Summary
"When the governor made his proposal, I had a number of people ask me, or express concern to me, that this seemed like a really tough position to put the Human Rights Commission in. I said, 'Let's see if we can't reach out to some of them, and bring back to the Legislature how important we think this is,'" [Marc Johnson] said. There's some hope on the horizon for the HRC, with a plan to move the agency to the Department of Labor, but there are details to finalize before that can happen.
Pablo Yzquierdo, a former commissioner on the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, also spoke out against the governor's strategy. The staff at Hispanic Affairs is down to three - all of whom now face furlough days. While Yzquierdo couldn't speak for the commission, he did say: "I think that cutting this commission has little to do with the budget. I realize that the state has a shortfall on taxes, but all these commissions add up to less than 1 percent. The Hispanic Commission only gets $100,000 a year from the state. I think it has more to do with this Libertarian ideology. I don't think anybody wants big government. I certainly don't, but I think that chopping down certain things like the Human Rights Commission, which has 40 years of work in the state ... I think the governor is out of step. I think it's wrong."See the full content of this document
Extract
Phasing Them Out
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter came out swinging at the beginning of this year's legislative season, suggesting the move of entire state agencies off the general fund dole. But in just three weeks, two of the agencies slated for full submersion - have managed to k...
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