Allred sets sights on governor's seat

SANDPOINT — Keith Allred wants to raise taxes on truckers to help pay for highway improvements, opt out of federal health care reforms and use prospective tax money to bolster education funding.

     Allred, the likely Democrat challenger to Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in November’s election chided the governor for approving education cuts despite projections of revenue growth in the upcoming fiscal year.

     The budget that the governor supports, Allred said, is based on pessimism and ignores forecasts that point to a more sustainable economic future.

     “His budget is based on gloom and doom and ignores the evidence,” Allred said at a recent whistlestop in Sandpoint.

     Several economic reports project an additional $82 million in state revenue increases this year, he said.

     Gov. Otter’s budget, though, ignored the facts by using rock bottom projections, he said. The result is deep education cuts this year that will lead to lasting damage in Idaho student achievement.

     “We don’t need to be mortgaging our kids’ future by cutting education,” he said.

     He chided the governor for getting little done to fund road maintenance despite making transportation a signature issue of his administration.

     Gov. Otter last year pushed hefty fee increases for automobile registration, that would largely allow the trucking industry to skate free, he said.

     “He advocated raising car and pickup registration fees by 138 percent, while raising heavy truck registration fees by only 5 percent,” he said.

     Evidence shows that car and pickup drivers are already subsidizing the wear and tear that heavy trucks put on our roads, he said.

     “If we got trucks to pay their fair share,” he said. “It would take care of our maintenance problem.”

     Allred, who graduated from Twin Falls High School before earning degrees from Ivy League schools and a job as a Harvard professor, started The Common Interest, a non-partisan lobby after returning to Idaho in 2003.

     The group helped defeat a push by Gov. Otter to let everyday Idahoans subsidize the trucking industry, which is an example of the administration’s policy of putting interest groups ahead of good politics, he said.

     “All evidence suggests that trucks are already underpaying for the wear and tear they put on roads,” he said.

     Although Allred shares the governor’s opposition to unnecessary federal intervention in state issues, he opposes Idaho’s lawsuit against federal health care reforms, calling them a waste of money.

     States can get a waiver from federal requirements, he said, if they prove a better, more cost-efficient plan.

     “I am confident that here in Idaho, we can come up with more effective ideas than they did in Washington,” he said.

     As many Democrats making bids in the predominantly conservative Gem State, Allred uses the name of popular predecessor Cecil Andrus when he talks of his own brand of politics. Andrus, one of Idaho’s most popular Democrats and a former secretary of the interior, served 14 years as governor.

     “Practical leadership,” Allred said. “I’d like to go back to that.”

     Allred is among 10 candidates to file for a chance to unseat Gov. Otter in November. He faces Lee Chaney of Preston in the May 25 primary election.