BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho Human Rights Commission member told senators that cuts to the agency that investigates discrimination complaints would undermine its efforts.
Joe B. McNeal, former mayor of Mountain Home who was named to the nine-member panel by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in July, spoke to the Senate State Affairs Committee Friday during confirmation hearings.
McNeal said there are still problems in Idaho, just like elsewhere.
He backs a plan to preserve the 40-year-old agency by moving it to the Department of Labor and tapping other funding sources as state taxpayer money is eliminated by 2014, as Otter has called for.
Before that deal emerged last week, some had feared Otter’s proposal would cripple the agency’s work, which last year included 512 new discrimination complaints.
