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Education and Idaho’s Future
Main Street Town Hall Episode 17—Senator Dave Lent
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Back again to the studio is Senator Dave Lent from District 33. After finishing another legislative session, Senator Lent expresses his view on how the session ended. Among the various bills brought to the floor, he discusses the historical success of funding more educational infrastructure, K-12 institutions, and Idaho LAUNCH. Senator Lent elaborates on the future of nuclear energy in Idaho and the potential for future leaders in the industry.
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Balancing budgets and lowering taxes
Main Street Town Hall Episode 15—Representative Rod Furniss
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Representative Rod Furniss from District 31 returns for his second podcast appearance to recap his perspective of the now concluded legislative session. Furniss talks of the success balancing Idaho budgets, lowering taxes for Idaho residents, funding rural school infrastructure, and how he'd like to address the rising inflation.
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Legislative Session Recap
Main Street Town Hall Episode 14—Representative Marco Erickson
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Fresh from the end of the legislative session, Marco Erickson from District 33 returns to the studio to recap the successes and contentions he faced on the House floor. Host and Executive Director, Brennan Summers, digs into what made Representative Erickson's bills so widely supported by the majority of fellow legislators, as well as some of the opposition he faced in his pursuit to remedy women's healthcare in Idaho.
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Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast. We are here live in studio. It's been a long time since we've had a guest in person because you've guys have all been over in sessions. We've been doing it via Zoom.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:22):
We've been in Boise since early January. You're here, nice to be in person. Finally home.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:26):
Yes. This is great. I guess this is Representative Mark Erickson, district 33, representative seat. Be there. And that's the heart of I Falls, correct? Yeah. Thanks for being here. Thank you. We tried to snag you a few times during the session, but you had a very full calendar.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:41):
Yes. My calendar fills up so fast. I tell people they would call and say, can I get an appointment? I'm like, well, about two weeks maybe
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:48):
It was bad as my doctor, it was bad. Just less qualified to treat the rash on my back. That's true.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:53):
Wouldn't want to do that. Actually. I'd run away from that
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:57):
Representative. You said we could ask you anything today, but happy to. You qualified that with saying, accept your social security number. Social security numbers. We're going to throw the hard hitting questions at you. We'll start with how was the session?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:07):
Session is always fun for me. I enjoy it a lot. It is just some stressful times as well. That's good happen every year, but I enjoy it. I really do. I get along with all the people there more than most, I think. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:20):
Now, how does it compare to other sessions that you've had in the past? This
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:25):
One was interesting. It was a little more contentious amongst our own colleagues inside our own caucus. I think there was some early contention got worked out mostly some of it carried on, but that was tough to witness and to be a part of, but at least we were able to work that out,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:43):
Especially as the peacemaker that you are. Yes,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:46):
Very true. I was always trying to do that.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:49):
Let's talk about some of the legislation that you were able to work through this session. What are some of the bills that you're most proud of?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:54):
Well, I mean, I do a lot of little things. I think most proud, I'm always most proud that most of my bills I run get all the members' support. I don't have to go around and talk to everybody because I kind of get a feel for the room. I know how they're going to vote on it. So I was blessed to pass most of my bills with full support of the body. So the Fentanyl test strip bill was probably the biggest one. They had been trying to do that for a long time. It was the right timing. We had just passed the fentanyl minimum mandatory sentencing bill, and that in mind was more of a trailer to say, Hey, since we've done that, here's one that will save people's lives in the public. Give them ability to test the different products that they purchase, whether it be drugs or let's say they go over to Mexico or they purchase lower cost prescription drugs. That happens occasionally. So they would still be able to test it. There's been cases in America of simple things like a Botox treatment, having fentanyl it and people dying because of that, so they get a cheaper version. So you got to test stuff now. This is a tough time in the world. So we've opened that up and hopefully it'll be used for good.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (03:04):
Oh, for sure. So we talked at length with some of your colleagues about the mandatory minimums and how the goal is to help lower trafficking of Fentanyl act as a deterrent, but we haven't gotten too much into the fentanyl strips. So as you said, this is an opportunity for Idahoans can now have access these strips. Where would I need to go if I didn't get
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (03:22):
My hand on surprising? You could buy 'em anywhere before you could get 'em on Amazon. It was like $10 for a pack of 12 of those test strips, so less than a dollar a piece. And it would be worth it for me if I were to, let's say, because the most common thing you would do is most people would buy a cheaper version of a prescription drug. So in America, it might cost you a hundred dollars and you might find it in Mexico and you're getting it for 40. And so you're going to want to spend that extra dollar and test the product to make sure you're safe and clear from fentanyl. You just can't know. Or kids, let's say kids, they like to go to parties a lot and they're interacting with people. They do things that aren't always the smartest, but if they had that option and they had one extra safety mechanism, even adults as well, just I would recommend 'em use that. So we'd push that out there and say, Hey, if you want purchase these test strips, save a life. Right?
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:17):
Yeah. Such a small quantity of fentanyl could be so lethal.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:20):
Very, it's this amount at the tip of a pencil tip,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:23):
Crazy to think about. It's very
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:24):
Teeny
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:25):
And a lot of the overdoses are accidental. They don't realize that it was laced with stuff.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:30):
Most people don't know. And another thing that happens is if they share a pill, let's say they cut it in half, one half was a lethal dose and the other half was not. It's kind of like we joke about being like, you're making a chocolate chip cookie. You throw it in there and it gets mixed up. You don't get the same amount of a chocolate chip and every single cookie and every single bite, and that's what fentanyl's like in the different products that are out there. So it's very dangerous and we don't want to see any more overdose deaths in Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:57):
No, we don't. And now I'm craving chocolate chip cookies. So thanks for that.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:01):
At least it's not the brownie we talked about last time.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (05:03):
Now that other legislation you were proud to get signed by the governor?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:07):
Well, I worked with Senator Van Orden on the Baby Box one. That was really great. It was something that everyone supported because it was a pro-life approach, pro-family approach. People were in tears when we were in committee presenting those, and it was just such a happy bill to present for everybody.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (05:28):
Walk us through what that legislation does.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:30):
It allows for them to create these boxes. They're devices. Safe Haven boxes allows them to place a baby in a box that it's connected to the wall of a building, so it's a safe and secure spot. The minute you place a baby in that safe location, you'll be told that that's where you would do it. If you were going to place a baby somewhere, then that machine will lock, so no one could come from the outside and take the baby out and steal the baby. It would immediately trigger 9 1 1 and allow, or the people in the facility, so they would know that a baby has been placed in the box. They would come down and check it out medically and then walk through the proper processes, keep it in their possession for 30 days before they can adopt it out. But then potentially in that same time, they'd be looking to find adoptive parents.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (06:26):
So there are a lot of babies getting dropped off on doorsteps in
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (06:29):
Idaho. Well, no. I talked to a few firemen, first responders that had been captains or chiefs at their local fire districts, and they had indicated to me in their career happened three or four times, and that was just one district. So across the state, who knows once a year, twice a year, five times a year maybe, but one time that we get a safe baby and maybe place it with a family who had been waiting for long time to have a baby, that's a great option for people. So we figured why not? And what's great is most local foundations fund that themselves and the group. So it doesn't cost taxpayers any money. It's just an extra way of promoting the adoption for families. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (07:13):
Oh, that's fantastic. You had some more bills too that you were happy about.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (07:17):
Well, I always have bills I'm working on, I'm trying to remember. Shoot, I pulled over a few Senate bills. I did do some stuff with juvenile corrections and dispatchers, making sure that their Percy benefits were improved because a few years ago we did a bill and the supervisors got left out of that. So we fixed that, made that the final class that would ever enter into the rule of 80 means to get a little bit early retirement. And so we fixed that. I did a fix update to one of my bills from last year, which was Isolation and Seclusion bill. It was designed to make it to where schools wouldn't spank kids and whack 'em up beside the hand and then push 'em into closets and things like that. And we didn't want to tie the teacher's hands and have no discipline. That was never the intent.
(08:06):
But some of them took that bill to mean they couldn't do any restraint ever. And so we just clarified the language saying, yeah, you can restrain him. You just have to inform the parents right away and then let 'em go do the process that's proper and you can still take care of that. You don't have to exit all the other kids from the classroom. And the teachers, I think were really grateful that we updated that language so it was more clear and they can still engage in discipline. And a lot of the legislators that were kind of against that last year thanked us and said, yeah, and they all supported it this year. So I was really happy to, I didn't expect that and I was grateful and they just came to me and said, thanks for always being willing to hear people and listen to their concerns and work on that. So even my own bills, I'll take and fix and update if I need to.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (08:53):
And your career, your professional career has been spent helping kids. It's youth treatment. It's the counseling and the substance abuse and everything to get these kids back on the right track. And that's been reflected in your political career because a lot of the priorities you have are how do we make sure that some of the most vulnerable of our population, these young kiddos are getting the stuff that they need, right?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (09:15):
Yeah. Almost everything you're going to see me do. If I'm carrying it and it's my bill and I've worked on it, it's going to have something to do with making people's lives better and trying to save the government money. So there's always tweaks and systems. We create systems, we can change systems, and I think sometimes we get stuck in the rut of just how the system was. And I'm a big fan of analyzing that and go, no, we should probably change things up a little bit. And sometimes that's a minor policy change. Sometimes that's a major change to the entire program, and so you have to look at it from all angles and be willing to do the hard stuff and convince your colleagues that sometimes change is necessary. So one of the big things I did this year with that was I like to commission studies occasionally from the, I forget the Office of Performance Evaluation, OPE.
