it was recorded and I listened to it while driving home. It was interesting to hear the comments from many providers and how they see Medicaid from their point of view. It ended on the note that they committed to working with us and all concerned to find savings. The most frequent comment in the meeting was to hear each one explain how important their particular program is. That’s not new, but what is new is that they have committed to help.

The pace of the session has picked up with several new pieces of legislation being introduced. I don’t know how we compare to other sessions at this point, but it seems like the load is quite heavy already. I know what you’re thinking, just what we need, more laws. I had one legislator approach me the other day and tell me that he had a good one-liner, “Section such and such is hereby repealed.” My reply? “Go for it!” That’s a little bit of music for my ears.

With the pressure that has been building around the capital, it was good to get home over the weekend, get a little sunshine, and get a change of pace. I don’t know what other legislators do on weekends, but I do know that being home down on the farm is quite therapeutic for me. I got a chance to look through the cattle, check out the snowpack, do a little repair work on the house and sleep in until 6 AM. Then I turned on the news to see all the unrest in the world. That put an abrupt end to a restful weekend.

Whether or not you call what we are experiencing a crisis or not, the matter is serious. The latest projections are that we may be $185 million short to cover 2011 and 2012. We definitely have our work cut out for us. Last summer I attended a meeting where the speaker told us that the most unfortunate thing about these times is that the words million, billion and trillion all sound the same. How on earth did we get here? That’s a subject for another discussion.

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By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

It’s always a bit tricky to put a budget together. Even down on the farm that’s the case and it’s no different around this place. One of the problems we as humans have is that we tend to think that income sources will be flat over time, or even increasing slightly. When we get good prices for our commodities on the farm we tend to assume that those revenues will stay up for the foreseeable future. That is rarely the case and in government things don’t seem to be any different. We have made a lot of assumptions in our revenue projections for the coming year that will have to come to pass in order for our budget to be balanced.

The budget still seems to be the big item of discussion around the legislature. Some around here are saying that we have made history this year already in that the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee has been inviting other germane committees to sit with them as the budgets from the agencies are discussed. This definitely is a first and I think it is been helpful for members of the various committees to get a feel of how the budget numbers are put together. Another first began this week when the budget committee opened up their meetings to public comment. Education had their go around and it was interesting to get the take of a lot of educators that came to discuss Superintendent Luna’s “new” ideas.

My phone has been ringing with calls from home having concerns about Internet classes for all high school students. One thing is for certain. If this new program is not well-designed and is not something that will work well, and there is not teacher buy-in, it would be doomed from the outset. I can’t help but think that technology in the classroom is essential for our students to keep up in these times. I know there are programs out there that work well and we have to implement them correctly if we do it at all. After talking to several this past week, I think I will have to be convinced that this is a good thing. For now I am trying to keep an open mind and am doing some research.

The house health and welfare committee met a couple of times this week with JFAC to hear the Department of Health and Welfare cover its budget. There wasn’t a whole lot new expressed there, and they told us that they are trying their best to get their arms around making their budget work. It seemed to me that most of the difficulty we have with this budget lies in the optional programs Idaho has embraced over the years. E-mails are coming in from all over the state wanting us not to cut any of these programs. And I have to admit that we have to be careful that we don’t eliminate the less costly items and drive Medicaid folks to more expensive service providers.

About ten days ago I was watching Fox news and saw an interview with Gov. Huckabee. He pretty well expressed what happens in the states with regard to their budgets. He said that most of the states money is spent in three areas, to educate, medicate and incarcerate. In Idaho, 90 to 95% of our budget goes to those three areas.

After Gov. Otter made the announcement that Sen. Geddes would be moving to the Tax Commission, it was interesting to see all of the scurrying around that has occurred. One member of the Senate told me that because of the resignation there had to be a complete reorganization of the Senate. It involved the switching of offices and new committee assignments for some. One Senator even commented to me that now he had an office with a window. As my mother would have put it, “Oh brother.”

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By Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

A couple of years ago, we were cleaning the shop at the ranch. While doing so I could hardly believe some of the things that I had kept around the place. There were worn-out bearing races, short pieces of useless metal, and other old parts that we had accumulated from previous repair efforts. I thought that it probably was just me, but I soon found out that the whole family had been doing the same thing I had. Apparently, there is a little bit of pack rat in all of us.

