Here’s a recent letter to the editor that was published in the Idaho Falls Post Register. I thought it was excellent, so I’m posting it here!
Received May 8
Whenever I hear the words “limited government,” I think of outlaws. more…
Letter to the Editor from the Idaho Falls Post Register
Category: Value of Public Employees
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District 8, Here’s a story from the Idaho Press Tribune about how YOUR Representative feels about PERSI! !
YOUR REPRESENTATIVE SPOUTING ABOUT PUBLIC EMPLOYEES’!
He continues this activity when speaking with private groups like the Farm Bureau and others.
Posted: Sunday, December 19, 2010 12:00 am
By William L. Spence of the Tribune |
Switching Idaho’s pension system from a defined benefits plan to a defined contribution plan may be the subject of intense debate during the upcoming legislative session.
House Majority Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, said there’s been “a lot of discussion” about this issue, in part because of the potential liability facing taxpayers if the state retirement fund doesn’t meet its investment goals.
“It’s something we’ll probably be working on,” Roberts said. “I think there’s the potential for changing to a defined contribution plan from a defined benefits plan in PERSI (the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho) to deal with the unfunded liability.”
PERSI has about 125,000 members, including 33,000 retired public employees plus another 70,000 active and 22,000 inactive members. Its defined benefits plan provides retirees a set pension for life. The amount is based on their length of service and their highest average monthly salary. The two sources of revenue to cover those payments are employer and employee contributions and investment income.
more…
Category: Value of Public Employees
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If you want your vote to count, use it in the Idaho May 15 Primary!
If you really want your vote to count, be sure to cast it in the primary election on May 15.
Many people don’t vote in the primary, and some don’t even vote in the general election in the fall. There is a lot of concern about this year’s primary because of recent changes. But if you want things to change (or stay the same!) in Idaho, you simply must get involved in the process.
Here’s why: Idaho’s government is dominated by one party, and that means we have a legislature and administration where people simply don’t play well with others. more…
Category: Election, State Government
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How IPEA got state workers a raise!
Our members consistently say that IPEA’s lobbying efforts on their behalf is the most important benefit we provide. This year our lobbying efforts truly paid off as we were able to get a raise for state employees.
But it was a “win” born of a lot of hard work. Since most people don’t really know how things get done in the Statehouse, here is the true “play by play”!
For the past three years, IPEA has been asking the Idaho legislature to hold a Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) committee hearing. In past years, this committee, consisting of both the Senate and House Commerce and Human Resources Committees, would convene a hearing to discuss possible changes in employee compensation. Since the beginning of the recession, the legislature has opted NOT to hold a hearing.
Before the 2012 session started, I contacted the Senate committee Chair, Sen. John Andreason (R) and he agreed to try to get leadership to convene a CEC hearing, but he was unsuccessful.
Then the 2012 session opened with the Governor’s State of the State speech. more…
Category: Value of Public Employees
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Silly season in the Idaho legislature!
The “silly season” in the Idaho legislature officially began today. I was in a Rev and Tax committee hearing where the Chair, Representative Lake, held a print hearing on the tobacco tax bill. A representative from the American Cancer Society presented the bill, and she was representing just about every health related organization in the state. She had tons of supporting documentation proving, without a doubt, that raising the tobacco tax would cut down on teenager’s smoking. It would save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs. I mean, who could argue that this bill isn’t a good idea? Well, as it turns out, many people. If you haven’t seen the movie “Thank you for smoking”, you should watch it right now. It’s about a lobbyist for a tobacco company, and it’s absurd and hysterically funny. I felt like I was living that movie today when I listened to the arguments from our elected Representatives against the bill. The best was from Representative Lenore Hardy Barrett from Challis who claims this tax would be “social engineering”. I kid you not. They voted not to print the bill, so that means none of the people who would like to testify will get a chance. Here’s a link to a story from the Spokesman-Review “Eye on Boise”: Lake urges introduction of cig tax hike bill; says crowd shows how much interest there is. We’ll cover this bill in detail in our 2012 Legislature Report that will be mailed out to all Standard and Retiree members after the end of the session. more…
Category: Value of Public Employees
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My testimony against tax cuts for the high income earners in Idaho
Chairman Lake and members of the committee,
My name is Donna Yule and I am the Executive Director of the Idaho Public Employees Association.
