Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Before I begin my recap of this week's activities in the Idaho Senate, I wanted to take a moment to invite you to the latest installment in our series of District 3 Town Hall Meetings. The next one will be this Saturday morning between 9AM-11AM at Rathdrum City Hall. I encourage you all to attend and I would kindly ask you to remind your neighbors so that they may to if they so desire. Your feedback is essential to our work.
In my last newsletter I reconfirmed my support for the issuing of GARVEE bonds as the money they provide are hugely important to the citizens of Idaho, especially in our immediate area. I had emails, which I always encourage and am grateful to receive, which expressed concern about the source of the funds. When I explained the funds were coming from Washington I did not mean to imply that federal money wasn't in fact taxpayers money. It absolutely is. However, Idaho is a net recipient of federal highway fund dollars. In other words, we get back more money than we contribute. Many states, such as California, contribute more than they receive in return. For every dollar we pay in US taxes for highways, Idaho gets back more than one dollar.
This week in Boise was one of mixed success for me. I was deeply gratified that my bill passed that would give law enforcement the ability to track down otherwise anonymous traffickers of internet child pornography. Once Governor Otter signs it, this will become law. I was asked to carry this bill by the Attorney General's office and I was only too pleased to help.
On the negative side, my proposed bill to compel Idaho's employers to verify the legal eligibility of their prospective employees was unanimously approved for printing by Senate State Affairs, but once it became an actual bill I was given the extremely bad news that the committee chairman, Senator Curt McKenzie, decided not to hold hearings on it. I cannot speak for the reasons Sen. McKenzie chose to do this, but I feel that 51,000 freshly out of work Idahoans must be as bitterly disappointed as I am. Senator McKenzie has assured me that he will give the bill a full hearing in the next legislative session and I will continue to seek solutions to what I feel is an enormous drain on Idaho's resources. Please click through the links below to read the newspaper articles and if you do, check the reader comments, which run heavily in support of the bill.
Motor boaters in our region should begin to heave a sigh of relief as my bill to clarify existing laws about "Captain's Select" also passed the Senate this week. While it may seem trivial and bizarre, under current law, simply purchasing a motor boat with the "Captain's Select" muffler system is enough to be issued with a ticket for breaking legal noise limits. The law does not treat people who break the noise limits and people who do not break the law any differently, which is absurd. Any car can break the speed limit, but simply owning a car does not mean a driver can be ticketed for speeding.
As always, please continue to contact me with your thoughts and comments.
Sincerely yours,
Mike Jorgenson
mnjorgen@senate.idaho.gov
Please visit my website for further information:
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