The far-right showed you who they are. Ignore their blather pretending to protect kids | Opinion

Moon has shown where she stands on protecting youth

Dorothy Moon says: “Voters need to start asking candidates for local office where they stand on sexualizing children, because it’s happening in communities all across our state....”

Let’s see how Moon protects Idahoans.

Moon supported rapist Aaron von Ehlinger during Ethics Committee Hearings, dismissing the gravity of the charges raised against him by a teen intern. Her testimony included victim-blaming and demonstrated a lack of empathy and understanding.

I’ll never forget the screams after Jane Doe left the room. She was swarmed by people and chased to her car after Moon, Giddings, and others alerted supporters of where she’d be. How despicable to dox the brave woman who came forward to take a dangerous predator out of the statehouse.

Sexual assault and child abuse are real problems in Idaho. According to data collected from state law enforcement agencies, the rate of sexual violence reached its highest point in 2020. We need to start believing survivors, providing resources and stop using marginalized groups to distract from real issues.

So Moon is right. Let’s look at how candidates stand up against sexualizing children and protecting survivors of sexual assault. And let’s remember the saying: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

Rep. Rod Furniss, Rigby

A voucher by any other name bleeds public schools

Let’s make some things clear about the tax credit Bill HB447, currently being floated by our state legislature. A $5,000 tax credit for a private and/or religious school (including home schools) needs to be examined for impact.

Parents (who choose to send their child to a private school), get a big reduction in their tax liability. If they make from $90,000 to $100,000 a year and owe taxes of maybe 10%, they get the gift of a credit of $5,000, half of the tax they would normally pay. That’s a tax credit.

That money reduces the amount of tax collected by the state of Idaho. Since the Idaho education budget (last in the nation for per pupil spending) is based on enrollment, if more students leave the public schools for private education or homeschooling, the individual district gets less money.

How is that not bleeding public education? And this does not consider the issues of lack of accountability and the prohibition against using public money for religious schools.

It’s not called a voucher, but that’s what it is, make no mistake. And it’s part of a Republican agenda to weaken public schools and shift money to the private sector.

Penelope Manning, Boise

Idaho Power ripping off rooftop solar

Idaho Power’s years-long campaign to end rooftop solar in Idaho finally paid off. How do I know this? Because Idaho Power was kind enough to send out a mailer detailing all of the ways in which they cheated, and will continue to cheat, existing and future solar customers.

A sampling: disparate treatment of supply versus demand power; ratepayer discrimination based on home orientation; preferred solar generation rates after sunset; applicability to already-installed systems; and yearly rate increases. No rational consumer would install and finance a rooftop solar system costing tens of thousands of dollars, for which they would be paying over the next 10, 15, or 20 years, under these conditions.

In the long history of regulating monopoly utilities like Idaho Power, has any regulatory agency ever given the “regulated” utility authority to simply increase the rates they charge to an entire class of residential customers every year? Well, now we have at least one example because that’s exactly what IPUC just did. One can only laugh (or cry if you were foolish enough to install a rooftop solar system in the last few years) at Idaho Power’s messaging about supporting clean energy and protecting the environment. Fool me once…

Tim Murphy, Boise

Stop going after libraries

I cannot understand the Idaho Legislature’s war against libraries and librarians. If there is a book in the library that you don’t want your child to read, there is a simple solution that requires no legislation: be a parent. Care enough to know what your child is reading and, if they’re too young for certain books or if for some reason the material offends you, exercise your parental discretion.

It’s ironic that the political party spearheading this crusade is the one that has traditionally opposed government interference in personal matters. Now they want the government to take the place of the family and determine not only the books their child can access at a library but decide what books my child can access.

There is a reason libraries are operated by government and not by the church. Sometimes books challenge our thinking and expand our horizons. That’s a good thing. It prevents us from being locked in a box all our lives. And good parents encourage critical thinking by exposing their kids to the world when they’re ready. Libraries play a critical role in the process.

William Rice, Boise

Open primary would end dominance of far right

The recent kerfuffles over Medicaid funding and arming school teachers highlight the problems inherent in a Legislature most of whose members are Republican, many of whom feel the need to pander to the extreme right wing of the party.

This right wing is helmed by Dorothy Moon, who controls potential candidates for office by allocating money and censuring legislators who fail to obey her every rule. She has gone to war with the citizens of Idaho by proposing making the citizen’s initiative much harder by setting the bar for signatures and number of districts impossibly high, or by amending the constitution to eliminate the citizen initiative entirely.

The Open Primaries initiative will eliminate closed primaries, which are publicly funded but bar non-party members, including the 275,000 unaffiliated voters in Idaho. The initiative will allow all eligible Idaho voters to vote for the candidates of their choice in the primary elections.

Having to answer directly to the voting public, rather than to party bosses, will help free representatives to do the peoples’ work, like funding our schools and taking care of our most vulnerable. This is what Idahoans want to see from their Legislators.

Stanley M. Hall, Boise