(10:08):
So two years ago I did a, or no, four years ago in my first year, I did a study. I had 'em do on juvenile justice so that they can give me some outcomes reports and we could take a look at what we can change. Well, this year we had some major problems with some of these group homes that the state is taking custody and they're placing kids in, and they were experiencing abuse, neglect, and sometimes sexual abuse and things where we were just shocked that that could happen under a state's watch. So I asked for a study a little deeper into that for a statewide approach so that we could see what's going on and why that's happening and take care of it and fix it with policy so it doesn't happen in the future.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (10:50):
I read an article in the paper that was talking just about that study that's being done, the investigation. When do we expect to see results of it?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (10:57):
Well, they got two other ones they're going to put priority on. I think the schools were top priority because they wanted to do a study to see if a four day week versus five day week, that was real important. Also, they wanted to look into Luma, which has been a big disaster. It was a new finance management system the state was using, and most employees across the whole state had major problems with it. So they're focused on those two, but then they'll get to ours next. Ours was the top priority picked by the committee, so I was proud of that. I didn't expect that when there were six proposals and ours was picked as the top priority one. So that was
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:32):
Good. Yeah. So the session ended last week, was it Friday
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:36):
Mostly? Yes. On Friday. They may come back this week, but I am going to be tied up in other responsibilities.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:43):
So session, I mean, if they come back, is it just veto override?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:48):
Yeah, and I think that's the intent in case, but as far as I know right now, there hasn't been any vetoes as of today.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:53):
Yeah, I read that the governor vetoed a gold and silver bill. Oh,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:58):
Maybe he did today. I
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:59):
Hadn't read that yet. I don't suspect that veto override on the bill though as I was looking at it,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:02):
Most likely not.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (12:04):
But I mean, even with the session being over, you'd think, okay, job's done. You book a flight to Cancun and put your feet up, but you're not. No, no,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:11):
No.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (12:12):
Why is that?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:13):
I'm always, the minute I'm done with one thing, I've got another thing planned. So that was really hard for me to go with extra two weeks of session because I was working on some, writing some grants for our organization, making sure the funding was there. There's a lot of technical writing and also gathering of signatures is from people that you work with and collaborate with. So there's a lot involved in those processes. So I spent hundreds of hours working on that in the last few weeks. So I was that session, it took away from my ability to do that. And then I had other trips planned. I go speak, people ask me to speak because I'm a legislator, but also because of my professional background. And I've had to cancel one of those recently because it was just, I was going from one to another.
(12:59):
This week we have the Idaho Drug Prevention Conference, which I've been going to that almost 25 years, but it's in Sun Valley. And while I'm there, I figure I have most of my colleagues there who I'm working with on other legislative projects already. So I email them and create an agenda, send them out some ideas and say, Hey guys, we're going to meet at this location at this time, that Thursday, and we'll be right back into working on things for the next session. So we're preparing ahead of time. So when we come together right in January, we've got this stuff ready to go, and everybody's already talked about it. We're all ready to testify on behalf of what projects we support and why, and we're unified and there isn't a lot of opposition. So that's the best way to be a legislator, always working on things.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (13:47):
Yeah, that's crazy to think that you're already gearing up for the session that will start January 25. Yes. Do you have some things in mind that you're thinking, we didn't get this done, but we need to?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (13:58):
Yeah, there's a lot we didn't get done. One of the things, obviously better quality healthcare for the women, women's health is a big issue, and we were trying to move some stuff forward this year, but because there's a federal lawsuit that's going into a Supreme Court case, they didn't want to allow anything to move forward. And I find that, I think that's the biggest disappointment of this whole session. There was some things we needed to do to do a better job there. So we're working on that ahead of time. We're working on some justice reform. We've been seeing some things really working well with juveniles, and I'm talking to some partners in law enforcement and in the prosecutor's offices, local courts and judicial system, seeing if there's some way we can run a potential pilot project, a couple of them, one of them in the prisons. And if we see good results that we can move those more universal across the state, and they're all designed to help the inmates have maximum outcomes, get back into the community at a maximum capacity in a good way, and then also have just better savings of dollars for the state, less people going into the prisons. So all of that together. And there's several of us legislators working on that together from this area in eastern Idaho. So we do collaborate outside of session. People don't always know that, but we do. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (15:19):
Is that the pilot program? Would that be the Ignite program that they're doing?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (15:23):
Absolutely. Yeah. The Ignite program from the sheriff's office is a big part of that. I just was talking with the sheriff just this morning about that, and I said, Hey, I would like you to come present that to our group that's working, because then they're all informed and it's going really well. So yeah, that's definitely one of the programs
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (15:39):
As I've spent time with the sheriff on it and learned more about it to reduce recidivism is so important. But it's also when you look at the individual and think, man, rather than the revolving door of our incarceration facilities, what if we could bring 'em out and have 'em contributing, become taxpayers and get 'em out and help in society?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (15:55):
We always say there's a balance of justice and mercy, and we want to do our best to have that mercy early on, but we have to have justice too. So when we find that balance, serve those families and keep 'em out of systems as much as possible, have them right their wrongs and learn and move forward. But the more we enter 'em into systems, the more they're stuck in there. So getting them treatment and looking at their readiness, working with them where they're at, you can't just force people to go down a new road and a new path, but you can help 'em encourage them. I used to say this old saying, we had out on the farms, they'd say, you lead a horse to water, but you can't make a drink. I says, well, I could put a salt lick out there and make it really thirsty. And I think it's the same concept with people that when they see this golden thing out there, golden carrot, that's going to make their life better and they have the option to choose that they're likely to go that route with a little bit of positive motivation.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (16:54):
Yeah, because where would any of us be without second chances? Yeah,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (16:56):
Exactly. We would all be in a hard time.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (16:58):
We definitely would be. Let's circle back to this women's healthcare issue. I know you speak with local physicians a lot. For those that are tuning in that are familiar with the pro-Life, pro-choice debate, but might not be familiar with what the challenges in Idaho with women's healthcare, walk us through what we need to fix or what's been going on.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (17:17):
Well, OB docs, we could start there. Doctors are struggling. They're worried that they're going to get sued all the time that they might have a legal lawsuit against them. And so it's not incentivizing new people to come around here and say, Hey, I want to do that treatment and help women who are specialized. Our family doctors can do so much they can provide, but they're not specialists in the way that those OB docs are. So we have a gap there. And they can't do a C-section, for example, when there's complications. And so you have higher risk when you don't have the people to do the work. And I really worry when we go too extreme and we're not able to take care of our physicians that we have and they're having to worry about getting sued over something that they know is medically necessary. They're not pushing an agenda or trying one way or the other. Their patients have a specific need and they need to meet that need.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (18:17):
Yeah, we're not talking elective abortions here. We're talking about their doctors who, because of definition and statute or that are now second guessing or struggling to know what the right decision is with the life of a woman because of
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (18:29):
Legal implications. And it's taken them longer to make those decisions, whereas before they just know what to do. But they have to go through now and make sure that they're covering themselves legally. They've got all the paperwork in order, and they're justifying every decision they make, and it's a little tougher on them. It's causing more administrative time, and they have to worry about each and every one of their staff in that room that's assisting them in their liability. So it's a burden we placed on 'em, unintentional, and we haven't fixed it yet, so people are waiting for us to fix it. And in the meantime, there are some spots in the state where we've lost the ability more in the rural areas as people are aging out in those rural communities and not as many people are moving there. And so it's not always fiscally sound for them and a good business practice for, so that's a factor. And then also population growth than a new baby's being born. Current generation isn't having as many babies, so when you get to those rural communities, it changes them and their business models have to adjust with that. So it's been a struggle world. We've lost a few physicians that are doing that work.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (19:40):
So the hope is that once the case has worked its way through the Supreme Court, then Idaho will be able to change language in the statutes.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (19:47):
That's what we're told. I had a bill before we went to a couple years ago, we had a bill ready to go and we could have done some stuff, but there were some special interest groups that got involved. And Chairman sometimes allow those guys to have too much influence. I feel that we're the lawmakers and we should have just pushed that through because some of those chairman to hear their voices more than and they couldn't get along. And they were both pro-life groups. When you have two pro-life groups and they can't even agree, that's problematic. We're all pro-life. We're trying to help. But this has been really interesting the last few years. We had some solutions we were trying to push and we just didn't get them. And again, this year, and so I get disappointed. I really want to make a difference. It just small little things like that make a huge impact for our state on women's healthcare at least. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (20:39):
Let's transition from healthcare to education. You've got Idle Falls High School right in the middle of your district and you serve with former school board of District 91, Senator Dave Lent. And the issues around updating school facilities has been such a hot issue this session. And obviously out Falls High School is one that's pretty outdated and can't seem to pass a bond. What's the short-term solution here as you look at updating school facilities and the work that the governor and Senator Land have been doing?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (21:07):
Well, I think the fastest thing we can do is just divert a lot of money over to the school facilities across the state. And we need to retire programs that are currently, they're being funded that where some of our legislators pet projects and sometimes we have to realize that there's other priorities that are more important, and those facilities in that backlog of maintenance is long overdue. And we need to just, I say adjust those funding and retire an old program in favor of something. And if it's needed in the future, we could bring something back. Once we've taken care of business, we've just way too long gone without taking care of those facilities. And if you travel and you see some of those facilities we have, you'll be amazed and you wouldn't want your child going in there and you're shocked that we haven't taken care of that and it's our duty, so it's time for us to step up.
