Casino in Mountain Home would be good for the state. Don’t saddle it with regulations | Opinion
Why is gaming so overregulated?
I enjoyed Angela Palermo’s story about the tension between two tribes at odds over plans for a casino outside Boise. Hopefully, the tribes can work things out as tribal gaming is good for the state. Why? State law requires tribes to donate back to schools resulting in millions in proceeds. Give credit to the tribes as it was their lobbying making this requirement part of Idaho gaming law.
However, any proposed Mountain Home casino would be hampered to compete with non-tribal casinos in nearby Jackpot, Nevada because Nevada casinos allow table gaming and sports wagering plus video machines. Will Boiseans support this new casino or drive another hour to enjoy the freedom of less restricted gaming? Locally, I sympathize that our community-philanthropic Coeur d’Alene Tribe is hampered by Idaho’s over-regulation that precludes their ability to complete equally with Kalispel and Spokane tribes in Airway Heights, Washington who are given the freedom to offer table gaming as well as wildly-popular sports wagering.
Why the draconian state restrictions? This red state supposedly espouses freedom. So when will our legislature give Idaho tribes the freedom to offer the full range of gaming that we all enjoy and would make our schools better off?
Jon Ingalls, Coeur d’Alene
BLM’s conservation rule a step forward
We Idahoans enjoy remarkable opportunities to hunt, fish and recreate on the millions of acres of public lands Idaho is blessed with. I believe the BLM’s recently completed “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule” is good for wildlife, their habitat and sportspeople.
The BLM manages a diversity of habitats from rivers and mountain streams to wetlands and sagebrush flats to grass-covered foothills and pine forests. These lands offer world-class hunting and fishing that help bolster the state’s annual $3.4 billion outdoor economy and are a key piece in making the quality of life in Idaho so great.
That’s why I was excited to hear about the BLM’s rule that puts fish and wildlife habitat on equal footing with development. Big game herds such as elk, mule deer and pronghorn need connected habitats to move daily and seasonally, and many of the state’s most prized hunting units rely on BLM lands for valuable winter range.
If we as Idahoans and sportspeople want to see our children and grandchildren experience the wild places and animals we enjoy so much, we should support the BLM in prioritizing conservation to enhance our state’s fish and wildlife habitat.
Drew Wahlin, Meridian
Legislature still failing students
The Idaho Constitution: “It shall be the duty of the legislature to establish and maintain a general, uniform, and thorough public school system.” Idahoans voted on 45 school supplementary levies, all of which were necessitated by inadequate Legislative funding. Now, as districts all over Idaho are attempting to provide our kids with a top-quality education, they are dealing with gut-wrenching decisions like teacher layoffs, school closures, bus route eliminations, athletic funding cuts, SROs layoffs and tech staff reductions.
It’s no secret that this disregard of a Constitutional mandate has been going on for years to the point that it would be embarrassing for the legislators if they were forced to spend time at school sites.
Legislators’ time seems to be spent on other shiny objects like banning books and running OB/GYNs out of Idaho. Another big problem is the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s dark money effort to divert funds to school vouchers. Any legislator who supports vouchers is in direct conflict with their duty to the Constitution.
We voters can rectify this malfeasance when we vote in November. Do your research and vote for people who are committed to solving this high-priority deficiency .
We all know the definition of insanity.
Jay Combs, Eagle
A solution for the national debt
A lot has been mentioned about the National Debt. Now, you might be wondering how we got to this point. Well, all you have to do is look in the mirror. Remember when you sent your representatives to Washington to get some of the free money, so your state taxes wouldn’t go up. Well, that’s what happened to the debt.
You want the debt to go away. Here is one solution, start making states responsible for their action, instead of dumbing their problems on the rest of the nation. You want that airport enlarged, then tax your state people for it. You want that highway enlarged, they let your state people pay for it. You want to build levees to stop the flood waters, then let your state pay for it.
What about the people in your state that are on welfare. You states need to start being responsible for these people instead of the rest of the nation.
For a change, let’s have states’ rights also become states’ responsibility. Now, I know you will never vote to send someone to Washington to do all they can to not get free money.
Jerry Johnson, Payette