LEGISLATURE

Freshman serves self

It doesn't appear to me that new freshman legislator Ed Morse needs much of an education as stated by Dan Popkey. The first thing he did was attempt to submit a bill to benefit himself and pad his own pockets. I guess he forgot he was sent to legislate for his constituents, not himself personally. I hope his district votes him out the first chance it gets.

TED EVANS, Meridian

EXCHANGES

Medicaid expansionis the next step

Do our legislators remember the time they caught that awful creeping crud and couldn't figure out where they caught it?

Did they even think they could have caught it from that waiter/ waitress who hadn't been trained to hold the plate with the thumb along the rim of the plate and instead that thumb was sitting atop their broccoli? Or from that cashier who touched their purchases? Or from that hotel housekeeper who coughed when they passed her in the hall?

When people who mingle among the rest of us every day do not have health insurance, we are exposed to their untreated illnesses and subsequently must be treated ourselves. They're at work when sick because they have no sick days.

Legislators, please don't allow bullheadedness to inform your vote on Medicaid expansion for Idaho. If you do, you will just be giving to other states money allocated for health care for hard-working Idahoans. What a shame that would be.

Approving a health care exchange for our great state was a good move. Thank you. Now, please finish the job and vote for Medicaid expansion. Envision: Goodbye to the CAT fund and county indigent care, and hello to a healthier Idaho.

FRAN COLLETTE, Boise

Let's have more

I love this "exchange" idea; I like to get the best bang for my buck. But why stop with a health exchange? What's wrong with having more protection and Affordable Care Acts? We're required to have car insurance, but it's not affordable for a lot of folks, so let's have a Car Insurance Exchange. And cars are expensive; we could use an Automobile Exchange. Automobile manufacturers on the Automobile Exchange Board can figure out how to run it and what to charge. Most homeowners have a hard time understanding all this insurance stuff; we need the government to take charge with a Homeowner's Insurance Exchange.

Yeah, and food. It's a necessity of life, but costs are getting out of hand. Why aren't they talking about a Grocery Exchange? And while the grocery industry representatives on the Grocery Exchange Board are working out the details of that one, they could include some dietary requirements and restrictions to get us gravitationally challenged Americans back in shape.

Lots of opportunities; let's get 'er done and quit pontificating about picky stuff. We'll find out what's in the legislation when it passes. I'm for individual rights and the good life.

BOB CALLIHAN, Potlatch

PROPERTY TAX

Repeal robs from poor

Local Idaho counties need personal property taxes to keep schools open and basic governments functioning. But this year, Idaho's largest corporations demanded immediate personal property tax removal. CenturyLink, a $15 billion company whose CEO's total compensation was over $24 million in 2011, promised to reinvest $2 million if the personal property tax was repealed.

It's a Trojan horse and they know it. Any well-run company will invest, because it is smart to do so and not because of a tax cut. Tax cuts don't make companies invest, profits do.

The biggest tax cut beneficiaries are Idaho Power Co., Union Pacific, and other utilities. Will they move if they don't get their way? Will Union Pacific relocate its tracks to Nevada? Will Idaho Power become Connecticut Power? This "reverse Robin Hood" of stealing from the poor to give to the rich is not the basis of our country. There are times when greed is not good! NRS, the company I founded over 40 years ago, pays its taxes. We believe as Oliver Wendell Holmes said: Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.

BILL PARKS, Moscow

BRENT CRANE

A lesson in history

It is unsurprising that state Rep. Brent Crane did not know that Rosa Parks was fighting against states' rights rather than the federal government, when she disobeyed Alabama's segregation laws; after all, Idaho received an F in teaching civil rights history in a survey conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

That ignorance can be remedied if the state follows Mississippi's example and mandates civil rights history be taught so young people in the future will not make such a foolish mistake.

JULIAN BOND, Washington, D.C.