It's Just a Little Smoke...

Ridenbaugh Press: "Preferential treatment

One might expect that a state legislature assigned to sift among all the interests of the state would weigh the interests of one against another, and that even a notably pro-business legislature, such as Idaho's, would weigh at least the various business interests against each other, rather than worry about single-dimensional fairness to just one.
But do it did, once again, in the case of House Bill 33, the latest in a series aimed at ensuring the right of farmers in the Rathdrum area to burn their grass seed, a component of developing that crop. This particular measure has to do with defining an 'economically viable alternative' to the burns that darken skies and clog lungs in the Panhandle.
You could feel the unease in the Senate when Senator Shawn Keough, a Sandpoint resident - an asthmatic - who lives straight in the path of the smoke, talked about the impact. This is smoke produced by someone else which comes not just to but through her home. She talked about having to decide whether this arrival of smoke meant she had to go to the hospital, and consider just what the health consequiences of this burn might be. She is, of course, far from alone, but making the matter personal, affecting someone all 33 of the other senators knew, made it the more powerful.
Strong as that argument was, it has not swayed a working majority of senators in the past. Put perhaps a bit more forsibly this time was the point that other businesses - tourism notably, but many others as well - are being harmed by the burns. Considering the impact of legislation beyond just one sector - the grass seed farmers - evidently was more than a majority of senators would absorb. In the end, the bill passed 19-15; it had previously passed the House. 03/16/05 08:37 "