In brief: State announces $298 million surplus

Idaho had $298 million in its general fund when the state’s 2006 fiscal year ended on June 30, boosted by $203 million more in tax revenue than previously projected.

The budget surplus figure, finalized Tuesday by state controller Keith Johnson, is about $3 million more than the preliminary figure released by Gov. Jim Risch on July 5.

Like Risch did earlier this month, Johnson used Tuesday’s announcement of the final figures to lobby the Legislature to hold a special session this summer on property tax relief.

Risch has proposed eliminating property taxes that pay for public school maintenance, covering those costs with the surplus and an increase in Idaho’s 5 percent sales tax.

Johnson said the state’s business-friendly environment is drawing new businesses and adding new income and sales tax proceeds to the state’s flush coffers.

– Associated Press

Former reporter named health district officer

Panhandle Health District officials have chosen a former journalist and public relations contractor as its new public information officer.

Cynthia Taggart, 51, was the only candidate for the post that pays about $41,000 a year, said Jeanne Bock, the health district’s director.

“We more or less recruited her,” Bock said. The post is a non-classified position exempt from advertising requirements, she added.

Taggart, a former reporter and columnist for The Spokesman-Review, will replace Susan Cuff starting Monday.

Cuff, 50, said Tuesday she has taken a job as the associate director of the University of Montana Alumni Association in Missoula, which pays about $42,000 a year.

Cuff worked for the health district for four years. Before that, she was a public relations representative for a private company and a reporter for the Coeur d’Alene Press newspaper.

Taggart was co-founder of Taggart & Clarke Effective Communication, a public relations firm hired to represent Kootenai County.

Taggart said Monday that she’d submitted a letter terminating her contract with the county.

– JoNel Aleccia

Kooskia, Idaho

Motorcyclist dies in crash with semitruck

A motorcyclist was killed Tuesday and his passenger was injured in a crash near Kooskia, Idaho, that involved two drivers from Minnesota.

The Idaho State Police said 62-year-old Gary G. Dagostino, of Blaine, Minn., died when his 2002 Honda crashed into a semitruck driven by 45-year-old Rodger E. Deitchler, of Ponsford, Minn.

Dagostino’s passenger, 63-year-old Marion V. Dagostino, was taken to Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino, Idaho. Her condition was not immediately available.

Deitchler and his passenger, 49-year-old Jesusa O. Burnaman, were not injured.

Police said Dagostino failed to negotiate a turn on U.S. Highway 12, about two miles east of Kooskia, and slammed into the eastbound truck.

Gary and Marion Dagostino were wearing helmets, police said.

– John Craig