(22:04):
And I was really pleased to see that we were able to have one bill, but we can always do more. And I think, so to answer your question about short-term solutions, there's other options that have been proposed maybe in the future. We have designs of buildings that we say, Hey, these are four or five approved buildings for this size for an elementary school and for a middle school and highs. And we just give them the plans and the legislature can be built to a certain amount of money. And I think that would be a great solution. We haven't got there yet, but that would be a great option. Then a school district could say, we need a new elementary. They get on the list for a certain amount of years, and it would just happen. It would be like, however it is five a year, six a year, 10 a year. I don't know what that number would look like yet or how much they would cost. But I do know you do save costs when you keep the same design and everybody doesn't individualize their design. You could still change the colors, you could change the angle. It's pointed at that kind of thing.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:03):
Yeah, I like that extender. Lent told us you'd be blown away. We would be blown away by how much a building costs.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:09):
Yeah,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:10):
Not cheap. It's not getting cheaper.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:11):
20 to 40 million on some of those. Yeah,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:14):
It's wild. So I imagine when you speak with your constituents, education and school facilities are probably near the top of many of their lists.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:21):
Yeah, it comes up a lot. They're concerned about the percentage that it takes to approve a bond. I hear that a lot. So there was a constitutional amendment proposed in the education committee this year. There were several different constitutional amendments, not very many of them. I don't think any of them moved forward. Most of us were like, it's really not a thing you take lightly to change the college. But that was one of 'em that came up to allow them to vote to lower that threshold. And I think the intent was to move that to a time when there are more people engaged in the process. So in November, and that makes sense to me. That way you have a real majority, and if it was 50 plus one, then you'd be okay. So that's an option that's out there as well. And I think a lot of our constituents have been asking for that option. It just didn't move forward past the committee. I think it was introduced by Representative Rod Furnace this year,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (24:17):
And we know he's a troublemaker. Right.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (24:20):
No, I would say
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (24:20):
That we like Rod. Rod comes on a lot. Other issues that your constituents tell you about aside from education in school facilities and school bonds?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (24:28):
Well, we hear about the transportation infrastructure all the time. Potholes, I get calls. Most of my calls are related to mental health though, seriously, because people know and they look up my profile and they know hope this guy knows something about this. He'll do something or he'll make a phone call on my behalf. So I get a lot of phone calls specific to that, my specialty. So I'm proud of that, that they're willing to have. And I usually solve their problem rather quickly or connect them with the people that can. And it's really, it's nice to feel that they were looking for help and they got it. So that's one thing that I will do with all my constituents always is I give them my cell phone. I'm like, call me if you need something. We're happy to do that.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (25:12):
That's wild. And you don't get too many spammers calling
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (25:15):
You. No, have not had that. I've been really blessed. Well, let's not have any ERs caught me now all of a sudden.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (25:22):
So you're in a different seat than a lot of us in that you get to see the laws be made. You're right there. Do you feel like Idaho's heading in the right direction?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (25:35):
I always feel Idaho's heading in the right direction. If you look at us compared to the national, I meet with legislators from all over the country. People don't realize I travel a lot to do legislative stuff. Last year I went to Washington, DC three times to work on healthcare policy. I was in Colorado, and when I was in Colorado was 13 other state led slavers were there and interacting with us. And whenever we travel to each other states, we connect with each other. We talk. Idaho's doing really well. We're not in major debt like other states. You talk to them and we're like, you are 30 billion in debt. That's more than our entire budget. How could you guys operate? And we do really good work. We have some rifts in our party sometimes, but nothing that's too hard to work out. We're good at working things out. That's what I love about Idaho. We're good people. Most of them are always there for the right reasons. We just see things differently.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (26:31):
And there's sometimes a perception that in Boise, the Republicans and the Democrats vote completely opposite. And then sometimes the Republicans and other Republicans vote completely opposite. And we hope that some good comes. But you actually have been doing some research and cracking in on the bills and how they passed. I was surprised to learn that there was more bipartisanship bills passed this last session than what I think most people would realize.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (26:55):
Yeah, I've been trying to, I love statistics. I love that analysis. It tells the story. I looked at just the house bills so far haven't added the Senate bills in, but in just the house bills about 50% of all the bills we passed, which is close to a little over 200 of 'em that we voted on, and almost 50% were all members of both parties supported them. So that means either 70 members or there might've been a couple absent, but in the case, all the members supported that legislation equally. So that means it was bipartisan and we all supported.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (27:29):
And so what does it tell you about that issue or about that need?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (27:35):
Oh, that's a great question. It's either a really darn good bill or it's a pretty simple fix to something that people really don't care that much. But most of the time it is kind of a mix, a mix of a simple tweak to, or something we do every year. I ran the pharmacy, it's a bill we run every year to classify the scheduling of new pharmaceuticals. It's something we do every year. Most of the times it gets a few voters are voting against it. And this year I was shocked. I was like, all 70 of you supported that bill. That's great. It's not normal. But we emphasized that Idaho had the Idaho way of doing it, and we didn't just follow the federal way. Our people didn't just adopt what the feds had said. Idaho had their own council, looked at things their own way. Once in a while they'll reject a couple of the federal classifications. That's kind of a simple example. It's a simple bill, but I run that when I need to.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (28:33):
But the moral of the story is we would be concerned if every bill had unanimous support from both parties.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (28:39):
Yes, we
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (28:39):
Would. There would be challenges there. But it's nice to see that there is a number of bills that everyone can
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (28:44):
Agree on. And I was trying to remember when I looked at my analysis, the party line votes, there was roughly in just houseboat almost 35, 36. So it was about 15% of all the bills that were very clear party line Republicans voted one way. Democrats voted another way. And it was all Republicans. And the way I do my analysis, if there's less than five that move one way or another that I don't count it that as a split vote or a straight party vote, but it's very rare. But those ones, it's pretty clear how many, 35 of them were very clear party votes like that. And then the rest of them, when there's extras, that means the Republicans were split. So there's occasionally that that happens about, what was it, 35% of the time that that happens.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (29:31):
Yeah. Now, if you had the opportunity to sit down in front of the whole house and Senate and were able to say in this off session what they to do to become more effective when you're in session, what do you think is the missing component to ensure that you guys can run even smoother when January to March?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (29:50):
You asked the magical question. I've been thinking about this for a long time. One of the greatest things we can do is come prepared to session with bills ready. And the second thing we can do is have our committees have special work groups where the committee works together on legislations to fix actual problems. And then we've come up with these solutions and worked on them rather than outside interests coming. There were several bills this year where people from outside Idaho were trying to push their agenda, and you could see right through that. And they come testify in committee, and they're not even Idahoans. They're not solutions for Idaho. So I think that's what's missing. There isn't enough committee collaboration, even if we're split in how we're made up. But if we did that, we would come to a consensus together and then that legislation would fly right through and it would solve really amazing problems. So I'd love to see more of that happening in committee.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (30:45):
So coming day one with a lot of preparation and pre-work done and collaboration with committee to ensure that when you're there, you're not starting from scratch. Correct. Yeah. I like that idea too,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (30:55):
Because what happens is they come in and the first week, not a lot of things happen. It's slow. And I wish that we just had bills ready to roll right out of the gate, and you already had a bill number and that first week you're having hearings on those bills. And most of us had already heard about it. We've talked about it, so we're ready to go. And I think that would speed things up. And especially with the budgets. I mean, our constitutional mandate is get those budgets done. And they tried a new process this year and we saw how it went. You could say it was good or bad. I mean, it was a little bit divided on how we liked that or not.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (31:31):
Definitely. Definitely. Now you're busy, you've got everything going on, but you still decided you're a glutton for punishment and you're going to run again. You're up for reelection.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (31:40):
Yeah. I still have work to do. I've learned a lot of things. I still have some more work to do, and that's going to benefit Idahoans, especially in the mental health space and the justice space as we talked about earlier. And when I'm done feeling it should be a couple more years, maybe one term after that, and I am pretty sure I can achieve a lot of those things I set out to do, and then it'll be someone else's turn. So even with all the stress and all that, I'm willing to do the service that needs to be done for our constituents, and I'm happy to do
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (32:12):
That. Well, I think you bring a unique set of skills and an experience to the job that not every legislator does. So your voice is important. We know how busy you are. We know you've got to run off. But we really do appreciate you coming and meeting with us. Thanks
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (32:26):
For having me here today.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (32:27):
Yeah. Again, this is Representative Marco Erickson, district 33. Appreciate you being here.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (32:32):
Thank you.
Improving Idaho School Facilities
Main Street Town Hall Episode 13—Representative Matt Bundy
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Representative Matt Bundy from District 8A joins us for his first appearance on the podcast. Host and Executive Director, Brennan Summers, learns of Bundy's 20-year career as a combat aviator turned high school civics teacher, as well as his transition to the Idaho Legislature. Bundy provides his own insight to the current legislative session and his efforts to help school facilities.