I am here to today to testify in opposition to House Bill 563.
It seems to be the height of irresponsibility to pass any kind of “tax relief” or “tax cut” at this particular moment in Idaho’s history.
This particular bill, House Bill 563, reduces the tax rate for some individuals by .4% and for corporations by .2%. This is a relatively small tax cut for those higher income people who will receive it. But taken as a whole, the bill’s fiscal impact says it will reduce the state’s revenue by $35.7 million dollars in FY 2013.
Last year this legislature cut about this same amount of money from the state’s Medicaid budget, which in turn cost the state about $80 million dollars in matching federal funds. It seems it would be far more responsible to restore funding in many areas that have been cut over the past couple of years rather than give money back in “tax relief” to people who don’t need it. more…
My testimony at the Statehouse for across-the-board raises for State employees
Chairman Andreason and members of the committee,
My name is Donna Yule. I am the Executive Director of the Idaho Public Employees Association.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on behalf of state employees.
My purpose here today is to ask you to give a 3% across the board pay raise to state employees. As you are all well aware, in his State of the State speech, Governor Otter proposed setting aside $41 million to reward “our most deserving employees” with one-time bonus payments. He also recommended that these bonuses should be conditioned on tax revenues meeting projections. While we are happy that the Governor sees the need to reward our state workforce, we believe his approach is not the appropriate way to reward our state employees at this time. more…
Here are a couple of things to think about!
There is a new article I think all Idahoans should read as we prepare for the 2012 Legislature to convene. It’s an article in the Statesman that talks about the legislation Rep. Shirley Ringo (D) and Rep. Tom Trail (R) tried to bring in the last session. Rep. Ringo is hoping this year the legislature will at least hear the bill. This bill would lower Idaho sales tax to 5%, but it would also close 21 sales tax exemptions. This is such a good idea, and IPEA supported the effort last year just on the grounds of fairness alone! more…
Category: State Government
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IPEA’s 2012 Top Legislative Priority
Here’s IPEA’s first priority for the upcoming legislative session.
We want to see the Human Resources Department for the state of Idaho moved out of the Governor’s office. We want the authority to hire and fire an HR Director to reside with the Personnel Commission rather than with the Governor.
We could fix this, and we have the legislation drafted and ready to go. We’ve been trying to get this piece of legislation introduced for the past couple of years, and it hasn’t yet gained traction. But we think the need for this change has become more apparent in the last couple of years.
Prior to 1996, the Personnel Commission was tasked with supervising a Director of Human Resources. The commission was also responsible for creating and maintaining the merit system for hiring, evaluation, and promotion. In 1996 the legislature threw out the system we had and moved this authority to the Governor’s office. We no longer even have a Director of Human Resources. We now have an Administrator of Human Resources. This Administrator answers to the Governor rather than the Personnel Commission. As a result, we simply do not have a truly professional Human Resources department in the state. more…
IPEA supports the “Occupy” movement
Membership in IPEA is taking off, and I’m very pleased to see the growth. It seems this would be a difficult time to recruit members due to the stagnant wages of public employees (and just about every other worker in the state), but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In spite of lay-offs and furloughs, public employees are seeing the need to join together now more than ever.
I think the same sentiment fueling our growth is reflected in the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. Some people criticize the “Occupy” movement for lack of a clear message. I don’t happen to agree with that criticism. While it’s true that they are just now starting to formalize their demands, it’s been very clear to me all along that at the core of the movement is the notion that the “American Dream” is now out of reach of 99% of American workers. more…
Category: Value of Public Employees
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