Rep. Dixon holds town hall meeting

BONNERS FERRY — Rep. Sage Dixon held a town hall meeting on Saturday to inform Boundary County residents about what is going on in the Idaho Legislature, and to get their feedback on issues of concern.

Dixon holds monthly town hall meetings in Boundary County in order to keep his constituents informed on state legislative issues.

Dixon holds a seat on two house committees, the Joint Finance and Appropriations committee and on the Transportation and Business committee.

Only general discussions have been held regarding transportation funding, which remains an issue, Dixon said, as Idaho Transportation Department officials communicated to legislators that there remains a $263 million backlog of maintenance and repairs of bridges and roads in the state. Dixon expects more on this topic later in the session.

Concerning his position on the Joint Finance and Appropriations committee, Dixon said tax reform is a current debate being held in legislative session, with one bill calling for an increase in the property owner’s exemption from $100,000 to $250,000, as well as pushing for narrowing tax brackets, with the objective to set a flat tax. Passing a bill that would lower grocery taxes has also been discussed, but does not appear to be promising, according to Dixon who is in favor of the proposal.

Dixon said that it is unfortunate that a lot of their bills are not heard, and he doesn’t think it’s appropriate that agencies and lobbyists are allowed to run bills. Therefore, one of his main focuses is trying to clean up the legislative process and hopes to present a bill limiting the ability of lobbyists to present bills to legislators, and requiring lobbyists, or the governor’s office, to make their case to a legislator to propose the bill.

“It is regrettable that agencies and lobbyists are allowed to run the bills,” Dixon said. “We are the legislators and we should run the bills. The executive branch should not be making law. It’s our duty to go into the budgets that the agencies are proposing and pick them apart.”

Following his legislative report, Dixon opened the floor to public comments and questions.

Donna Capurso raised the Heather Scott controversy, asking Dixon where he stood on the issue.

Capurso’s question was in regard to House Speaker Scott Bedke stripping Rep. Heather Scott of her committee assignments during a legislative session in Boise on Jan. 12, after Rep. Christy Perry wrote Bedke a letter complaining about a comment that Scott had made to another lawmaker during a private conversation. Scott had voiced her opinion and disapproval of the unethical behavior displayed by Rep. Christy Perry and Sen. Jim Guthrie, whose extramarital affair had been made public by Guthrie’s wife on Aug. 8, 2016 via blogger Lance Earl. On Oct. 17, 2016. two months after public disclosure of the affair, Perry’s husband, Matthew, also filed for divorce, according to online court records first reported by the Idaho Press-Tribune.

On Jan. 16, five Idaho lawmakers, including Rep. Ron Nate (R-Idaho Falls), Rep. Priscilla Giddings (R-White Bird), Rep. Dorothy Moon (R-Stanley), Rep. Christy Zito (R-Hammett) and Rep. Karey Hanks (R-St. Anthony), asked Bedke to remove them from their committee assignments in protest of his punitive action against Scott for exercising her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Bedke refused, and those lawmakers have since attended their committees.

Dixon said, that while he does support Scott, he didn’t see anything beneficial in giving up his committee positions, as he was elected by the people to represent them in the Legislature.

“I thought it was important to continue the work I’ve been doing,” Dixon said.

Patrick Phillips, a deacon at Providence Church, thanked Dixon for his dedication to his constituents.

“I appreciate you remaining on your committees and continuing to represent us in spite of a grave injustice that is going on in the house right now,” Phillips said.

Other discussion included the controversial Con-Con or Article V Convention of the States issue.

The Constitutional Convention is a representative body meeting to form and adopt a new constitution or to form, consider, and adopt amendments to an existing constitution.

On Jan. 19, Dixon arranged an informational meeting on the Con-Con, inside of the Idaho State Capitol’s Lincoln Auditorium in Boise.

Robert Brown, speaker for the John Birch Society, presented the view opposing convening a Constitutional Convention. According to Dixon, there has been a great deal of lobbying for an Article V Convention, with lobbyists neglecting to address the negative aspects of the issue.

“My main purpose was to present information different from what we have been presented with, in order that everyone would be able to make an informed decision,” Dixon said.

To understand more about the Article V Convention of the States, a public, DVD viewing is set for February 7th, 7 p.m. at the Dodge Creek Lodge in Bonners Ferry.