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Follow Along With The Transcript
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to I Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Main Street podcast. We're here with the representative out of District eight, a high school teacher, a former combat aviator, city councilman from Mountain Home. Joining us today, representative Matt Bundy, representative, thanks for joining us today.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (00:28):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to sit here, to [00:00:30] chat with you and to talk about Idaho and all the great things about Idaho and District eight and all the fun things that we're doing and about the legislature. So thanks for the invitation.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (00:38):
Invitation. Absolutely. We got a lot of exciting things we need to talk about today, and we're just going to jump right in. When I was a kid, I remember a pope passed away and as they were like all the cardinals got together to choose a new pope, my dad had us all grilled to the glued, I should say, to the TV and waiting to see if the white smoke would come, and every day we'd ask, is today the day we choose a new pope? That's not my question [00:01:00] for you today. My question is, is this week, the week that the session ends,
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (01:05):
We were taking a poll at lunch. We had a very short little meeting with some of the J FAC members and we were trying to pick a day for the pool on which day the session would end. I tried to take tomorrow, but I think that was a little bit optimistic. So I think the consensus is that we will be done by Friday,
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (01:23):
So not Tuesday, but maybe Friday. As you think about the session, what are some of the big [00:01:30] things we've learned this session?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (01:33):
Well, I think we've learned that as many things as we discuss and debate. I think on a lot of the big issues, we came together and did the right thing for Idaho. Over the past few years we've seen that we have some trouble at the local level with our school facilities and the state is stepping up here and we're putting in some good efforts to help the districts [00:02:00] with their facilities where we're trying to get the right number. It's always a difficult thing on how much is too much and how much is too little. But I think where we're at right now is going to give the districts the ability to make some significant advancements in their facilities and it's going to give them the idea or the promise of ongoing facilities of money so that we can take care of our tenure facilities plans. So I think that the way we've come together on that and we've also adjusted once again our tax rates, so that's been a really good thing.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (02:29):
Sure, [00:02:30] sure. And I'm excited to dig into more of education and your perspective on it, but if it's true that we wrap up this week, what can we expect, if anything, to be pushed through the pipe before you guys all wrap up and go home?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (02:47):
Well, as I said before, my primary duty on J fac is the budget. So I'm personally looking at, I just got the official wording and the version after the, [00:03:00] excuse me, after we did all the motions in Jfa. So I'll be working with the community college's budget and we're also coming with the K 12 budgets, and I think the good news in the K 12 budgets, there's been a lot of folks asking us about that supplemental, and we are working, we're working very, very diligently to get that money out to the districts in a non-discretionary fashion through the supplemental for the money that was allocated for this year. But there was some slight reductions as we went from [00:03:30] attendance, excuse me, as we went from enrollment to a DA. So we're going to allow those school districts to meet their obligations this year. We'll see a little bit of right sizing on the budget next year as we move to an A DA, but I'm also very optimistic that our numbers and our enrollment are going to continue to increase after a year or two of stagnation and that our attendance will also pick up and we'll be able to recover that funding even though we're going to go to an A DA.
(03:54):
So those are two big things that I'm looking at right now are K 12 and the higher ed budgets.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (03:59):
Let's dig in a little bit [00:04:00] more on that one. There's probably a few people listening that may not be familiar with the transition here. From going to a a walk us through what that is, what we were doing in terms of the budgetary process and then what this will look like when we make the transition to 88
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (04:19):
A DA is a average daily attendance. And so for the last few years in J fac, we created our budgets based on the current rule or code. And last year when we created [00:04:30] this budget, we were still in the second year of an enrollment based funding formula. For example, I'll just use an easy number. If I have a thousand students enrolled in my school, I figure out my support units and my funding based on the enrollment of a thousand students. When we went away from, this was a decision, the enrollment base was a temporary measure, and so then we got to the point where the pandemic was gone. We were back to looking at an average daily attendance. So [00:05:00] if I have a thousand students enrolled in my school, but I average 960 a day in attendance under the average daily attendance, it's a slight reduction.
(05:10):
You're funded based on how many students actually show up. And I think part of the reason we went back to an A DA is to reinforce the value of in-person education. And so last year when we created the budget, we created it for everybody enrolled, and then we went to average daily attendance [00:05:30] during the process. And so the schools were being allocated a slightly less amount of money even though they built their budgets based on an anticipated amount. So we're going to get that anticipated amount back out through a supplemental, and then we will rightsize the budgets next year.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (05:46):
Perfect. That makes sense to me. So it should make sense to most Now I think it's important to kind of stop and take a breath and look back at everything you and your committee were able to do. We talk a lot [00:06:00] about the appropriations process. We had representative Ray Boldon last week and she had all of our heads spinning with all of the things that she was talking about. What are some of the big wins that you think that the jfa committee has been able to produce this session?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (06:17):
Well, I think a big thing is we've been able to create, and like I say, I think folks are going to really be happy with our higher ed and our community colleges and our K 12 budgets. We've been able to take care [00:06:30] of the business, we've been able to project for the future. So I think our education budgets, nothing's ever perfect, but when you're working in a committee of 20 and then you have to take it to 70 house members and 35 senators, there's some things that you have to take into consideration so that you're successful in that larger group. The other thing, I think that just last week I was able to participate in the Department of Agricultural bill signing. The beautiful thing about being on JPAC is I get to learn a lot of new stuff. So in the Department [00:07:00] of Agriculture budget, we have added some veterinarians so that we can help out the dairy industry, which is a billion dollar industry.
(07:07):
We were able to put in some more testing stations for QUA so that we can make sure for the next five years that we're convinced that the qua muscle has been taken care of. There's just so many things, but very quickly, the big thing that we do in JPEG is we make sure through our very, very precise vetting process that we're doing budgets that make sense [00:07:30] that we are not just rubber stamping requests of the departments and the divisions, but we're making sure that those are things that idahos need. But more importantly, it's things that we can adequately fund with our general fund bottom line as well as, for example, like Parks and Rec, we're able to do some things because they're generating a lot of dedicated funds, which means that people are going to our state parks and recs and they're paying their entrance fees and they're camping at the campgrounds. And so we have that money that people [00:08:00] spend on the parks to turn back around and improve it and enhance our parks and recreation system here in Idaho, which I think is a great way to do business is that we have something, I mean, people can't create these parks on their own. They need the state help, but then when they go to 'em, we make sure that we use those dedicated funds to improve and enhance them. So there's been a lot of things that we've done that are fun.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (08:22):
Yeah, you talk about learning lots of different stuff, and I can only imagine all [00:08:30] the budgets and all the details and all the line items you got to go through. But why don't you talk to us a little bit about what the committee was able to do in appropriations to public safety regarding some of these police budgets and anything we can do to alleviate the surge in crime that this nation's experiencing?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (08:46):
Well, I think we've done a lot of good things. You might've seen, we pass the bill for the mandatory minimums on fentanyl. And what we've also been able to do is we have been able to fund through the JPAC process, through the appropriations [00:09:00] process, the ability for the governor to send Idaho state patrol or Idaho State Troopers down there, and they are basically working with and learning from folks that are on the border and they're learning skills on the go. I mean, they're down there doing it. This is not a classroom environment, it's more of a real world environment. They're down there on the border learning things and techniques and tactics that they can bring back to Idaho and to help keep us safe and to protect us from [00:09:30] some of those things that are coming across the border into the United States and Idaho. So I think the bottom line here is the ability to fund that mission so that we can send troopers down there to get real world experience and then bring it back and train the other troopers that they work with on how to best protect us against a lot, a lot of things that are obviously are not good.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (09:51):
Yeah, I mean from a national standpoint, how frustrating is it as a conservative lawmaker to have to handle all the issues that come as a byproduct of [00:10:00] the kind of failure at our border? I mean, talk to us a little bit about you don't get to decide national border policy, but sometimes you have to deal with the consequences of it.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (10:11):
That's a great point, and I appreciate you bringing that up. And that's why we have continued to fund police, local police. We're working on some rules that will allow the local police to work more closely with federal, federal departments when we find or when we locate [00:10:30] an illegal alien or somebody that shouldn't be here, that we can take steps to remedy that situation. But I do really want to give the Idaho State Police, I think they just celebrated one of their major anniversaries here a couple of weeks ago in the Capitol. The folks that dedicate their lives to protecting us here at the local level, I think is admirable, and we try to give 'em what they need. And we've done a lot of good things with them, but I really think that training environments and allowing them to go down there with [00:11:00] our support to learn real world what's going on is really going to enhance Idaho law enforcement capabilities.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (11:07):
Yeah, I agree. I have the utmost respect and love for the Idaho State Police when I'm coming up on a rack and they've got everything sorted and everyone moving in the right way when they're keeping our streets safe, my feelings towards 'em change a little bit when I'm getting pulled over for speeding because every experience I've had, they're not warning givers, but that's more of a me problem than an US problem representative. [00:11:30] Let's transition to education. You sit in a very unique seat in that you've spent 16 years in the classroom. Is that correct?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (11:38):
This is my 20th year in the classroom. Oh boy. I always feel so blessed when I look at the ability that I've had to have two 20 year careers and two professions that are very different but similar at the same time. So this is my 20th year in the classroom, so right now I'm kind of a split contract, so I do a lot of the planning and a lot of the overseeing, but that's another [00:12:00] reason why it's going to be great to get done this week so I can get back into the classroom next Monday and start to hang out with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds that really, really keep my ideas fresh and really give me a nice perspective into the future of Idaho. And I'll tell you, I know you didn't ask this, but I always love to tell people that based on my knowledge and my working with the seniors in high school over the last two decades, Idaho is in good shape. We have super, super kids coming out of high school that are taking on business roles and government roles, [00:12:30] and obviously for mountain home, a lot of our kids at a much higher rate than anywhere else in the state join the military. So there's a lot of really super future leaders and current leaders of Idaho that are coming out of our public school system and other systems also.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (12:45):
Yeah, we needed to hear that because Casey and I are studio tech. Were talking about, man, it's got to be tough being a teacher in these day and ages and what we see on TikTok from the same age group you talk about doesn't give us the most optimism about the future, but you're seeing a different crop [00:13:00] of kids. You're seeing homegrown Idaho boys and girls, you talk about what they're doing, the jobs they're going into. But what else is it that you see in the classroom? It gives you so much optimism about the future.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (13:11):
Well, like I say, I've been doing it for 20 years, so I kind of jokingly say I left the Air Force as Lieutenant colonel and people say, Hey, how was the transition? And I say, well, the first time I walked into the classroom, no one stood up. I said, I knew I was in a different environment, but I'll tell you that the students, their ideas [00:13:30] and their desire to learn and to integrate new ideas into the way they do things, I think inspires me to continue to also want to learn new things or as I said earlier, learn new stuff. I guess sometimes I use the teenage vernacular, but I really enjoy sitting with them and talking with them and listening to what they assignment I do where I have them pick a historical or a political figure and talk about them. And people say, well, [00:14:00] should we coordinate who we're going to talk about? So we don't talk about the same person? And I'll be honest, out of the class of 25 to 30, very rarely do they pick the same person. So they're picking different historical or social role models or people from society. They tend to pick different people, and it's really a fun thing to sit and listen to 'em, identify with something that someone's done or ideas that they have or how they're going to take other ideas into the future anyway, but that's [00:14:30] a ton of fun.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (14:31):
You got to give us some examples. What are some of the people that they choose?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (14:36):
Well, you're always going to get your George Washington's and your Ben Franklin's, but you're going to, I get Rosa Parks and I get Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War, or I will get somebody that has what I really like it is when somebody will choose like their grandfather, how they survived or that now would be more of [00:15:00] a great grandfather, how they survived the depression, or I've had students bring in parts of a journal from someone that they've known in the past, and I've actually had students talk about other fellow teachers, which is always a lot of fun. So it's interesting, maybe more so now than when I was a kid, a lot of these students are interested in their past and the people that have kind of paved the way for them. So I think, I don't know if it's a generational thing, but I have noticed that a lot of students are interested [00:15:30] in their relatives and they talk more about their relatives and things like that, and those that have done things that have been very, very inspirational and that we would've never known had they not had the opportunity to talk about 'em.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (15:43):
Now, you were chosen as Idaho Civics teacher of the year for 20 19, 20 20. Congratulations on that. Thank you. And my concern among others is we talk about politics and voting and we're gearing up towards a primary season [00:16:00] and then a general election in November, man, voter turnouts, low representative, I mean a Republican caucus. We had less than 10% of people are making a decision about who they think should lead our country. We get into Republican primaries in Idaho where in most places the Republican primaries determining who's going to carry the ballot through November, and it's still significantly less than 50%. You see a third of the people in Idaho are deciding who's leading as a civics [00:16:30] teacher. I imagine that's frustrating. Do you see a solution?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (16:35):
I think historically that 18 to 25-year-old demographic has been low voter turnout. And so I always do, usually in the fall and in the spring, I do a voter registration where I talk through how to register as a voter in Idaho and explain the various facets of how to do it. And I think that I've had students and [00:17:00] kind of the beauty of living in a smaller town is I'll be sitting maybe on my park bench in my park. I always like to tell everyone that Legacy Park is Mr. Bundy's park because it's right by my house. And I did a lot of work on it when I was in city council, but over the past year, I'll just be sitting there and I'll have somebody walk by and they'll stop and they'll say, Mr. Bundy, do you remember me? And I do, I've been teaching for 20 years, and if you do the math, it's about 3,500 students.
