Letters to the editor: Paid leave, bees, fires
Paid leave
The American Association of University Women Idaho commends Gov. Little for his implementation of paid parental leave for Idaho’s executive branch employees. May other state entities and businesses follow his lead. Paid family leave is a basic structural support that must be put in place to ensure the health of our children and make motherhood compatible with the workplace. The new executive order reinforces Idaho’s strong family values and sends a vital message everywhere that Idaho provides young parents and their families with the critical support they need to thrive.
Sylvia Chariton and Bonnie Pfaff, co-presidents, AAUW Idaho, Boise
Bees
In the Jan. 30 Idaho Statesman, there was a front-page article regarding the EPA and pesticide rules. While the absolute safety of our area farmworkers are of the highest priority, we feel there is also an absolute need to address the damage pesticides can do to other creatures.
Nearly 40% of our food chain is a direct result of insect pollinators, especially the honeybee. We wonder who speaks for those that have no voice when it comes to the use of pesticides and herbicides on our crops. We in Idaho are fortunate in having a wonderful bounty of vegetables, fruits and nuts available to us locally and fresh. There are numerous apiaries in the Treasure Valley both commercial and backyard beekeepers yet we do not see much concern for the those workers that greatly assist in our fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts. Why not?
Gary Adams, Boise
Elk
Fish and Game does not listen to outdoorsmen and especially hunters. For some reason they think college students and out-of-state opinions matter more. I have been hunting for 50 years. I’ve seen the elk and deer populations decline every year. Some units have few if any elk. Problem: Fish and Game recently slaughtered over 200 elk in a rare unit with too many elk. Solution: Trap and transport to units needing these animals. I do not believe it costs too much when they give millions to farmers for damages. Use that money. I have talked to many hunters who agree. What a waste. I am one hunter who will never hunt again.
Dan Garlock, Boise
PILT
On Jan. 16, I attended the Committee on Federalism’s first meeting for the 2020 Legislative Session. The agenda was 1.5 hours with a sales pitch by Ken Ivory, former Utah legislator, promoting his company’s software program for land valuation, monopolizing the agenda. He got twice the time of the Health and Welfare Subcommittee and the Education Subcommittee (which was not heard from.)
Mr. Ivory addressed how his software could help PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) with the promise of stabilized tax equivalency.
PILT put over $30 million into Idaho’s coffers for 2019. According to the U.S. Department of Interior’s fact sheet: The formula used to compute the payments is contained in the PILT Act. Payments are made in addition to other federal payments to states, such as oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing and timber harvesting.
If Idaho legislators feel the PILT is inadequate, I suggest they take action to alter the computation, versus paying an out-of-state software company in excess of a million dollars for a program in which absolutely NO value is calculated for wilderness, habitat protection or protecting public lands for future generations. It appeared to me to be a self-interest, money-grabbing presentation.
Libby Burtner, Boise
Fires
Rocky Barker’s article (Idaho Statesman, Jan. 25) about James Taylor’s presentation to the Idaho House of Representatives Resources Committee was revealing from several perspectives.
It is reassuring that the Resources Committee recognizes that climate change can have large impacts in Idaho. Taylor and his Heartland Institute, lobbyists primarily funded by the fossil fuel industry, have been a major climate change denier, advocating that the climate is not changing, while ignoring the volumes of theoretical information and empirical evidence supporting that climate change is real and is affecting us now.
Taylor’s report was “climate change has a net benefit for the state.” Wow, could a miracle, or at least a revelation, just have occurred in Idaho? Is this an admission that Taylor and the Heartland Institute now believe that climate change does exist and has effects on our ecosystems? While it is fundamental to consider climate changes in planning for the state’s resources, why hear ideas of an individual uncertain about global warming?
Resources Committee, you can do better. If Taylor was a paid consultant, Idaho tax money could be better spent by putting the funds into Idaho universities where they do real science.
Thomas G. Hallam, Garden City