Moscow LWV forum sees low candidate turnout

The League of Women Voters of Moscow invited nine Idaho Fifth District and Latah County candidates to its forum Wednesday night but only four of them participated.

Fifth District Senate candidate Dan Foreman, R-Viola, and Fifth District House Seat B candidate James Hartley, C-Moscow, declined to participate for the second consecutive candidate forum.

The two did not attend a Moscow Chamber of Commerce-hosted forum last week in Pullman because they deemed the COVID-19 restrictions they would need to adhere to at the forum unnecessary.

The League of Women Voters of Moscow will only hold a forum if there are two candidates. This meant Foreman’s opponent — incumbent Fifth District Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow — was not allowed to participate. Hartley has two opponents — Renee Love, D-Moscow, and incumbent Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee — which meant they were allowed to participate.

Fifth District House Seat A candidates Dulce Kersting-Lark, D-Moscow, and Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, participated.

Incumbent Latah County Commissioner Tom Lamar, D-Moscow, and his opponent, Gabriel Rench, R-Moscow, also did not participate at the forum, which took place at the Moscow City Hall’s council chambers but could only be viewed by the public via Facebook Live on the League of Women Voters of Moscow Facebook page.

It was unclear which candidate declined to participate, but according to the “Gabriel Rench for County Commissioner” Facebook page, Lamar “canceled the event at the very last minute” because Rench was not wearing a mask, though Rench says he is medically exempt from wearing one.

According to the “Tom Lamar for Latah” Facebook page, Lamar indicated his portion of the forum was canceled because Rench “would not comply with the agreed upon rules to wear a mask, face covering, or face shield.”

Rench has gained national publicity by denouncing Moscow’s face mask order and all four participating candidates Wednesday wore a face covering.

“For unexpected reasons and circumstances beyond the control of the League of Women Voters, we will not have any further debate,” said Richard Seamon, a University of Idaho College of Law professor and moderator of Wednesday’s forum, after the Fifth District candidates spoke. “This evening, we don’t have two candidates prepared to present on behalf of the county commission race.”

Earlier, Seamon asked the four participating candidates several questions, including whether they support increasing the state’s minimum wage.

Mitchell, who owns six area Jiffy Lube businesses, said he does not support a minimum wage increase.

“I think the minimum wage stifles wages and I think that it actually harms people more than it actually helps,” he said.

Mitchell said he loses productivity in his Washington stores where the minimum wage has recently increased and continues to increase because his employees know they will get paid a certain amount despite their performance. He said he gives bonuses to employees who perform well.

Mitchell said most McDonald’s employees, for example, are still living at home and not paying rent.

Kersting-Lark said she supports a living wage, and thus, the state Legislature probably needs to consider increasing the minimum wage.

She said about 16,000 Idahoans made $7.25 an hour, the federal and Idaho minimum wage, in 2017 and 58,000 made less than $8.25 in 2018.

“I don’t think we can chalk it up simply to high schoolers,” Kersting-Lark said. “I think that’s too many people in the workforce to say it’s just high schoolers who don’t have any other living expenses.”

She said an Idaho resident needs to make $11.04 an hour for a living wage, meaning that person does not spend more than 30 percent of his or her income on housing.

Nilsson Troy said the minimum wage should not be increased but if it does it should be set to the federal minimum wage and index.

“It’s not supposed to be a living wage,” she said.

Nilsson Troy said every effort needs to be made to get living wage jobs in the region.

Love said she wants the Legislature to allow communities to choose whether or not to increase the minimum wage.

She said $7.25 equates to $15,000 a year and that the majority of minimum wage earners are older than 20.

“We just cannot turn our back on working Idahoans,” Love said. “We need to make sure that the baseline needs to go up.”

Seamon also asked candidates what they would do to improve educational system resources and what ideas they have for investment in professional technical training and apprenticeships.

Love said Idaho has a high school graduation rate of 80 percent, which she said is low.

“When you provide career technical training at the high school level those go-on rates increase from 80 percent to 96 percent,” she said. “They are incredibly important and they’re giving students the trade school skills that they need to actually get skilled jobs in the state and be able to make a good living.”

Nilsson Troy said she has been asking for a program that provides career technical training to Idaho students and federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding the state received will fund that.

“I’m very excited about that as a first step forward to increasing our ability to provide technical programs to students across the state,” she said.

Nilsson Troy said she believes the state will have a budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year and she suggested to Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho State Board of Education that they put some of that money toward aging school infrastructure in communities like Moscow.

“If we could have matching money for taxpayers in this district, I think we could get that high school fixed,” Nilsson Troy said of Moscow High School.

Kersting-Lark said education could be better funded without having to increase taxes. One way is to reevaluate tax exemptions, such as sales tax, she said. The state exempts more in sales tax than it collects each year.

She said career technical training needs to be a promoted option because four-year degrees are not something everyone wants or needs to pursue.

Mitchell said trade schools need to be brought back into the spotlight.

“I think we need to think about the trade schools as well because I think the trades are getting left behind,” he said.

Mitchell said he has seen plumbers, for example, make great incomes and leave training with almost no debt.

“College education is not for every kid,” he said.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.