Idaho, The Nanny State? State Senator Nicole LaFavour’s view for Idaho

Hello Conservatives,


Yesterday afternoon Idaho’s District 19 State Senator Nicole LaFavour was on the radio with KBOI’s Nate Shelman., An eye opener to say the least. She was on with Shelman for almost an hour. There was too much to transcribe here but if you missed it you can listen to the whole show here.

I have transcribed the meat of it for your reading pleasure, Have the tums before you start. It just turned my stomach inside out.

Shelman:    “Is your goal just to tick off everyone there in the legislature?”



LaFavour:   “you know, even if it’s not my goal I think on some days umm being required to speak up on issues no one else does your going to end up accomplishing that task weather you like it or not”.

On her reaction to the State of the State Address

LaFavour:   “I really didn’t see a lot of leadership in his (Governor Otter) speech. He kind of said you know, we have a lot of problems I don’t know what the solutions are but what I do know is Idahoans hate government and were not going to raise taxes. And you know that really in my mind when were facing a dire budget crisis isn’t the kind of leadership we need out of a Governor.”

Shelman:    "Okay, what would you suggest? Since you’re on the State Senate."

LaFavour:     "Since I’m on the State Senate, I honestly think we need to ask the people of Idaho what their opinion is in part in a couple of options in getting through this and one of them is you know after our recent revenue numbers things are really hard on people out there but a lot of people are very dependent on parts of state government for their lives latterly, through their physical health or to put food on their table to get job training to make sure their small businesses are able to do what they need to and we have an obligation to say do you want those services cut what looks like now we would have to do more than 10% into that, including your schools or would you rather pay more taxes in some area perhaps in the upper income tax earners. In the past we raised the sales tax a penny. There are a lot of different options out there but not to allow any of them to have discussion, allow the people of Idaho to really say which they would prefer, do they want their schools cut 10% or not? I think it’s irresponsible and I’ve said that and I’ve gotten gaveled for it."

Shelman:      "…The Governor has asked for feedback. I get feedback on this show and I understand that it’s not a scientific survey that we take here on this station but, I haven’t heard one person say raise taxes or raise income taxes or give the government more money or increase fees, nobody wants any of it to go up."

LaFavour:     "Well, we all have different audiences we probably listen to because more and more of us are starting to hear from people who have kids in school classrooms who are really concerned about their child being in there with 35 or 40 kids where you know if they miss something their not going to get a chance to have the teacher to help them with that things go on and you know honestly that has repercussions for those kids and really when your thinking about your kids future and their ability to succeed in the class room you might be worried and you might think, I could pay $100 more on my income tax and maybe that something people want to make a decision about not just for this one year and were not talking about for the long term we have faced financial crisis before in the state and we have dealt with them in ways that kept everything from falling apart."

Shelman:     "At what point does the State have to provide for everybody who isn’t able to provide for themselves? They have the physical ability but not the job not the finances at what point does that start and end, in your mind?"

LaFavour:     "You know I think that’s the debate that governments have had as long as there have been governments. But, there are a few things that we know, and one of them is that crisis is far more expensive than basic prevention. If we can keep people in a state of being where they are not starving and crating a health crisis that we have to pay for in emergency rooms in hospitals and with county indigent funds that come out of your property taxes or where we have to put Medicaid dollars into them because they lost a job or lost their mental health because they had no mental health care or where they have to go to prison where we have to you know spend thousands and thousands of dollars more than we would if we just fed them in the first place or made sure that their family was in stable housing or had mental health care. We understand that at a certain level we create more cost for society if we don’t provide something basic."

Shelman:     "But, what’s the states responsibility in that something basic? I’m asking you not the entire Democrat party, I’m just asking you."

LaFavour:    "The sates responsibility is to provide some level of food and shelter and care to people when they are in crisis and again it’s on all of us as tax payers if the state does not do that. We have to provide that or we will have to pay for the crisis care. The state has to pay when someone goes to the hospital and can’t pay their hospital bills. And that means taxpayers have to pay for that. In the end it is cheaper for taxpayers to pay for those basic services for people then to wait and let those people suffer to the point where they are in crisis."

Shelman:     "Do I dare ask where you weigh in on a Public Option Health Care plan, go national with this?"

LaFavour:    "I don’t like the plan before congress right now. I think with a mandate without some way for people to be assured to afford it is not going to work. For one thing it’s really punitive to families. I’m not really crazy about mandating people to buy private insurance. I don’t trust insurance companies. In fact I feel they’re pretty much the source of the problems with the health care system right now. What I would like to see is getting health insurance companies out of the mix because I would rather have some other entity be in charge of our health care. I feel that their profit motive hurts every one of us every day when they can randomly cut us off, deny care, raise our rates. I think people are going bankrupt over that and I think that’s wrong."

Shelman:     "Earlier this week there was proposals on the Idaho Health Freedom Act. Telling the federal government that their federal penalties on any health care proposal to punish people or tax people who don’t have health care coverage will not be honored in the Sate of Idaho. They will not be enforced here would you support something like that?"

LaFovour:     "Probably not just because I don’t know that it’s really realistic. It’s got a lot of language in it that really inflammatory too. I think that you know, we have a really bad situation in health care. I hope we do something to make it better, I happen to think this bill in it’s current form, the senate form is going to do that but I don’t know what health care reform is going to look like if it passes and I would want to know what that was before I voted on it."

Caller from Caldwell:    "what percentage of my income do you feel entitled to confiscate and give to someone else who didn’t earn it?"