Each year as I leave a legislative session, I gather up some of my stuff from the capital and take it home. Linda is not terribly fond of this activity because it all resides very comfortably in the off-season in my office. Now I’m not going to say that I never use these things, but I do tend to go through them from time to time looking for information on things that were done during the previous session. As you can imagine, the next thing that happens is to repack everything and haul it back to the capital. I was doing that last week on Sunday evening after arriving in Boise. The only other person I happened to see at that time in the entire building was a security guard and I don’t think he saw me. It was an eerie feeling to have everything so quiet knowing full well that the legislature would start in earnest the next morning.

On Monday, After Convening in the House, and gathering the Senators, the Elected Officials, and the Judiciary, the Governor Gave His Annual State of the State Message and Budget Message. It was one of the more interesting that I have seen during my time in the legislature. I think it is the first time that I have heard a governor not present a large wish list for the legislature to consider. He has projected a small increase in revenues but seemed to recognize that there is no room this year for new items in the budget. One thing that stood out, was his request to bond for the money that we owe the federal government for unemployment benefits. It certainly deserves consideration but at the same time we need to make sure that we don’t over-extend the resources of the state.
The other item during the week that seemed to occupy a lot of discussion time was the new education reforms that Superintendent Luna proposed. I think it is a good thing for students to begin to learn how to take courses online. There are so many resources available for education in this day and age and I hope that educators will have an open mind when it comes to considering these new ways of educating kids. I have been told that there is a vast new resource online called Google Apps Education that is being successfully used in other parts of the country. I hope we will look seriously at what is available from that source. The other part of the proposal in providing a laptop computer for every student is one that will need careful consideration. Just giving a computer to each student could be problematic and a better way might be to require some ownership of the students for the equipment. It seems like when we as humans have some ownership we take better care of things.

Several members of the House health and welfare committee had a chance to participate in a conference call with the former director of health and welfare for the state of Rhode Island. That state has worked with the federal government in getting flexibility to operate the Medicaid program. They claim to be realizing great savings while at the same time not reducing the programs or eligibility. This looks to be a major new effort that we will be looking at during this session.

And so it begins. One of the suggestions I heard around these halls was that we probably should just adopt the Governor’s budget and go home. That may be too much to hope for because I am sure a lot of legislators want to have a careful look at what he has proposed. Seeing how it is our constitutional responsibility to develop a budget, that is what we will do.

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By Representative Tom Loertscher, R-Bone

As I was sitting down to eat Sunday Dinner I couldn’t help but think that it had been a while since the last such dinner at home. I also had to chain the axle of my trusty pickup to the shed to keep it from taking off for Boise this afternoon. With the end of a session comes a “shifting of gears,” as life starts to get back to normal, if there is such a thing at the ranch.

I’ve been reading some of the commentaries on the session and I sometimes wonder if I was in the same place they have been describing. Of most interest has been the criticism of how the majority party is so pessimistic about our state revenues. I would rather call it being cautious, recognizing that overestimating revenues and falling short has a completely different outcome than underestimating and having more funds come in. A special session to increase budgets would be much simpler than having a year full of shortfalls such as we have just been through.

It was the most difficult year I have personally seen and also the busiest. For some reason the session started out being very intense and it finished the same way. State affairs for example, met right up to the last day of the session to accomplish what we were assigned. The issues we heard were more complicated than usual and at times quite controversial. Getting used to our new surroundings also played a role.

Some have said that we should have raised taxes to sustain the activities of government and then the question I have raised with them has been, “Whose taxes should we raise?” Not on them is the most frequent reply. Then on whom should we have raised taxes? The dairy industry is still selling milk at below cost. The potato farmers are selling spuds (if they can find a buyer) for two dollars and under, which is far below the cost of growing them. How about the construction industry? I have neighbors who have not had a project in a year, and have no current prospects on which to bid. And the list goes on.

Some say that we should have done more to improve the economy, and that state government should play a bigger role to help. Does that mean more government involvement in everything? President Ronald Reagan put it best when he said that government is the problem, not the solution.

Linda and I went to Ohio last fall to visit our son Reed and his family who is in anesthesia school. While there we visited Amish country and it was quite the experience for me. He told me that the Amish people are quite well off. He also told me that they have a lot of tax exemptions. They don’t have health insurance. They don’t use the welfare system. They take care of each other. They don’t expect much from government and don’t want much from government. They don’t drive cars but they do hire drivers once in a while. They don’t have electricity in their homes and only use some in some of their businesses. They don’t have tractors. They milk the cows by hand. They use horses for everything. In short they live a simpler life and take care of their own. And they prosper even in these times. We could learn a thing or two from them.

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