It looks like Idaho might follow Perry’s lead when lawmakers meet in Boise next year.

Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, told IdahoReporter.com said he may address search methods in the next legislative session, set to begin in January.  “I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who unsuccessfully pushed a bill to limit the use of full body scanners at public airports in Idaho in 2010.

Hart says he is looking into the problem, but isn’t certain if the bill he crafts will mirror the Texas legislation.  “Whether it will be like the Texas bill, I don’t know,” he explained.

Hart could likely count on support from his seatmate and political ally, Rep. Vito Barbieri, a Republican from Dalton Gardens.  Barbieri, co-author of a bill to prevent certain parts of the 2010 federal health reform bill from being implemented in Idaho, told IdahoReporter.com Wednesday that he would support a Texas-like bill if the details are right.  “I would, of course, want to see the details,” Barbieri said.

Barbieri said the TSA is perfect evidence of a federal government agency that has run amok.  “The TSA is a prime example of the federal government intruding needlessly,” he said.  “The way they have set this bureaucracy up is mind-boggling.”

Perry added the bill to a list of legislation Texas lawmakers will address in an upcoming special session.  The first version of the legislation was scrapped after U.S. attorney John Murphy sent a letter to state lawmakers saying that the legislation would criminalize a practice mandated by federal regulations.

Murphy also warned that the state had no authority to essentially cancel out the pat down process and threatened that “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.”

Hart wants to examine if TSA really has the authority to conduct pat down searches.  “I don’t know if they have that authority,” he said.  But, even if the agency does have the ability to pat down travelers, Hart said, the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment may prohibit it.  “I think pat downs for everybody or scans of their naked bodies are unreasonable searches and not allowed by the Fourth Amendment.  I prefer that we follow the Constitution.”

Barbieri said he wouldn’t back down if the Idaho Legislature was threatened by TSA over an anti-pat down bill.  “I would follow through with the state sovereignty issue on behalf of the citizens of Idaho,” he stated.

If Gem State lawmakers decide to follow Texas, it wouldn’t be the first time the Idaho Legislature has pursued a measure to clamp down on TSA pre-flight screening methods.

The bill Hart brought in 2010 would have banned full body scanners from airports and some other public buildings.  Hart told his colleagues in the House that the science behind the machines, which provide a picture of a traveler essentially without clothes, is spotty and that they might pose a cancer risk.

Hart’s legislation would have used the state’s police power to prohibit the machines from being installed or used in public airports or city, county, or state buildings.

The measure passed the Idaho House on a 58-9 vote, enjoying bipartisan support from legislators.  It died, however, when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Hart’s bill may not have mattered anyway, or so said Idaho deputy attorney general James Carlson.   In a legal opinion about the measure, Carlson wrote that even if the Senate and the governor had gone along with the plan, the law would have been preempted by federal regulation.

Carlson’s legal opinion didn’t stop Hart from pushing the bill.  The Athol Republican gained bill approval from a House committee 11 days after receiving the legal opinion.

Though Idaho is, in many ideological aspects, as far from California as one state could be, some of the citizens of Idaho want the Legislature to consider a very California-esque proposition: legalize the sale of marijuana.  The two states are facing huge revenue shortfalls, though California’s is in the billions and Idaho is in the millions, and some citizens believe one way to make up the shortfall is to regulate the sale of pot.

“If possession of less than one ounce of marijuana was penalized with a ticket…the state would go from spending to making money instantly,” wrote Coral Spitler of Boise, who argued instead for the punishment for marijuana possession to be lessened.

Advocates of the pot taxation idea believe California could generate as much as $990 million and the measure to make legal the practice of smoking cannabis for pleasure is under consideration by the state’s legislature.  It is unknown how much Idaho would make if the state made the change.

Citizens also took the time to suggest changes for the operation of the Legislature.  Several suggestions involved how to effectively reduce the cost of the having a legislative session.  Many recommended Idaho join Nevada, Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, and Texas in having one legislative session every two years.  A few respondents advocated that Idaho join Nebraska and condense the legislature down to a unicameral (single legislative body combining House and Senate) body.  Other citizens believed the Legislature should put a time limit on itself of either 30 or 45 business days, which is the standard in Utah.

“Nothing in this state should take one-fourth of each year for a legislative session,” wrote W. Loshbaugh of Meridian. Brad Moulton, also of Meridian, called on lawmakers to meet only by teleconference which, he argued, would save the state money and make legislators more accessible to the general public.

According to some estimates, the Idaho Legislature costs taxpayers $30,000 each business day, though some believe it could be as much as $35,000 per day.

No discussion about government would be complete without some form of tax talk.  This list is no exception, though many citizens called for taxes to be raised, not lowered.  Suggestions for tax increases varied from increasing the income tax by 1 percent to increasing the sales tax from 6 percent to 8-9 percent.   Many people submitted suggestions to increase taxes on “sin” items—beer, wine, cigarettes, and liquor – to gain additional revenue.  Ken Jackson, of Sandpoint, even suggested raising the gas tax by 25 cents, which he believes would force people to drive less and allow Idaho to enter the “transportation 21^st century.”

One of the primary causes of last year’s elongated legislative session was Gov. Butch Otter’s desire to see a 3-cent increase in the state’s gas taxes.  The Senate approved the hike, but the House refused to approve even a 2-cent hike.

Among the other suggestions were:

• Consolidating all state university systems into a single unit.
• Combining all state university athletic programs (no more Vandals vs. Broncos).
• Raising tax on chocolate and bottle water.
• Giving the state checkbook to a woman who has lived through hard times.
• Cutting “unconstitutional” athletic and music programs in schools.
• Cutting the pay of Boise State football coach Chris Peterson.

And this from Suzanne Coffey in Nampa:

• “I propose families who have more than 2-3 children…start paying some type of an amount back to the state to educate each child.”  Coffey argues that children from large families usually have large families of their own and that, in turn, leads to school districts needing more buses, teachers, and support staff.

To review the list for yourself or to make suggestions, please visit the governor’s website.