So are you saying county employees should lose their benefits as well? Think how much that will add to taxpayers when their kids get sick. Do your research. County employees are paid way below national averages. No wonder we hemmorhage trained and qualified individuals to surrounding states.

EDITOR NOTE–Ron, you got it all wrong. Paying bennies to part timers would stand to ATTRACT workers rather than force them elsewhere. Also, BOTH part time and full timers would qualify for COBRA–the ability to pay for health insurance at the employer’sgroup rate for up to a year if they are put out of work. For a fact, many private sector employers have part time positions to avoid paying benefits.

I think many govt. agencies will start cutting back employees and benefits. Boise School District has quit paying full health insurance for part time teachers. This is sad fact, but less money means something will get trimmed. At least some of these people can keep employment in these tough times.

Guardian, Once again I write from the confines of the D.C. area (yes, still an Idaho resident, paying taxes to Gov. Otter’s multi-million dollar rainy day fund)after reading even more turmoil happening to my hometown and beloved valley. Sometimes it strikes me as odd that their is always one job that is constantly hiring workers under the age of 40 for full time work with full benefits (to include free medical, dental for all family members, and in most cases free housing) yet people won’t look at it as an option.
For all those that say that they can’t take care of their family, have no job despite having a degree, think about the one job everyone seems to always give thanks for, the military. While I agree it is not for all, it sure does beat having to figure out where you will get the money to feed your kids, pay your rent and such. Yes, you will have to live in some pretty unexciting places like nowhere Alaska or out in the deserts of Texas, but hey, you’re kids will have food and medical insurance (at no cost to you), you will have a reliable roof over your head, you will be working toward a non-employee contributing retirement plan and you never have to worry about figuring out what you will wear to work or having to complain about the cost of gym memberships again as physical training is free 5 times a week.
So instead of everyone complaining about the dire job market, pull yourself up by the bootstraps (as my dad would always say and he was right about this) and do what you have to do in order to ensure your children are taken care of regardless of it not being really for you.
Will you be able to affor dthat house over in the foothills or Eagle? without a doubt NO. Will you be able to afford a new car eveyr 3-4 years? probably not (although if they bring back the Yugo, maybe). But please, if you are one of those that have lost their job or know you are going to, exhaust all avenues of opportunity before you burden other taxpayers with your foreclosure, public assistance and general lack of self-reliance (as a liberal once again, I cry inside having to say these things).
Now my plea to the Valley, please get healthier and bring back all the great memories I had of growing up there, with sledding at Hillcrest country club’s hill, climbing on the old truck tires at Owyhee elementary and enjoying the cornfields surrounding Lowell Scott on my way to Meridian High School when I lived a half mile away from Capital.
Just a thought.

MILITARY JOBS?

We all think of the military as being as secure as a large bank (oops, bad comparison), but the times they are a changing.

At the risk of spilling military secrets, our US military is collapsing. A recent visit to a local base found all manner of vehicles and equipment scattered all over the base in various stages of disassembly as they are being stripped for parts. The base looks like a gang of NYC hubcap theives came during the night and looted everything of value.

You won’t find this info in the corporate media, but the alternative media are documenting collapse throughout our military and insiders are saying things are dire. Their one wish is that we close our 700+ foriegn military bases and bring our men and women home before total collapse sets in stranding our military personnel all over the world.

Our federal government has been technically bankrupt for over a year now and it is currently up to the Chinese as to whether the US government survives, or not.

The citizens of Rome thought their great empire could never end as well… We know how that turned out.

Anthony, what you are promoting is outright SOCIALISIM. You better be careful, this IS Idaho where we don’t belive in government bailouts. The US military is the biggest segment of our economy that is funded by taxes and only produces more expenses billed to taxpayers. The military does not produce goods and sevices. The military pyramid scheme works well if you are on the top of the food chain like a non bid contractor or a general. Many military families require welfare assistance and food stamps just to get by. Ask your doctor if he accepts the military insurance TriCare. See what he thinks about it. Most will not accept it. I love all the doctors in the valley who vote Republican, act patriotic and refuse to take TriCare insurance from US Military personnel. Go figure.

A lot of people who have given little to no thought about the costs of benifits are about to find out what health insurance costs. I had the “opportunity” to patcipate in COBRA costs for my health benifits for myself and my family in the mid 1990’s. The cost to me was going to be $1200/month.

This startling reality brought home for me medical costs are out of control in this country. Having healthy members of my family I went for a high deductable $7500/year/person at at mere $425/month and hoped nobody got seriously ill or broke any bones. I lucked out and did not have to use the “insurance” that basically protected me from medical bankruptcy.

Recessions have the effect of cleaning out all the trash in the economy when they hit. This time around we have a lot of high flyers finding themselves at the bottom of the pile and prospects don’t look very good in the near term for these folks.

I for one find the actions taken by the state and county government to be appropriate. What is the alternative? Spend money we don’t have? Comparing the corporate strategy of an aviation company to the local county government is senseless. Ada County exists as a service to the residents of ada county. They provide services that the private sector can’t. More importantly they spend OUR dollars. Unlike the feds they can’t print more money. If revenues are down 17% then cuts must be made. This is called financial responsibility.

Join the military! Visit exotic lands, meet interesting people and kill them.

I would like to write a 30 page rant against a ‘military recruitment ad’ appearing in a blog about Boise issues, but fear the Guardian might find it off topic…

Suffice it to say that anybody with even a tiny scap of intelligence would think twice before joining the military at a time where they would throw you straight to the front line of a very bloody war of highly questionable merit.

If your circumstances are so dire that you would need the job of mercenary, just know that you will be fighting to keep the SUV’s gassed up and the consumer consumption orgy in full swing. It is not abou protecting liberty, freedom, heroism, mom, or apple pie. It is about protecting access to oil.

If the DMV is cutting back because fewer cars are being registered, then it could be plausable that there is a net migration out of the area. Can you the stats to see if fewer cars are just not being registered or being transferred out of state?

Where ya been, TJ? That saying became common during the Vietnam war and has been thrown around a lot since.
Besides, you wouldn’t think it was funny if you were one of those interesting people — say if some other country had decided to “save” us from our government.

Besides, if everybody who is unemployed or underemployed now due to downsizing, mergers, mismanagement etc., we’d have a bigger military than the next six or eight combined.
So we’d have to find more interesting people to kill. Of course, we’d probably have to kill them with rocks or something, since we couldn’t afford rifles and ammunition for that many people.

Maybe someday we’ll figure out how to make friends with people without blowing them up first, ya reckon?

I think that saying should say “Join the military! Visit exotic lands, meet interesting mostly not white people, and kill them.”

Cyclops, guess it’s too bad brownish people got what we want.

OK, that explains a lot about the youth in Boise.