‘There’s always a better way to skin a cat’
BY DICK DORWORTH
Steve Miller, R-Fairfield, is the incumbent candidate representing District 26 in November’s election for the Idaho State Legislature. Miller defeated Democratic candidate Dick Fosbury in the 2014 election by 126 votes out of 12,696. His opponent in this election is Kathleen Eder, of Hailey.
A lifelong farmer and rancher from Fairfield, Miller has been a member of the State Legislature since 2012. His public service, which began right after college, includes being a Camas County Commissioner, supervisor of the Camas Soil Conservation District, a member of the Camas County Planning & Zoning Commission, county representative to the Region IV Economic Development Board and a member of the Idaho Department of Agriculture Organic Advisory Board, president and director of the Idaho Association of Conservation Districts and member of the board of directors and executive board of the National Association of Conservation Districts.
When asked by The Weekly Sun what he considers a major accomplishment of his tenure as a state legislator, Miller pointed out his advocacy of Outcome Based Funding for Idaho’s public colleges.
The current Idaho State Board of Education funding policy, which is the method for allocating funds to Idaho colleges, is called Enrollment Workload Adjustment. This process allocates funding based on how many students are enrolled at Idaho universities: Boise State, University of Idaho, Idaho State University and Lewis–Clark State College.
Outcome Based Funding would allocate state money to public colleges on the basis of how many students graduate and then, according to Miller, “get a job in Idaho and help the economy.” Miller says he will continue to work on changing the current funding policy.
“I keep reminding people that it is important to keep the conversation going about aquifer recharge in Idaho,” said Miller, who is a member of the Agricultural Affairs and Resources and Conservation committees. “We need to have a long-term program.”
Miller believes that “We can always do better—in the legislature, on the farm, in our communities. People tend to get comfortable with the way things are, but there’s always a better way to skin a cat.”
He said that he also supports the recreation industry, which is crucial to the upper Wood River Valley.
After graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in agricultural engineering, Miller married his high school sweetheart, Linda Coates, also a graduate of the University of Idaho, who was a teacher and librarian at Camas County High School. They were married for 43 years before her death in 2012. Daughter Nancy is a Navy medical doctor who has specialized in nephrology; son James is a member of the Idaho National Guard; and son Andrew, who graduated from the University of Idaho, has a master’s degree in structural engineering from Arizona State and is working at Stapley Engineering in Boise.