Balukoff, Marley touring North Idaho to gather information

COEUR d'ALENE - Democratic gubernatorial candidate A.J. Balukoff has been on a "listening tour" in North Idaho, making stops from Grangeville up to Bonners Ferry and east to the Silver Valley.

He has been traveling with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Bert Marley. They've sat down with small business owners and educators, including college presidents, superintendents, principals and teachers.

"Education seems to be at the top of everybody's list," Balukoff said Friday in a meeting with The Press editorial board. "They recognize that we are 50th in the nation in the amount we invest per child, and they recognize that our performance is at the bottom."

Also on people's minds are job creation and the economy.

"They ask us almost every time about minimum wage," Balukoff said.

Voters they have spoken to also have said they want more balance in state government, which has been dominated by the Republican Party.

"I guess there is an erosion of trust in our state leaders, because they rammed through bills that have a lot of opposition from people," Balukoff said. "They feel like they're not being listened to by our state government."

On his website, Balukoff says that the state's 2014-2015 budget is $43 million short of kindergarten through 12th grade spending in 2008-2009. Add in rising enrollment and costs increases, and it adds up to $169 million less in those schools compared with six years ago.

In the interview, Balukoff said the state Legislature needs to adjust its priorities.

"Tax cuts seem to be a higher priority than restoring funding" for education, he said.

The economy is improving, and with that, tax receipts should go up.

"The priority would be to use those increased tax receipts to restore funding," he said. At the same time, he said, "How you spend the money is as important as how much you have."

Educators to whom Balukoff and Marley have spoken have asked for more local control for school districts. The trend, in the past 10 to 12 years, has been for the Legislature to dictate how schools are run and teachers teach, he said.

He said they have heard complaints from leaders at schools and colleges about unfunded mandates.

"We don't like them from the federal government, but it seems OK from the state," Balukoff said. The recent guns-on-campus bill is a good example, he said.

The bill was advertised as having no fiscal impact, but Balukoff and Marley have heard otherwise from colleges.

"Even at North Idaho College, (President Joe Dunlap) is looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars to deal with that," Balukoff said. "You get the larger universities and they're looking at millions of dollars."

Balukoff is an accountant who started his own firm in Boise, then became the owner of three athletic clubs. In the 1990s, he and some partners built the Grove Hotel and CenturyLink Arena in Boise and started the Idaho Steelheads hockey team.

He also is on the Boise school board, currently serving as president.

Marley, who currently lives in Boise, was a high-school teacher and spent nine years in the state Legislature, serving on both the House and Senate education committees. He grew up in farming in eastern Idaho.

After leaving the Legislature, he worked for the Idaho Education Association as the director of public policy. He retired in September.