candidate questionaire: ID house, district 5A

[bill london <london@moscow.com>]

Idaho House district 5A:
Don Coombs (D),
Tom Trail (R)

A Moscow Vision 2020 committee composed these questions and collected
the following answers from thecandidates.

1. What are the most significant issues facing the Legislature in both
the short and long term?

2. Should Idaho legalize the agricultural production of hemp?

3. Should some of the present state budget surplus be used for property
tax relief?

4. In a legislature heavily dominated by the Republican Party, is the
party affiliation of our local legislators important for the best
representation for voters of this region?

5. How do we control the rising costs of prisons in Idaho?

6. Do you believe that the decision to spend $500,000 to create the
Idaho Office of Rare and Endangered Species was money
well spent?

7. How would you use electronic communication through websites and email
to keep in effective contact with your
constituents?


Responses by ** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

1. More important than the significant issues is a meta-issue, a big
problem that subsumes the others. And that big problem is
the Legislature itself, which last spring was more a train wreck than a
deliberative body. Many of the significant problems Idaho
faces today weren't successfully addressed by the past Legislature and
some of the problems actually were created by the
Legislature's ultra-conservative Republican leadership. I'll come back
to that later, when I'll share what former Gov. Phil Batt
had to say about "too many Republicans."

As long as you have Idaho children studying in unsafe schools, the No. 1
responsibility of the Legislature has to be to provide
more support for education -- more support not just for buildings but
also for salaries and teaching materials. And higher
education also needs more support. Finding funds for education is
investing, not just spending.

Before we consider changing the motto on our license plates to "Idaho,
the prison state" we need to rein in the present prison
building boom. How to do that is the answer to question 5, below, but
the issue is listed up here because it truly is significant.

Freedom and privacy are nice sounding words, but we have to care about
more than just the words. We have to care about
the specifics of individual situations. We have to be really concerned
when legislative leaders assume they should control what
we see and hear. (They say "If they broadcast a PBS program we don't
like, we'll shut down public TV.") Idaho spends little
on public TV and gets a great bargain, a communication system that helps
tie the state together.

Privacy is seriously threatened by the ease with which personal
information now can be shared. Your health records, for
example, should be available only for authorized purposes, and the
authorization should have to come from you. If and when
privacy matters need to be considered by the Legislature, commercial
interests and government interests should come after, not
before, personal interests.

The Freedom of Religion Act will be an issue, although it is scheduled
to go into effect so early in the legislative session that it
will be difficult to do much about it. No one can say just what effect
it will have, and many -- I think most -- religious leaders in
Idaho opposed it last spring. Some predict that individuals will be able
to start their own religious organizations (with a
congregation of only one?) and ignore planning and zoning and many other
regulations and laws. To some, that would be
desirable freedom. To others, there is a considerable downside.

Tax cuts will be the biggest issue in the 2001 Legislature, according to
some Republicans. Actually there are many
more-important things that need doing, but we're fortunate the state's
economy is doing well enough that a tax cut can be
considered. (See question 3, below.)

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

2. Yes. Hemp has many environmentally-friendly uses and growing it may
be an attractive alternative for some farmers, who
need all the help they can get just now. Some people in law enforcement
have testified that legalization won't complicate drug
enforcement, which would be the only negative. The agricultural
production of hemp should never have been prohibited, of
course, but it was done in the early days of "The Drug War." (This
country now is spending about $30 billion per year on The
Drug War, and we need another DARE program: We need to elect people to
office who dare to point out that the program
isn't working and that spending more money and imprisoning more people
isn't the way to go.)

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

3. Idaho residents are not taxed heavily now, though the Republican
leadership would have you think otherwise. But just
because we are not taxed heavily -- compared to people in most other
states -- doesn't mean taxes can't be cut. They should
be cut after the present budget surplus and the projected revenues from
next year are factored into the picture and after
education and other areas are funded at reasonable levels. This way of
proceeding contrasts with cutting taxes a whole lot early
in the legislative session and then not being able to fund education
adequately "because there just isn't the money."

