Re: Pre-Legislative Newsletter from Rep. Tom Trail - Jan. 16th

[Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

>decisions facing lawmakers are impressive -- dealing with critical needs 
>school
>safety and building problems, finding new sources of cash for maintaining the
>state's own billion dollar inventory and financing local water and sewer
>projects, and deciding how to spend tobacco trust earnings
Tom:  Does either party, or do legislative committees, have any kind of 
laundry list informed by criteria such as --

      1) areas, esp. rural, undergoing economic decline and stress which 
render them incapable of maintaining minimum essential services like 
schools, law enforcement, traffic arteries, etc.
      2) need for venture capital in communities which could, with 
retraining human resources, expand production and service enterprises
      3) natural resources conservation (water, soil, forests,etc.) 
projects that over time promote job retention and job promotion
      4) better ways to move goods and people around the state without 
huge outlays for hiway "improvement" which usually exacerbates rather 
than solves traffic congestion
      5) facilitating more active citizen involvement in policy review 
leading to decisin-making, so as to reduce the credibility gaps -- many 
states encourage town meetings by legislators, so that some face-to-face 
sessions can be held (District 5 had a mini one on the U of I campus in 
Dec., but it wasn't very convenient for most folks). Citizens often show 
signs of good intelligence when allowed to speak!
     6) measures for improving total environmental integrity, esp. 
vehicular and plant emissions, lands adjacent to heavily harvested 
forests, old mine tailings, etc.
    7) early childhood education to promote cognitive development of our 
future generation -- research has long shown the critical value of early 
nurturing and education of the child -- an education that most parents 
pursue if they have the means and which others would support if 
subsidized -- It's a huge national asset.
    8) promoting more and better tourist facilities throughout the Gem 
State; e.g., I would support a grant to help restore the ghost town of 
Rocky Bar, where my grandmother grew up before movingto Butte (we own no 
property!)
...... etc....
   Other folks could come up with other items, but all the above could 
lead to very useful expenditures of surplus $. And as for the tobacco 
money, why not conduct a sample survey of both rural and urban residents 
to elicit their preferences. Ideally, the monies ought to go to community 
education about dangers of tobacco and to youth programs, since youth are 
the tobacco industries main target now. Perhaps any $ spent on education 
could be coined as "anti-drug" programming.
   I'd like to hear what you and any others have to say about these 
matters. Thanks so much for your info.!  Ken M.

------------------------
William K. Medlin
Dev-plan associates
930 Kenneth Street
Moscow ID 83843
208/892-0148
dev-plan@moscow.com