(17:28):
But a lot of them, and I've noticed a trend [00:17:30] here is they say, well, they'll think back as they get to maybe 25, 26, maybe 30, and remember something we didn't in government class. So sometimes the benefit of civics instruction may not be immediate, but it might be five or 10 years down the road. And I've had quite a few students and it's really humbling. Someone remembers what you did 10 or 15 years ago. But my point there is I think a lot of times when we put that spark in 'em as 17 or 18, it may not [00:18:00] catch fire for a little while, but I've been pleased to know of a lot of students that at some point later in the next five to 10 years or so, they become politically involved, they become voters. So that's how I treat it is I'd like you to vote right now, but if this ember doesn't take spark for another few years, I'm glad that I was a part of it even five or 10 years later. So it's kind of a longer answer to a short question, but you're correct that [00:18:30] we do need to increase our voter and make voting accessible too.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (18:36):
I like the idea of this though. That's some good insight about investing in these young minds that may not pay dividends until later when it kind of clicks that they need to participate. But you're still doing the Lord's work there in the classroom, getting these kids to understand and to want to care about things that really do matter. So that's noteworthy, I imagine. So yet 20 years, we're still going to 20 years in the classroom, but we haven't had 20 years in the legislature. So [00:19:00] I'm just assuming that there were probably some pain points as a teacher that sparked your decision to get involved. Now, you were a city councilman before joining the legislature, but were there some things that you saw that the Idaho legislature maybe could do better when it comes to education that you and the teachers chair thought, man, they're just not quite seeing this?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (19:21):
Well, actually, so I started teaching in 2004, and [00:19:30] then I coached for 10 years. So I was a baseball and a basketball coach, and the mayor of Mount Home about 10 years ago called me and said, Hey, I heard some good things about you. Would you like to get involved in one of our economic development committees? And I said, that sounds great. And I really was not that in tune with economic development at the time, but I did, and we did some great things. We did a downtown renovation and I was able to, we worked with the Department of Commerce and ITD so that we were able to combine forces [00:20:00] and save a lot of city taxpayer money by using outside grants and type of things like that. And so I started to get to see and to know how you can integrate the city government, county government and state government to get a much better product and at a much better cost savings for taxpayer.
(20:22):
And so I was doing that and just loving it. And then there was a city council opening, and some folks came and said, Hey, we think that you'd be a great candidate [00:20:30] for city council. And so I said, I'd love to because I want to continue to grow the downtown and to grow that mountain home economy. And so I was serving in city council for about four or five years, and then a similar thing happened where the incumbent decided to run. So it created an opening in the state legislature, and I was encouraged to run for that. So I basically entered into these various levels of government responsibility [00:21:00] when folks had a need and they thought I might be the guy that could be able to fill that. And so it's always an honor to have people say, I think you would be good at this. And I've been very glad that I've been able to over the course of the last decade, work in public service. So it's not that I saw anything I wanted to do differently or change, it's just the fact that people showed confidence in me and I appreciated that.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (21:23):
As a rural high school and as a rural high school teacher, I'm sure you wrestle [00:21:30] with, as you mentioned before, issues with school facilities with public funding of education, and as you gear up for another election cycle, are those issues that you still think there's work to be done on?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (21:43):
I do. And Mountain Home is not just because I live there, but for many reasons it's unique. We have the Air Force base, and that's what brought me here in 1999. So I've been in Idaho for 25 years, is about 40% of our students are affiliated with the base. [00:22:00] So we're a rural school where we have a ton of agricultural kids, but we have a lot of kids associated with the military. And so when I moved here, my daughter was a junior and I had a young son that was a ninth grader and another son that was a fourth grader. So we came here after moving around the country for a long time. We did 10 moves in 20 years. And so we're rural, but we're also very diverse. And so that's kind of a little bit interesting about our rural school, [00:22:30] but also a mountain home.
(22:31):
One of the buildings that we use is over a hundred years old, but I think in facilities, people may, I'm sure everybody knows that it's expensive to maintain and keep up to code a building that's a hundred years old. Our high school is 70 years old. We use the a hundred year old building as kind of our alternative high school. But when you have to repair a 70, 80, a hundred year old building, that money tends to come out of your general fund that you can't use for other educational [00:23:00] purposes. And we're not unique. Mountain Home is not unique that we're using buildings that are 70, 80, 90, a hundred years old, and that's where we tend to get in trouble because it's difficult with the super majority to get a bond through as it should be because you're expending taxpayer funds. But then we end up with the 70 and like I say, very old buildings that we have to maintain.