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

4. The biggest issue in this campaign should be the domination of the
Legislative by ultra-conservative Republicans. Sending a
moderate Republican to Boise just helps empower those leaders. It tells
them "We may not like what you've been doing, but
we want to give you a continued super-majority so you can keep on doing
it."

I would like to quote from the lead editorial in the March 28, 2000,
Spokesman Review: "During his tenure, Republican Gov.
Phil Batt was correct when he said more Democrats were needed in the
Legislature. He was concerned that lawmakers would
fail to debate important issues if everyone thought alike, belonged to
the same caucus, or was afraid to counter Republican
leadership. His concerns have proven prophetic."

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

5. Last year Idaho had the fastest growing prison population in the
country, and the only thing Republican leaders can think of
doing is building more prisons. The problem has been created by the
Legislature, and the Legislature needs to act to sort things
out. As former Gov. Phil Batt (obviously one of my favorite Republicans)
put it in his memoirs, "The last Legislature added
more mandatory sentences, further denying judges the opportunity of
using independent judgment. This ensures that we'll put
even more people in the pen. Reversing the trend I started toward
alleviating our prison crunch is, in my opinion, a mistake.
We're surely smart enough to address this problem without imposing
mandatory sentences for an increasing array of crimes
relating to addiction."

And surely, I would add, legislators should be smart enough to realize
that if a person is not a threat to society, he can be
punished without sending him to prison. Otherwise we are punishing
prisoners AND taxpayers.

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

6. Spending $500,000 to create an Office of Rare and Endangered Species
was wasting money, as was appointing a special
advisor to the governor on educational issues instead of having the
governor deal with duly-elected State Supt. of Schools
Marilyn Howard. Some areas of government -- like those above --
shouldn't be partisan, but Gov. Kempthorne (with the tacit
approval of the legislature) has worked to politicize them. Another
example: The state Fish and Game Commission.

** Don Coombs (Democrat): Idaho House district 5A

7. A one-word answer: Heavily. Though email and websites now are easy to
use to stay in touch with constituents, two
challenges remain. First, there will be new technology coming which will
allow even more effective communication once it is
mastered. Second, there will be some constituents without access to the
Internet, and a state representative needs to use
whatever it takes -- including "old fashioned" techniques -- to keep in
effective contact with those people.


SIGNIFICANT ISSUES FACING THE LEGISLATURE BOTH SHORT
AND LONG TERM

Responses by ** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

1. a. School Facilities--Judge Bail's report concerning school
facilities will not be out until November. I support state
participation in funding school construction. I support taking out $60
million from the current surplus and paying off 10% of the
$600 million school bond indebtedness. This will help all school
districts and also serve as a significant property tax reduction.

I support placing $15-20 million/year from the general fund to go to the
permanent school building fund. School districts could
then apply for a 15-20% match for building new schools or for
remodeling.

In addition, I support reducing the super majority to 60%. I introduced
similar legislation with Rep. Donna Boe two years ago.

b. Teacher Salaries--Idaho ranks 40th nationally in terms of teacher's
salaries and 49th in terms of starting teacher salaries
($22,000/yr). Neighboring states are recruiting our best teachers and
graduates with attractive offers and signing bonuses. I
support increasing teacher and staff salaries so that we are competitive
with other states.

c. Technology Training for Teachers--The Legislature cut funds for
technology training last session. I support increasing funding
to the $1.5 million level.

d. Gifted and Talented Programs----In 1992 Idaho mandated that all
school districts carry out all five gifted and talented areas
in their programs. The problem has been that the Legislature has
provided little funding. We need to increase funding for
teacher and staff training, program support and more effective
identification of gifted and talented students especially among
ethnic groups.

e. Reading--The Legislature passed the Idaho Literacy Act in 1999. We
need to continue program support, teacher training,
and university preparation of teachers in reading to reach the goal of
all students reading at grade level by the end of grade 3.