LaFavour:   "Quite honestly, it just depends on how much you make and…. Um "(laughs)

Shelman:     "Did you really just say that?"

LaFavour:     'I did. I did. Um,"

Caller:     "Give me a percentage. What percentage of one’s income do I owe you or any other legislature or any other citizen, what percentage of my labor do I owe someone else?"

LaFavour:     "How much in state services do you think you use? Have you ever used a public school? Have you ever driven on a road?"

Caller:    "Ya but, I pay tax. I’m talking about income tax I’m not talking about registration fees I pay for my cars to pay for that road I’m not talking about gas taxes I pay to pay for that road. I don’t have any kids in school so you can’t use that one on me."

LaFovour:     "So do you appreciate the fact that the people around you are educated?"

Caller:       "I didn’t ask you what I appreciate, I asked you what percentage of someone’s income do they owe the state?"

LaFavour:     "You know, honestly I don’t think it’s a matter of how much you owe I think it’s matter of what we as a civilized society decide we collectively have to give personally, it would be great if we could give an hours instead of money but what we collectively have to give to make our society work. And to make sure the people aren’t starving in street, or being homeless, or going without medical care. I mean I pay my taxes because that’s what I want. I don’t want my neighbors to go hungry."

Caller from Mtn Home:      "I’m really sick and tired of hearing politicians preach to me how everything’s going to fall apart unless I pay higher taxes. My kids are going to school, I basically need the money in my pocket instead of giving to the government….I don’t need the government to take care of me, I don’t need a lot of these services we just simply can do without. And our Governor, God bless him actually had the leadership to cut back on this stuff and I think it’s fantastic and it’s great. That puts more money in my pocket and it provides for my family better. Why Senator, do you feel that’s a bad thing?"

LaFavour:    "I completely sympathize with you. If I had my way we wouldn’t hurt families that are struggling any more than we already are in fact we’d hurt them less and we’d lower taxes on families that really can’t make ends meet. But, I have to tell you that there are a lot of people in the state who are still doing really well in this economy. My income in my family hasn’t dropped and I think we should be paying more. I think that sense, you know, that some people are still making more than $70,000 a year, no kids, some individuals I’m talking about and you know their still doing all right I think it would be fair for them to pay more. I think some people really are suffering and I don’t think they should have to pay more."

Shelman:    "Fair according to who?"

LaFavour:    " I like I said really worry about what happens to the most vulnerable in our society. There are people with disabilities frankly who um you know in this last round of budget cuts they, in many cases saw a huge reduction in services, we cut mental health services, we cut services that keep people out of prisons, Services that keep people out of hospitals and emergency rooms, and frankly, is our society better or is our society more fair if those folks go to an emergency rooms and hospitals?"

Shelman:      "Senator you seem like you’re an inch away from saying we need to share the wealth."

LaFavour:       "I totally believe we need to share the wealth. I think as a responsible society and I am not speaking for my political party I am speaking for myself. And I mean share the wealth I mean that could be in your time it could be in your money but, we’re a giant complex society and quite frankly, you know the only way we have to uphold some sort of level of decency where one person can fall on hard times and not fall into crisis is where we all do share the pain."



Caller from Boise:    "I hate to tell Nicole that but I think she is living in the wrong country. Nicole, what is the salary of a Legislator in the state of Idaho?"

LaFavour:    "Um we make I think $16,000 a year."

Caller:    " And 18 of 105 legislative people declined health insurance. Are you covered under the health insurance plan? "

LaFavour:   " No, I don’t take it." (she said she is one of the 18)

Caller:    "That’s $734,000. That’s being dulled out for legislative people who have jobs or other jobs somewhere else, correct? Start there."

LaFavour:    "I have a problem with that too."

Caller:    " Let me tell you what 90% of us that are self employed and business people who are successful, essentially the 10% that your talking about are paying 90% of the taxes. It’s called bar stool economics. Police, Fire, Water, Sewer, and the courts that’s all the state is responsible for. It bothers me that you think your gonna take from those of us who work, I work personally 16 or 17 hours a day almost 7 days a week. Somebody making $70,000 in this country, you think they should pay more?"

LaFavour:    "I do think people who make more should pay more and I say that only because some how we have to make sure people are not starving in the street or dying in the street from cancer because they don’t have health insurance. I personally wouldn’t want to live in a country like that. And if you think it would be okay to live in a country like that then you know that’s your prerogative then you can elect representatives and Senators that believe that so, that is the debate at hand. What kind of a county do we want to live in? What kind of a state?"

Shelman:    "I’m not going to break any news to you, you know your view point is in the minority. Not only in the Legislator but here on this program."

LaFavour:    "Well in my party too. My party, they don’t want to talk about taxes right now either."

Shelman:     "On what income levels should people be paying taxes." he gave her $55,000.

LaFavour:    "Right now in the state of Idaho people earning that much are required under our income tax laws to pay I believe around 7% and I would say that once you hit $55,000 of gross income you would still pay that. I would say when you hit about $70,00 of gross income or $50,000 of taxable income after all your deductions that maybe you should pay 8%. And I think when you hit $100,000 you should pay a little bit more than that."

Shelman:    "What’s the reward then for earning more money?"

LaFavour:     "You get to spend it."

Shelman:     "Ya, but you also get more taken away from you."

LaFavour:   That’s because somehow we have to be a civilized society to (once again) make sure people are not dying in the streets, going hungry, and all the other things…."

Oh my goodness.  ICB