STATE: Meet your obligations

Despite a tax cut for corporations and high-income individuals in 2012, and another tax cut for businesses in 2013, there still seems to be a modest surplus projected for the state treasury this fiscal year. The governor, most of the Legislature and business lobbyists were in town last week to talk about that. Their solutions involve giving big business another big tax cut next year. Before the Legislature devises yet another way to further deplete the treasury, shouldn’t the Legislature first focus on adequately funding its current obligations?

State funding for public education continues in a decades-long slide. School districts across the Gem State must now increasingly rely on local property taxes to pay for the essentials of educating our children in this 21st Century. The Legislature’s support for higher education similarly continues to erode, with the escalating cost of attaining a post-secondary education progressively shifting to students and their families. College graduates should not begin their working lives with the equivalent of a mortgage from student loans. Advancing beyond high school should not become elitist. Rather, an education should be viewed as a feasible option for all students who are capable of doing the work and motivated to improve their lives.

The good people who staff state offices and administer the day-to-day running of government have not received a raise in years. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives Idaho a grade of “C-“ for our care of our public roads, buildings and other infrastructure. State parks are deteriorating and are kept open largely through the altruism of volunteers.

It’s frankly shameful that our Legislature does not view support for public education, public infrastructure, and working Idaho families as anything but an investment in both our current well-being and our collective future. All the tax breaks in the world won’t help businesses prosper unless there is an educated workforce to hire, a modern infrastructure to move products to markets, and enough money in people’s pockets to purchase the goods and services these businesses provide.

EDWARD LOCKWOOD

Worley