Ready or Not

This will be my forth session serving in the Idaho legislature. Each year I've spent the night before it starts with more and more to contemplate and worry about. This year I have more than 10 pieces of legislation I am hoping to pass or at least see introduced by a committee in printed bill form. Of course that's way too many pieces of legislation for one person, especially a Democrat in a Republican majority and I know it. But as much of an optimist as I am, I know the fate of some of these bills.      

     Three of these have a good chance this year because I've worked very hard to gain expertise on the issues and have good potential co-sponsors. In those cases I am addressing problems which a majority of legislators agree need solving -- regardless of what party we belong to.
    In a case or two this year I have a solution to something that many of my colleagues will probably not feel is a problem.
    In one case I think a majority of my colleagues would agree there is a problem but most are afraid of what their constituents will think and so will need a great deal of assurance before I have a chance of seeing this legislation become law.
    There is one draft in my stack of dull looking black and white pages which is a great solution which almost all agree is sound and necessary policy but which we may never get to vote on because House leadership may decide to apply force or obstruction to prevent its passage. That is the hard stuff, good policy tied up in power struggles or partisan politics.
    I have two drafts this year which address technical problems, and honestly I don't know if I've found the solution but I'm trying and my colleagues will give me feedback and I'll work on it more and we'll get it right so it works eventually and then maybe next year we'll pass it into law. 
    Finally there are two proposals which are not mine. They are going to be set out as solutions to problems I agree exist. Unfortunately they both do more to shift burdens and harm teachers and small business taxpayers than they actually help them. I will be fighting these. One I helped stop last year and the other is new.    

     So we'll see how it goes. Tonight I'm fretting about co-sponsors and surprised at how calmly I'm debating the potential fate of what I've spent this last year struggling to make worthy of Idaho law.      

    Passage of some of these bills will affect thousands of lives, some will impact over a million people in ways they may feel every day. Without some of this legislation hard working people will lose their jobs, and farmlands will be buried under subdivisions; men will sit more years in prison even though drug treatment is what they really need to become constructive members of society.

I remember: What we as legislators write and pass into law, we sentence Idahoans to live with (or without) daily until others repeal our folly or the courts strike it down. I ask, every day of the session, may we think carefully where all the burdens fall.