f. Mentoring Programs--Mentoring Programs are directed toward helping
"at risk" students in grades 1-8. Moscow has
approximately 80 mentors working with students. I recently talked with
Gov. Kempthorne about providing funding of a
mentoring coordinator in each of the school districts to coordinate
mentoring programs. Gen. Colin Powell with the Promise to
America Program would be willing to help with the effort. State
employees should be provided with one hour of paid leave a
week to participate in mentoring programs if they wish to, and
businesses should be encouraged to develop favorable leave
policies and program support for the program.

g. Promise Scholarship Program--Funding must be provided either from the
General Fund or the Millennium Fund to support
this program. This is the program that Sen. Lee and I Co-sponsored
during the last session and it was signed by the Governor.
We will be asking for a $3,000,000 appropriation to start the program
next fall. The program would provide each high school
student who graduates with a 3.00 gpa from an Idaho school with a
scholarship of $500/semester for four semesters at an
Idaho postsecondary institution. Participating institutions will
hopefully be able to match the scholarship. Home schoolers and
private school students are eligible. Currently only 49% of Idaho
students enroll in postsecondary schools as contrasted to 75%
in some other states.

e. Higher Education--Support for higher education in Idaho has decreased
during the past 25 years from about 22% to 11.8%
of the General Budget. We need to provide increased support for faculty
and staff salary equity so that we can compete more
favorably with other states.

With an expanding student population, we need to increase funding for
capital improvements and maintenance of existing
facilities. Additional support is needed to enhance higher education
capability in technology fields so that we can train students
to meet the job requirements of Idaho business and industry.

f. Tax Cuts--the most effective tax cut would be to take $60 million
from our current surplus and pay off 10% of the $600
million school bond indebtedness in Idaho. This in effect would help our
school districts as well as represent a significant
property tax cut.

g. Minimum Wage for Farm Workers--I've sponsored legislation which would
eliminate the agricultural exemption for farm
workers and put them under our minimum wage standards. USDA estimates
that over 17% of our largely Hispanic farm
workers are paid below the minimum wage. This, in effect, creates a
group of second class citizens. I continue to sponsor
minimum wage legislation for farm workers.

h. Food and Prescription Tax Credits for Low Income Idahoans and Senior
Citizens--I will support doubling the food tax
credit this next session. I plan on introducing legislation that would
provide Idahoans a $50 drug prescription tax credit. The
average Senior now spends $673.48 on drug prescriptions each year.

i. Consumer Protection--I've successfully sponsored three consumer
protection laws. This year I'm working with the Attorney
General to help pass "right of privacy" protection to our citizens. Many
Idaho businesses sell your name, address, and personal
data to outside agencies without your permission. The legislation would
require all companies to get your individual written
permission before they could sell your name and personal information.

j. Support for Small Businesses--We are losing much of the economic base
in many of our natural resource dependent
communities. Economic assistance and support through the Legislature and
the Dept. of Commerce is essential to help in the
recovery of the economy base of our rural communities. We need to
attract additional businesses to our rural communities as
well.

k. Medical Insurance for Idaho Families and Children--In spite of a
"booming economy" the percentage of Idaho families
below the poverty line has increased during the past eight years as well
as the number not being covered by medical insurance.
I support legislation to utilize more of our TANF funds to provide
coverage.

l. Salmon Recovery--All stakeholders need to work together to save the
salmon. We may need to drastically reduce the
salmon fishing season. Doc Lucas and I support careful evaluation of a
University of Idaho proposal to build a parallel channel
to the dams which would provide speedy access around dams for salmon.
Scientists estimate that food supplies in the Pacific
ocean and conditions account for 70% of the impact on salmon runs. We
don't have much control over this factor. Elimination
of gill nets and ocean death nets would help.

m. Campaign Finance Reform--I'm currently working on the Executive
Committee of a Group of concerned citizens who are
organizing a initiative drive to put A Clean Election and Accountability
Act on the ballot in 2002. Five states have already
enacted similar legislation. Candidates will have an option to utilize
"clean" campaign money from public funds. Limits will be
set. Full disclosure will be required. Recently surveys in Idaho
indicated that over 70% of the voters would support a clean
election law. Over 130 local officials have endorsed the proposal.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