(23:22):
And we also, a lot of folks don't know that we have an elementary school out on the Air Force base, so the Air Force School [00:23:30] is run by Mountain Home School District, and that building is also getting old, and we're working on how to upgrade that facility also. So we do, I think a lot of rural schools are having difficulty with the super majority on the bond, and I think this facilities money that we're putting in place right now and some of the other money that we're putting towards the bonds and levies that are out there will help property taxes reduce and hopefully let us get our buildings where they need to be.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (24:00):
[00:24:00] Yeah, yeah. We had Senator Lent on here talking about the same thing, and he said people would be really surprised how much it costs to build a new building. Just as you pointed out, I think we'd all be surprised how much it costs to keep a hundred year old building up to code and go. And I think I had a neighbor and she was a hundred years old, and it was new hips and all sorts of things. I mean, people aren't cheap to keep updated at that age, so buildings are just as bad.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (24:24):
Yeah, we are definitely giving those buildings new hips. That is a good analogy.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (24:28):
Thank you. Thank you. Now then, you [00:24:30] talked about how you kind of stumbled into the legislature through a bunch of optimistic and opportunities that opened doors for you at good points in time, but you've got public service in your blood. In fact, you had an ancestor that served in a legislature. Do you mind sharing that story with us?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (24:46):
That's funny. It's funny. Some of the students were talking about some of their ancestors, and I knew my heritage on some level. On my mom's side, they immigrated from Germany. So on my mom's side, I'm first generation [00:25:00] citizen here, born here. But on my dad's side, I knew it went way back to North Carolina. And so sometimes there's a gap in your genealogy. Well, it got filled over the last couple of years, and I was able to figure out that on my dad's side, directly back all the way to 1650, a guy named William Bundy came from England to North Carolina, and he was a Quaker. And so he had a son whose name was Caleb, so Caleb Bundy. And I found the documents when I saw something and I went back into the [00:25:30] North Carolina Colonial Archives. And so in 1703, Caleb Bundy, direct descendant, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
(25:41):
Straight back was a member of the North Carolina House of Burgesses. And like I said, they were Quakers. And so when they got a new queen in 1703, they made a law in Parliament that you had to take an oath to the Queen. And if you remember your Quaker history, they don't take oaths. And so it was a big deal [00:26:00] where Caleb and a couple of his other Quaker legislators signed a letter saying that they would not sign an oath to this new queen based on religious ideas. And so it's kind of a cool story back in 1703 ish that Caleb Bundy, a direct descendant of mine, was in the North Carolina House of Burgesses. And so people ask me what my takeaway from that is. And my takeaway from that is about every 300 years somebody in the Bundy line is full-hearted enough to [00:26:30] want to be in the state legislature.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (26:33):
That is a wonderful story, and I hope that that is the ancestor that they remember. That's the Bundy name we want people to associate you with is that legislature. And I also would point out that there's probably a lesson to be there about swearing allegiance to things other than voters. I imagine that you often get asked to swear allegiance to all sorts of groups and associations, and I assume your allegiance still falls to the voters.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (26:55):
I think it's interesting that we always talk about people came to [00:27:00] the colonies for religious freedom and then even in the early days, they struggled with religious freedom. So it's a religious freedom, freedom of ideas are things that even three centuries later we're dealing with now. And so yeah, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that very short story that I found in the history of North Carolina that I'm associated with. But it is kind of fun to think that on one side of my family, I'm [00:27:30] first generation born in America, and on the other side of my family I go straight back to 1650 coming here from England. So I've got really both sides of that whole immigration pattern.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (27:41):
Yeah, I love that. And there's definitely something to be said about getting in touch with our roots in England. They've got on their two pound coins on the room of it, it says standing on the shoulder of giants. And I often think back to people came before us that helped us get where we are today, and we need to remember that. So I think that's a wonderful story of your ancestry. Now, [00:28:00] I would be in trouble if during this podcast we didn't spend some time talking about your days as a combat aviator. Is it as cool as it sounds representative?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (28:12):
Well, I joined my commissioning program in 1982. I was very, very young at the time, so if you're doing the math in your head, I'm just kidding. But 1982 was a different time than 1995, 2005, and even [00:28:30] 2020, it was not, it wasn't as popular. It wasn't as well accepted to join the military in the early eighties. We're still in kind of the Vietnam hangover. And so I joined in 1982. My dad was a wonderful man. He was a public school teacher for 33 years, but I didn't grow up. My dad didn't serve in the military. He would've loved to, but the circumstances just didn't warrant it. So I just kind of on a, trying to figure out what I wanted [00:29:00] to do with my life, I decided that I would go through ROTC at the University of Utah, and I was offered an aviation slot. So the best way to describe it, if you've seen Top Gun, I was Goose. That was the weapons office.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (29:14):
You're speaking our language.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (29:16):
So I started in 1984 when I was commissioned, I went to flight school. I flew B 50 twos first, so my career is bookended. I started off with Nuclear Alert against the Soviets where we would be on alert [00:29:30] with a jet loaded with nuclear weapons for deterrence. And that is an interesting historical conversation. And then at the end of my career, I had transitioned to B one about 1990. I did a combat deployment post nine 11 into Afghanistan and flew combat sorties against the Taliban. And so it was really fun. It was a lot of excitement, [00:30:00] something I could hang my hat on, but really all, when I mentioned Top Gun, that's when the attitude changed. All of a sudden before that, it was like, oh, you joined the military, couldn't find anything else to do. And then Top Gun comes out, and I think all we do is play volleyball on the beach.
(30:14):
And then everybody thought it was a really cool thing to do. Not that we didn't play volleyball on the beach in Guam when we would do a night sort and then we'd play volleyball the next day. But the Top Gun phenomenon really increased the awareness [00:30:30] of the military. And then of course, desert Shield, desert Storm. I was in Desert Shield over in Guam for a little bit, and then I came back to train in the B one and the Desert Shield Desert Storm kind of enhanced our pride in the military. 2001, I think galvanized it. And I think we're still a very pro-military country, which I think is awesome. But there's a lot of things. I moved my family 10 times in 20 years, so I think it was hard on them. And luckily, and I'm very, very blessed that my three children still like [00:31:00] me and my wife was hung by my side this whole time.
(31:04):
And both of my sons have served in the military and continue to serve in the National Guard. So I love the military and I would do it again, but I've also, I think the military experience in some ways has made me a better teacher. I'm not saying that everybody needs to serve in the military to be a teacher, but for me that combination worked. And so there's a lot of career educators that are wonderful, wonderful [00:31:30] teachers, and we're starting to see over, when I came into teaching 20 years ago, it was rare to see a second career teacher, but you're starting to see more of that. And I think that's a good thing to combine teachers that are in the classroom for 30, 35 years with other folks that have done something else for 10 to 15 years or five years and then come into the classroom. So that's kind of a neat development.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (31:52):
In what ways did serving in the military affect the way that you view your service in the Idaho state legislature?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (32:00):
[00:32:00] That's a great question. Sometimes I tend to be very friendly. I tend to be very congenial. So I think sometimes I don't meet the typical military stereotype. And part of that is because as an aviator in the Air Force, I did a lot of study of military history and leadership. And one of my, even though patent is stereotypical, he actually [00:32:30] was very well loved by his immediate set of advisors and a piece of advice that Patton gave his advisors. If everybody in the room is thinking the same thing, then somebody's not thinking. And so I've tried to take that into the classroom amongst other things where I encourage students to challenge my ideas, and I let them know that when I'm asking them a question, it doesn't mean I disagree. It means I'm giving them the opportunity [00:33:00] to explore their own thoughts and to be able to adequately discuss their ideas.
(33:06):
And so I think that when you're an officer in the military and you're doing strategic thinking, you need to analyze all of the different avenues that you might have to pursue, and you have to come to an agreement, reach a consensus. And I think that type of thinking is very prevalent or needed in the Idaho legislature where you have to understand that there's a diverse [00:33:30] group out there, diverse needs, and you need to come together and let people know when you have a different idea and if you can move an idea or making an idea better.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (33:43):
Yeah. Well, I think we're going to have to have you on at some point just to talk about your career in the military, introduced us to some stories that are going to be coming, and we'd love to dig in more on that. But we've got a tradition before the podcast ends today that anyone, first time [00:34:00] interviewees join the podcast. There's two really tough questions we throw at 'em. Okay, so buckle up. The first one, and this is going to be perfect for you as an educator, is if there was a book that you've read in your lifetime that you would recommend everybody else needs to flip through, what book would that be?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (34:18):
I just finished a book about Joshua Chamberlain on Great Fields, and we tend, if you're familiar with Joshua Chamberlain, he was 20th, Maine, little round top Gettysburg, [00:34:30] but that was just a small portion of his life. The other things he did as a minister and as a college professor and as a governor of Maine, and there's a story in there at the end when he's the governor of Maine, that there was an armed insurrection or an armed rebellion that wanted to take over the capitol. And the way that he handled it and the way that he addressed it, I think is a lesson that we can learn, that you can have [00:35:00] disagreements and if the right person is at the place at the right time, he diffused it. And it's a nice lesson for history. And it also talks about, and maybe part of the reason that it resonated with me is because he was a teacher and a military man also, as you try to juggle those two divergent ways of thinking, but they're actually very similar in nature. So it's a great on great fields about Joshua Chamberlain.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (35:26):
Perfect on Grateful. That's piqued my interest because no, I'm not familiar with Joshua Chamberlain, but [00:35:30] I will be. You've made the book list so excited about that. Now the second question's, even harder representative, you've got a great district there that you represent. If I'm driving through your district, where is somewhere I need to stop if I need to get a meal?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (35:45):
Well, let's see. I've got Elmore County, Boise County, valley County and Custer County. So there's Elmore County, there's a place called S Stoney's on Main Street. That's a lot of fun. And it's [00:36:00] a local venue on your way up to Donnelley. It's called the Cougar Cafe, I believe it's right there kind of outside of Donnelley. And so there's some fun places up there. I would go there. I was just yesterday I got to drive 500 miles to a chalice back and forth. So it was about almost 10 hours in the car and I got to go through craters of the moon, Arco on my way up to [00:36:30] Mackey, and we did a little event, a place called Living Waters up there. It was really nice. So I've got the largest geographic district, so if you're driving through my district, it's either a week long trip or you're specifically going there. So
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (36:45):
Those are some good recommendations and any that are not mentioned, we hope that you didn't lose their votes, I'm sure.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (36:50):
Correct. They're all
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (36:51):
Good. They're all good. We'll qualify that representative. We've talked through a lot of your titles today. We've talked about you as a representative legislator. We talked through you as [00:37:00] Mr. Bundy talked to you as a lieutenant and even Goose, and we appreciate you walking us through not only what's going on in the legislature, but kind of how you got there and the way you envision things. We're hoping for the session to end this week and that we can have you back on to kind of recap everything that finished and what we're looking forward to in the coming years.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (37:24):
Well, I appreciate that. And you said earlier, I kind of want to think of it, maybe I was led into the legislature, [00:37:30] not that I stumbled into the legislature, so I'm just kidding. This has been an awesome opportunity and I appreciate the ability to chat with you for a few minutes.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (37:40):
Absolutely. We're glad you're in the legislature and we know you didn't stumble there. That mistake is on me, but we'll get that one fixed in post-production. We'll see if Casey cuts it. No, we're fine. Thanks for joining us today.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (37:51):
Alright, you have a great day.
Agenda and Budget Negotiations
Main Street Town Hall Episode 12—Representative Britt Raybould
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Returning to the podcast is Representative Brit Raybould out of District 34. She joins us straight from the House floor to discuss the current policies up for debate. Raybould sheds light on what her constituents from Madison County want accomplished in Boise, as well as her work trying to solidify budgets for the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC).
