Gov. Otter's initiatives are foundering on the details
Times-News Editorial Board
January 28, 2010
Twin Falls Times-News
Has there ever been an Idaho elected official with better people skills than Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter? We can't think of one. Otter's down-home, self-effacing charm is among his greatest assets as a politician and a leader. So why isn't he more successful in advancing his agenda?
For two years, the Republican governor tried to persuade an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature to approve a package of funding to repair Idaho's roads. He failed.
And now Otter's proposal to eliminate seven state agencies - Idaho Public Television, the Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Hispanic Affairs, the Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Independent Living Council, the Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Digital Learning Academy - by phasing out their funding is running into heavy opposition.
Some of it was inevitable, but the governor failed to make a case for why these agencies should go and what should happen to the services they provide and the clients they serve. If he has a vision for what leaner state government should look like, he hasn't stated it.
So others drove the debate. Lawmakers have been inundated with pleas to rescue IPTV, especially since the first round of cuts would likely jeopardize service to rural areas.
And last week's announcement that the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation would survive despite the fact that Otter wanted to zero out its budget came in the wake of a statewide outcry that the governor seemed to misjudge. Worse, the initiative to save the department came not from Otter but from IDPR Director Nancy Merrill and public officials and community leaders in the Magic Valley trying to head off the closure of Thousand Springs State Park.
Of the other agencies on the chopping block, the future of just one has been decided. The Human Rights Commission will likely be folded into the Department of Labor.
But the governor may not get his way with the rest, especially IPTV. By not putting forward a plan for what IPTV would look like if privatized, he conceded the advantage to those who want to keep public television public.
Otter excels at articulating what government should and should not do. His problem is closing the sale.
Originally posted at http://www.magicvalley.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_6e87f5d3-18dd-5e5a-b769-d8bcfb649d91.html
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