Author: Alan Wolfe, Co-Chair
Local Update
Our discussion on local issues focused on two items, school levies, and NIC accreditation.
School Levies will be voted on in Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, and Rathdrum on March 14th. This can have a large impact on our chamber members. We all feel a strong school system is extremely important to the business community in a number of ways.
It was decided the four chambers would pull together to buy an ad in the CDA Press in support of all the levies in Kootenai County. We are also working on social marketing and speaking opportunities for our districts to spread the word and encourage people to VOTE YES for our schools.
The accreditation issue at NIC was also discussed in length with the suggestion of another informational forum regarding the facts around accreditation. In the end, we decided that while a forum would be helpful to the public and our members, it would be ineffective without the support of the NIC board.
State Update
While things are just getting going in Boise, there was some discussion regarding Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 101 which… Proposes a state constitutional amendment to require an initiative petition to be signed by at least 6% of legal voters at the last general election in each legislative district.
A similar resolution was passed by the legislature in the past but was overturned by the Idaho Supreme Court as unconstitutional. This legislation takes it a step further by suggesting a change to the state constitution.
Details on this resolution can be found at SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 101 – Idaho State Legislature
Federal Update
It’s still early in Washington, DC as well. We did discuss the debt ceiling and the request from our congressional delegation to add another federal judge to Idaho. The workload created by the pandemic has created quite a backlog, and we are in need of another judge.
Next Meeting: Thursday, February 13th, 11 am, Post Fall Chamber Boardroom