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…
Follow Along With The Transcript
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to I Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Main Street Podcast. I'm your host, Brennan Summers. We're here with the representative out of district 34, Madison County, representative Britt Rayd representative. Thanks for joining us.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (00:22):
Hey, Brandon. It's good to be with you.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (00:25):
We know you came off the floor just barely lively debate, some exciting bills going on. It seems like it's never a dull moment over there.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (00:33):
So it's that time of the session when March Madness applies not only to college basketball, but the Idaho legislature too.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (00:40):
Are there brackets floating around?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (00:43):
There are brackets floating around currently. There's the women's teams that are making the rounds, but I have no doubt that the men's teams will be not far behind.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (00:52):
Love it. Are there brackets that include bills of what you think will get eliminated, which bills will get your time and attention
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (01:01):
As the month goes on? It won't surprise me at all if something like that doesn't show up on the floor. Right now we have bingo cards. The bingo cards were distributed the other day, and so now we get the opportunity to see how often our colleagues use certain phrases.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (01:14):
Oh, can you give us a little insight onto what phrases may be on those bingo cards?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (01:21):
I did happen to see on one bingo card facts don't matter, which struck me as an interesting bingo spot, second Amendment precedent. What else was that popped up on there? There's just a few, but there are definitely phrases that we all end up using in our debate on a more than regular basis, and so it makes for pretty easy pickings when you want to play bingo.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (01:41):
Oh, that is fantastic. We give Representative Wheeler a hard time with how often he references CTE.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (01:47):
Well, in fairness, representative Wheeler CTE is incredibly important and so I'm all for bringing that up whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (01:56):
Yes, we agree. We're big fans of career technical education Now representative, last time we spoke, you were gearing up towards the session. We were able to talk about a lot of things you were hoping to accomplish. Now as you mentioned March Madness, the session in theory is drawing to a close as you prepare to end the session. If you had to grade the legislative session based on efficiency, what would you give it?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (02:20):
Well now Brandon, you're painting me into a corner. I've got to talk about how things are going and things aren't quite done yet. I think this session's been a struggle when you want to look at how effective we've been at getting things done, and I think in large part it's because there isn't consensus on some of the bigger issues. So for instance, if we're talking about potentially redoing the funding formula for our K through 12 schools, we haven't reached consensus on that, and yet we still need to ensure that we're fully funding our public schools and that requires us looking at not only the 330 million that was passed during the special session back in 2022, but also accounting for the fact that there are just fewer support units that are in the formula. So there's the possibility that it's going to look like we're sending out less money to our school districts, but in reality we just have had a shift in what public schools look like. And that's really put some pressure on the need to update that funding formula
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (03:12):
Is the hope that next session or even before the end of this session, that consensus will be found on some of those issues.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (03:20):
I want to applaud Superintendent Critchfield. She spent a significant amount of time with a working group during the interim last time and they worked through a lot of things and they pulled together a lot of really important data to help us better understand how we can support students within these districts. I am optimistic that we are getting closer. We've had a lot more of the unknowns addressed and answered. Now it becomes a case of how do we best put it together to get to a solution.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (03:45):
Yeah, my Bingo card is full of applauding Debbie Critchfield. We're huge fans of her and whenever she's on the podcast, she updates us on all things that education related. Now you have a reputation with your colleagues as being somebody who does her homework and that isn't afraid of digging into the policy and to the details and to the data. And would it be safe to say that you love policy and tolerate politics?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (04:10):
No question. Policy is the area where I'm most comfortable in large part because there are so many opportunities to figure out solutions. I don't think there's such a thing as a one right answer when it comes to policy. There's a bunch of different ways that we can look at a problem and come up with solutions, and that's part of what makes policy so powerful and so important. There's these avenues that we can get to areas of common ground and we can work together. I think there's this misconception that sometimes it comes down to, oh, well you guys, you can't agree on anything and well, no, we have agreement about where we want to go. The disagreement often lies in how we get there and that's where those policy discussions become really useful.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (04:51):
We think most of our listeners view a lot of what's done through a lens of politics and policy tends to be what a lot of what you are doing. Walk us through the balance of why the politics is so important to get the policy done.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (05:09):
Well, politics matters because I can't assume that the priorities in every district mere my district. And so if I'm thinking politics, that's what it comes down to is what are the priorities for my fellow legislators in their districts. Sometimes those priorities line up with my own, but a lot of times they don't. And so if I'm proposing a policy solution that doesn't fit within the politics of another district, then it's going to make it hard for me to get those 36 votes I need in the house. So that's why paying attention to the politics matters is that I have to have respect for the fact that there are different needs that each legislator brings to the table. And by being responsive to that, I increase the likelihood that I can gain support for the policy initiatives that I care about.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (05:48):
Yeah, I like that a lot because a Madison County Republican doesn't necessarily look the same as a Coney County Republican or an ADA county Democrat.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (05:57):
Yeah, that's the reality of it is that we all have our own districts that we're representing and the politics allows us to help navigate to that point where we can find agreement.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (06:07):
When you've made it a priority in your political career to stay in touch with what those priorities are in your district and you keep in close contact with whether it's your mayor or your superintendents and then your town halls and just the everyday neighbors and voters, what are a few of the things that the voters in Madison County really want accomplished in Boise?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (06:28):
So for Madison County, we've had significant growth and one of the questions that comes up on a pretty regular basis is help us figure out a way to pay for growth in a sustainable way that doesn't put the burden on the people who are already here. So there's a lot of discussion that circulates within our local officials about this idea of how do we reach some sort of solution that provides us with a local option tax. Now, I haven't yet seen a particular proposal that I think makes a ton of sense, particularly from a statewide perspective, but I appreciate those discussions and what our local officials are bringing to the table on those issues. Just today we had a meeting with our local Chamber of Commerce. They brought questions to the forefront about, well, what's happening over there? Can you give us a little bit of insight into how this legislation might impact our county?
(07:11):
Can you help us have a better understanding of where this is at in the process? So for example, house Bill four 15, which was the piece of gun legislation that involved concealed carry within Idaho schools. It passed the Idaho House, it went over to the Senate and there were negotiations about making some changes to that. That would've created a provision for local schools to come up with their own plan that would've allowed for training and some other amendments to that. It ended up getting held in committee. That's an issue that was brought to our attention by our locals that they indicated they had some concerns about and wanted to provide us with feedback. And today I was able to go back to them as part of that conversation and get them up to speed and give them additional insight into where that bill sits, that kind of back and forth, that exchange, that engagement. That's what our locals are counting on from us, from their elected officials because they can't be over here in Boise. We've got to do our part to get that information back to them.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (08:04):
Yeah, it's so refreshing when feedback doesn't just exist during a campaign, doesn't just exist when it comes time to beg for votes. And so I love the communication that happens with thoughtful legislators. Now, a lot of what you're able to deliver for your community largely comes from your work on the committees. So you serve on four committees, correct?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (08:25):
Technically three. So one of my committees is a joint committee, the Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee, and then I'm on resources and conservation and then the Environment Energy and Technology Committee.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (08:37):
Okay. Now how much of your workload of that, how much of that time is spent on J FAC or the appropriations committee?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (08:46):
I would say probably half to two thirds of my time is JAC related. And then as far as the additional work, it's not so much the committees themselves, it's any additional legislative work that I'm involved in. So for instance, tomorrow morning I'll have two bills up in House Health and Welfare. They both deal with the foster care system. One of 'em deals with creating some sideboards around the short term stays that have been happening at Airbnbs for foster kids. The stories that we've heard come out related to that have just, they've been troubling. I mean, that's the kindest thing I can say about them. And there's legislation that addresses that and requires the director of the department to be much more heavily involved in the decision about kids ending up in those situations. And then the second bill and one that I just think is absolutely vital for protecting kids in Idaho involves the creation of an ombudsman office for health and social services.
(09:39):
And we're starting with the foster services as being the individuals who can file complaints. This office is independent of the agency. It's funded using dollars that we will have moved from the agency itself along with ftp. So it's a net neutral in terms of what the cost is to the state, but it's for the first time individuals who are in the foster care system are going to have an avenue that they can pursue for independent review of complaints that are related to whether they are a child who is a recipient of foster services, they're in the foster care system, they're foster parents, their biological parents. The stories I have heard where whether it's the child in question or the foster families or any of the other individuals involved in the process, and they feel like there's not only retribution if they complain, but there's clear evidence that in some instances children are being removed from homes. When foster parents stare speak up and they're told that because of the complaint they'll never have a child in their home again. It is both alarming and just absolutely heartbreaking to hear the stories from these families. And I am just absolutely thrilled that there is an avenue available through this legislation to help give them some redress for their grievances.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (10:53):
I mean, as I've been following this issue, it just seems radical that this hasn't already existed as a reasonable check on the system. Is Child Protective Services concerned about this legislation?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (11:08):
No one from the agency has come and spoken with me directly. I think if I had to guess in some respects, I think it does remove some of the burden from the agency to take this out of an internal agency action. While they may feel that they're operating in the best interest of the child and doing their job to the best of their ability, putting them in the position of being both judge and jury and also the executioner in terms of carrying out these actions that carries its own burden. And so by separating out this particular piece of the process, we're frankly putting them in a position where they can just focus on doing their job and not only doing their job, but doing so in a way that meets both the intent and the spirit of the law. And I would hope that knowing that there's going to be independent eyes looking at their actions, give them pause when they start to make some of these decisions and say, what am I really doing? What's in the best interest of the child?
