It was really ugly. The item wasn't put on the agenda, and Chairman Leorstscher (R) kept it to the very end of the meeting. He even admitted to reporters afterwards that the decision to keep the issue off the agenda was intentional so nobody could come to testify.
All of the Republicans who voted in our favor changed their votes.
Here's what I think happened. When the legislation first came up, all of the Democrats and about half of the Republicans voted their conscience and rejected the bill. They made the decision based on solid information given to them by the PERSI Board members and several of us who testified against the bill. But sometime after the meeting, Rep. Lake (R), who sponsored the bill, put his head together with Republican leadership and the Governor's office and they decided that this action simply couldn't stand.
Sometime last night Wayne Hoffman (a right-wing blogger who used to work for Bill Sali, R) sent an email out to all of the members of the committee with some actuarial tables saying how big the "unfunded liability" will grow if we don't take this little bit of money away from our retirees. The people who changed their votes used that table to "hang their hat on", and several of them spoke of how angry they were at the PERSI Board because they hadn't given them all of the information.
The first point is that all of these Representatives should have considered the source of the material they were getting. Wayne Hoffman is hardly an expert on investments. Secondly, even if the material they received from Wayne Hoffman raised some questions in their minds, they should have given the PERSI Board members an opportunity to explain the information and to tell them why it was not applicable to this situation. But they didn't.
The fact that they would take information provided by a right wing-nut (my opinion) of the conservative movement over the wise and considered advice of the PERSI Board should be frightening to every voter in Idaho. Frankly, I think many of these Representatives are smart enough to know this, which leads me to believe that they were given the information simply to have an excuse to change their votes to keep the Republican leadership and the Governor happy.
Although these Representatives said that this information given to them by Wayne Hoffman was intentionally kept from them by the PERSI Board, that simply isn't true. Unfunded liabilities were discussed in the first hearing, and all of the Representatives had an opportunity to express their concern. Yet, they didn't. So all this drama and sudden concern about this unfunded liability looks to me to be pure theatrics.
One very telling point was that Representative Raul Labrador, who voted in favor of the COLA yesterday, was conspicuously absent from today's committee hearing. Of course, he's running for a statewide office, and he was certainly smart enough to know he didn't want to go on record as voting against a COLA for more than 33,000 PERSI retirees! I just wish he had the courage of his convictions to come and stand up to the rest of the Republicans, who apparently are willing to sell out due to some pressure from above.
The Dems were really angry. They all testified and all of them said how this action was reprehensible and they all complained that the Chair did not put this on the agenda and how they did not give PERSI a chance to address this concern by not informing them of the hearing.
It will go to the floor quickly, probably tomorrow, and then it will go to the Senate. They are advancing this very quickly because they only have until next Wednesday to get it passed because at that time the COLA will have taken effect.
Please contact all of your state Representatives and urge them to vote against this bill. And, if you sent a "thank you" to any of these Republicans who were for the COLA before they were against it, please send them an email right now and let them know how you feel. Here's a link to the state house membership website: http://legislature.idaho.gov/house/membership.cfm
Rep. Lynn Luker (R)
Rep. Eric Anderson (R)
Rep. Max Black (R)
Rep. Carlos Bilbao (R)
Rep. Raul Labrador (R)
Rep. Russ Mathews (R)
Rep. Steve Kren (R)
Rep. Erik Simpson (R)
