Guest editorial
Jim DeWalt has invited St. Marie’s Gazette Record Publisher Dan Hammes to offer this month’s Ramblings and Musings…

How about a government car exchange?
by DAN HAMMES

So, why not a grocery exchange? Over the last few weeks there’s been a bit of a spat among politicians whether Idaho should establish a healthcare exchange.

A what? Yeah, that was our reaction as well.

Between raising kids and paying bills most of us simply did not have the time or inclination to learn about healthcare exchanges. Of course, a lot of people who did learn about healthcare exchanges had the same reaction.

A what? Healthcare exchanges are the latest gift from the federal government. They are mandated/ ordered/ decreed as part of Obamacare. The idea is a healthcare exchange will provide people a place to shop for health insurance. The theory, touted by the people who created the 2,700-page Obamacare legislation (with tens of thousands more pages of regulations to come), is healthcare exchanges will increase efficiency, lower costs and make everyone really, really happy.

And, unless voters or the Supreme Court opt to reject Obamacare, there is no turning back. That is, if the state of Idaho does not establish a healthcare exchange then the federal government will do it for us.

That has been the cause of some recent bickering among Republicans. Even though he opposes Obamacare, Gov. Butch Otter believes the state should create its own healthcare exchange. Other Republicans oppose the idea. The two sides muster all sorts and types of high-falutin’ arguments, reasons and justification to prove they are right.

But back up a minute. Does any of this really make sense? The government-types tell us that a government-operated healthcare exchange will lower prices by making the marketplace more efficient. They say the government can bring a special expertise to the exchange to connect buyers and sellers in the least costly way possible.

Wow. That sounds really good. Saving all that money will make everyone happy. But if the government can establish a healthcare exchange that will save money, why not a grocery exchange? It would be easy by comparison. Since the average family spends almost twice as much on food as healthcare, the savings would be stupendous.But why stop there?

Transportation is an even greater expense for families. Let’s have the government establish a car exchange while we’re at it. With all that government expertise and productivity applied to car buying, we could all drive a Lexus. And what about housing? Whether renting or buying, paying for a place to live is the single biggest expenditure families make every month. So let's have a housing exchange too!

Oh wait. Maybe that’s not such a great idea. We're still trying to recover from the last time the government deemed it could decide which buyers could afford what house.

Even if we ignore the fact that the cost of operating the government -run healthcare exchanges will be added to the price of health insurance, it just doesn't pass the sniff test. What evidence can supporters cite that a government-operated marketplace, whether managed by the state government or the federal government, would save money? Healthcare exchanges look suspiciously like one of those ideas that sound great when read from a teleprompter, but don’t work so well in the real world.

Dan Hammes is publisher of St. Marie’s Gazette Record. Article used with permission.

• Thirteen school districts in Spokane County will have a levy on the February 14 ballot. 
• The 2012 levy is not a new tax; it replaces the expiring 2009 levy.
• The replacement levy will not bring new dollars to Spokane Public Schools.
• The 3-year replacement levy covers 2013, 2014, 2015.
• Levies represent approximately 23 percent of Spokane schools’ operating budgets.

How much will the levy cost property owners? The levy is a property tax. Property owners will pay between $3.89 (the current levy rate) and $4.49 per $1,000 assessed property value, depending on whether state funding for Spokane Public Schools is reduced.

Levies are the primary way communities support local education. More than 80 percent of levy dollars go to programs that either aren’t funded, or are only partially funded by the state. It varies by school district, but many districts use levies to support:

• Student transportation (to/from school and for afterschool events)
• Art, music and drama
• Extracurricular (sports) and co-curricular activities
• Technology
• College credit in the classroom
• Textbooks and materials
• High school drop-out prevention programs
• All day kindergarten
• Support staff (custodial, library, maintenance, security, administrative, clerical)
• Counselors and nurses

Quality public schools are essential to maintain a vibrant community. Today’s students are tomorrow’s small business owners, CEOs, employees and more. Providing the learning tools and skills today will help them transition to post-secondary education and their careers later in life, and our business community will benefit by having a talented workforce pool to choose from. A key economic driver is an educated child. For more information and ways in which you can support our schools, click on this link to view GSI’s tool kit – loaded with good information. THEN VOTE!

Governing your family business: Building success. Building your future.

Andrew Keyt, the executive director of the Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center, and a widely recognized expert on issues unique to family-owned businesses, will lead a discussion about one of the most critical aspects of running a sustainable family business: Governance.

During this program, participants will:

• Gain practical perspective from other family business owners
• Determine the role of governance in relation to your family business
• Learn how to transition the family business to the next generation
• Discuss what other family businesses are doing and why

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ODS Health awarded "Healthiest Employer" by Portland Business Journal

ODS Companies won a CEO Cancer Gold Certification and was selected as one of Oregon’s Healthiest Employers. The award highlighted – among many programs – their employees’ month-long 2011 Charity Challenge which raised more than $11,000 that was distributed to five charities — the American Cancer Society, the Oregon Humane Society, March of Dimes, Hands on Greater Portland and Mercy Corps.

Learn more about their fantastic Wellness Program – it could give you some ideas for your own company wellness program.