2. Legalization of Industrial Hemp--I sponsored three bills directed
toward legalizing industrial hemp in Idaho last session. The
bills died in committee but I plan on introducing them again. Industrial
hemp would provide Idaho farmers with an excellent
alternative crop. It is an outstandingly environmental friendly crop--no
pesticides or herbicides. Over 20,000 products are
made from industrial hemp. Industrial hemp mixed with wood chips makes
particle board that is 4 times stronger than currently
produced particle board (WSU experiments). I visited the largest hemp
factory in the U.S. located in Spokane. The owners
process and dye hemp used to make fabrics. They buy hemp from China,
Hungary and Romania. They would love to purchase
industrial hemp grown by Idaho farmers.

There is major concern from DEA, law enforcement, and others that if
legalized that pot growers would hide their crop in the
industrial hemp fields. First of all it is possible to plant industrial
hemp with 0 THC content. Furthermore, industrial hemp would
cross pollinate with pot and drastically reduce the quality of the
product. There are over 1,000 farmers who raise industrial
hemp in Canada. They are all registered and monitored. I talked with the
Canadian Director of the Program and with Capt.
O'Rourke of the RCMP. They said there is no evidence of any increase in
crime because of the cultivation of industrial hemp. I
propose that we basically follow same registration and monitoring system
established in Canada. Changes will have to be made
at the national level before any industrial hemp can be grown. DEA must
turn over the registration and monitoring of industrial
hemp to USDA and then work out arrangement through the various State
Departments of Agriculture.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

3. I noted that an approach that I support is to take $60 million from
the surplus and pay off 10% of the $600 million in school
bond indebtedness. This would provide significant property tax relief.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

4. I've stated many times that I believe that a voter should consider
the qualification of the candidate regardless of party and
vote for the candidate who he/she feels will best represent them in
Boise. Party makes little difference if a legislator is attuned to
constituent needs.

In my case where I have four years of experience I stand a much better
chance of being moved up to a Committee Chair
position or to JFAC because I belong to the majority party. This can be
viewed in a positive manner because these leadership
positions enable a legislator to to more strongly represent the
interests of his/her constituents.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

5. There are several ways we can control the rising cost of prisons. The
first is to support all local alternatives for juvenile
offenders. This involves the courts, juvenile corrections, the community
. A year of alternative community service costs about
$2,000/year vs $50,000 for a year at St. Anthony. We need to give judges
more latitude in sentencing. Mandatory sentencing
for many non-violent crimes is helping fill out prisons.

I proposed to Gov. Kempthorne that we establish another school district
in the State--just for inmates with a Superintendent of
Prison Education and staff. There is an old saying that wardens don't
make good educators. Twenty states have turned the
control of prison education over to educators. The results are
outstanding. There is a higher degree of participation in
educational programs by inmates, and a higher percentage who obtain the
GED, Associate Arts, and other degrees. More
inmates get jobs when they leave, and the return rate to prison is much
lower.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

6. Idaho Office of Rare and Endangered Species--I'd hold judgment on
this. Let's see what the track record is after two years
of operation. There are many who felt that the office should have been
located in Fish and Game staffed by professionals and
not politicians. But let's see what the track is and then make a
reasonable judgement.

** Tom Trail (Republican): Idaho House district 5A

7. Constituent Communication--During the past four years I have handled
more than 8,000 e-mails from constituents. I send
out a weekly Legislative E Mail Newsletter that reaches an estimated
3,500 constituents. During the period outside of the
Legislative session I send out periodic newsletters and releases.

My e mail address is ttrail@moscow.com and my Home Page is
www.infotrail.com/idaho

I post position papers and legislative news on my home page. Last year I
had over 1,600 hits in terms of people who looked at
my home page.

I will continue to utilize the electronic means of communications with
constituents.

Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
1375 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel: (208) 882-6077
Fax: (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail@moscow.com