Eye On Boise
Farmers, retailers, IACI, ICAN oppose Rep. Hart’s immigration legislation
Brent Olmstead, lobbyist for the Milk Producers of Idaho, said an array of groups oppose HB 497, Rep. Phil Hart’s immigration bill, and they include the Food Producers of Idaho, the Idaho Farm Bureau, the Idaho Retailers Association, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, and more. Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, noted that it’s just one of three bills on the topic pending in this year’s Legislature; he asked Olmstead which bill his coalition, the Idaho Business Coalition for Immigration Reform, is backing. “We will likely as a coalition not support any of them,” Olmstead responded. “This is a federal issue.”
An Idaho Community Action Network board member, Alicia Clements, also spoke out against the bill, saying “only Congress can deliver” a solution to the immigration issue, and that Hart’s bill would simply impose more costs on the state. “It’s going to cost us a lot of money that we need for schools and other programs, and … it’s not going to work,” she told the committee.
In brief for Idaho on Feb. 19, 2010
Immigration bills protested
BOISE (AP) -- Immigrant advocacy groups want Idaho lawmakers to dump three bills targeting illegal workers and companies that employ them, on grounds such reform should be left to the federal government.
Catholic Charities of Idaho and the Idaho Community Action Network were among critics of the bills at a press conference Feb. 15.
The strictest of the measures pending in the Idaho Legislature, sponsored by Sen. Mike Jorgenson of Hayden Lake, would require companies to use the federal E-Verify system and would suspend a business' license if it were caught knowingly hiring illegal workers.
Christine Tiddens, a Catholic Charities spokeswoman, said the measures up for consideration sow "chaos and fear."
Dairy industry fights counties
BOISE (AP) -- Livestock groups snubbed by the Idaho Supreme Court this month are now asking Idaho lawmakers to come to their defense by scaling back local authority over large dairies with thousands of cows and tons of manure.
On Feb. 11, Idaho Dairyman's Association lobbyist Ken McClure told the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee that Idaho should limit counties to siting dairies, but not allow them to pass stricter standards governing air and water quality than those already on Idaho's books.
Counties oppose the proposal, saying state environmental laws do little to address cumulative effects of large dairies which have helped make Idaho the nation's third biggest milk-producing state, but have also led to pollution concerns.
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