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (12:01):
And for those listening that haven't dealt with the foster care system, these are just the most vulnerable little souls that they're dealing with. And the goal is to reunite families in a healthy unit. But when that's not possible, adoption comes. But none of this is done quickly. And I guess what you're doing here is key in helping whatever the process ends at ensuring that these kids are protected throughout that process. Representative tell us
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (12:27):
An obligation. I mean, that's just ultimately it. The state has an obligation to these kids.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (12:31):
Yeah. Where do you see the legislation moving?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (12:36):
Well, like I said, it has a hearing in a house committee tomorrow. It's already passed through the Senate with only four no votes on the floor. I am going to choose to be optimistic that my colleagues will see the need to protect kids and to ensure they and their foster families have a way to make sure that they're protected in the system.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (12:53):
Look at you being optimistic. I love that.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (12:55):
Can't help myself when it comes to doing good for kids and families.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (12:59):
Agreed. That'll be a fantastic one that we'll look forward to the governor signing when the day comes. Let's circle back to your work on JAC with these budgets. Where are we at? Are we getting close to being all done?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (13:12):
So we're really close. I anticipate that by next week we should have most of the main budgets set. Now, once the main budgets are set, there may still be a need for us to meet as a committee to do what we call trailer bills, which is the funding that follows with any legislation that passed during the session that also requires funding. But in terms of the big standard budgets, everything should be set by next week. At least that's the current schedule and plan.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (13:38):
Okay. Is launch teed up to be funded for This
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (13:42):
Launch came through the jfa committee with a 16 to four votes. It came through clean. There's no language attached to it. I have every confidence that the legislature will meet the obligation that's currently on Idaho's books and will fund this program separately in the Senate. There's a piece of legislation moving that provides a clarification around the definition of what an in-demand career is. I think that will go a long ways to helping address some of the concerns that I've heard raise that somehow we're not really dialing in on the kinds of students and careers that we were talking about when we initially debated the program. This basically puts in place the ability for the Workforce Development Council to build out a matrix. That matrix takes into account the length of the program, the need for the program, the transferability of skills. We would be funding any careers that required a Master's degree or more in order to be considered a career,
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (14:32):
Which is nice because advocates of Launch, like you aren't just writing a blank check and saying, Hey, let's just hope launch works, but you're following it. Having accountability, ensuring that what it was intended to do is what it does. And if it doesn't do that, then I mean already we're making adjustments to make sure rather than just scrap the whole program, ensuring that it accomplishes what the policy was designed to do. That's great.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (14:54):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's an iterative process. I want to see the data. I want to see what comes out of this year. I want to see how many students who not only applied for the program and received money, where are they at a year from now? Are they still in their program? What's their progress look like? And the more information that we can collect inform as part of this process, the better we are going to be able to refine launch to ensure that it's meeting the intended need.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (15:16):
Okay. So on my Bingo card for you representative is of course, I want to see the data. We know that you are known for not being afraid of numbers and being a data-driven legislator. As you're in a unique seat on the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, you deal with a lot of data. Are there data points that you see that kind of spark your interest, whether they excite you about the future of Idaho or concern you about what's coming? What have you seen data-wise that you think Idahoans should be aware of?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (15:49):
When I'm looking at the numbers, the things that I'm paying special attention to are how our economies diversifying. So agriculture has played a critical role in our state, and I anticipate that it will continue to do so going forward into the future. But I can ignore the fact that technology continues to play an important role as does healthcare and as does education. These are all elements that contribute towards a diversified economy for our state and frankly just ensure that we have a strong economy overall. So I'm looking at that piece. I'm also looking at the demographics of what's happening in our state. If I'm concerned about ensuring I've got a workforce, what matters to me is whether or not I've got work age individuals in the state. There's quite a few people that have decided that for their retirement, they want to come to Idaho and be in Idaho.
(16:33):
And that's fantastic and I welcome them with open arms. But ultimately we're going to have to ensure that we have enough work age individuals who are here to provide the services to ensure that we are able to meet the demands as there's increased population. So I'm tracking those demographics very carefully. And I'm also looking at when we're talking about state revenues and what those numbers are doing, are we keeping up when new people come into the state? That means that there's going to be increased demand. If we're talking about young families, that means ensuring that there's enough access in the classroom. If we're talking about older Idaho Idahoans, it's ensuring that there's access to good roads and safe communities so that they feel like the thing that they came here for is being maintained and looked after. All of these pieces come together and help paint a really complete picture of what our state needs going forward. And I think we have to be really careful to not get focused on any one thing and just ensure that we're taking all of those pieces when we're making decisions for the state,
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (17:30):
Which is a hard balancing act because you talk about diversifying the economy, which you just made a very clear and wise argument of why we need to do it. But also as the former president of the National Potato Council, you're also a strong advocate for making sure we don't lose our agricultural roots. And we're all very familiar with what Rexburg and Sugar City do for feeding the world. So what are you doing in the legislature to ensure that the family farmers can still continue to keep it?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (18:02):
I think there's some important legislation that moved through this session. Representative Raymond put together a grazing management act that ensured that we would have the framework available to us that we could support when the funding is available projects to protect our grazing lands. There was another bill that went through that addressed some of the concerns that have happened about agricultural land being converted for development purposes. And the questions around how easements are managed and how those lands get converted, the ability for us to stay in touch with our heritage while at the same time acknowledging that change is happening, I think matters. And that's why you also saw some water legislation moving through just today. In fact, I carried a piece of legislation that dealt with ditch easements. Why do ditch easements matter right now? Well, if I'm someone who's using my ditch to convey water to where my property is, I've got to make sure that that route remains unimpeded and clear.
(18:56):
And as development increases to come up next to these ditches, we've got to maintain the easement for the purposes of not only the maintenance of the ditch itself, but ensuring that the water flow remains unrestricted. And the legislation I carried today cleaned up what was frankly antiquated language and ensured that the water user still has the ability to go in and maintain access to their water because of prior language in in the law. It was meaning that some of these situations were ending up in the courts when they really didn't need to be because the access needed to be maintained. So things like that, maintaining access to our resources, ensuring that we're staying on top of things and being proactive in that regard. That's how we maintain our agricultural heritage is that we not only engage with what we have now, but we look down the road to the future to make sure we can continue it.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (19:47):
And I think this brings up an interesting point because you don't lend yourself to necessarily the trending issues on social media. There are a lot of social issues and cultural issues that eat up a lot of oxygen in the room that are absolutely going to take the headlines. Ditch easements is not one of them, but I mean I understand and I think most do, but why don't you speak to the fact of why you choose to take on ditch easements rather than the most evocative issues that might not move the needle?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (20:18):
I think the state legislature is the form of government that is genuinely, I won't necessarily say closest to the people because that's your city councils, your county commissioners, but if I'm comparing the state legislature to what goes on in Washington dc, the things that we do in this building on a daily basis have the greatest likelihood of having an impact on your or anyone else's life in a more direct way than anything that happens in Washington dc. And so from that standpoint, I weigh my actions and where I invest my time and energy from the perspective of is this going to have a net positive impact on the lives of the people I represent and everyone who lives in Idaho? And that's where I invest my time and energy is focusing on those issues that I know will have a meaningful difference in people's day-to-day lives.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (21:02):
Well, and we know that one issue that has constantly come up, it actually goes back to when we first spoke a few months ago, you talked about how to be a fiscal conservative. You have to invest money at the right time so that you're paying for things before they become too expensive. And how it's this strange dichotomy that sometimes spending money is actually the best way to save money. And we're seeing that with what governor Little wants to do with school facilities. I imagine you're a pretty big fan of what he wants to do to update some of these antiquated facilities.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (21:39):
I think about the stories we've heard from some of these school districts and the workarounds that they've had to put in place to address the fact that they have facilities that are years, if not decades behind the curve in terms of where they're at in comparison to other buildings in the community. And the frustration that I hear from folks about their inability to ensure that they've got working HVAC systems, that they've got enough space for students that they have to keep bringing in modular units to make sure they've got space. I understand the frustration because the only avenue that the legislature has left open for school districts to fund school facilities is through property tax. And what did we hear all last session long? What was I want lower property taxes. So we have this conflict and this tension between this is the avenue that's available to schools for funding their facilities, and yet at the same time, they know that their patrons are frustrated with the rate of property taxes.
(22:36):
And so 5 21 does present an avenue a formula to help alleviate some of that. Now, I want to stress House Bill 5 21 does not solve the school facilities problem. It just doesn't. The reality is is that for most school districts, the cost to bond for a school will not be covered by the funds that they'll receive through 5 21. So I think the legislature needs to stay engaged. We need to continue working the problem and figure out how we can help some of our school districts, particularly in our rural communities that have struggled to bond for new schools, figure out a way forward that doesn't place all of the burden through the property tax system.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (23:18):
Well, that wasn't the most optimistic, but it's a step in the right direction.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (23:23):
And this is the thing about government that I think people sometimes lose sight of. We don't swing for the fences all the time because frankly that's not very practical. Instead, we come in and we take it a bite at a time, and the idea that forward progress is somehow not good enough because it didn't get us all the way there. I think that's why people end up getting so frustrated is they think how it should be. And instead, this is just the normal way of going about fixing things, right, is you take it one step at a time, you take the progress you can get, and then you come back and you keep working towards that next step in the process. The only time you're losing is if you refuse to believe that you can't take that next step.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (24:04):
Yeah, step by step incremental improvements. We love that. Now let's talk about something that could prove problematic. You've said you have concerns with the joint resolution four related to elections. I don't think that's on a lot of people's radar right now. Why don't you briefly just give us some background on what this resolution actually does.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (24:26):
So as some of you may know, there is an initiative circulating that would put rank choice voting on the ballot. This proposed constitutional amendment would also appear on the ballot if it had gained enough support. And what it would've done is essentially removed the mechanism that drives rank choice voting. Now, the resolution itself specifically calls out elected offices, but it also included judicial elections. And I don't think most people know that we handle judicial elections differently than we do other elections. First, they're nonpartisan, which means no judge runs under a particular party banner. And second, the way that it works is that if there is a challenge, so however many candidates run for a judicial seat, they appear on the May primary ballot, and then if an individual doesn't receive a majority vote in the May primary, then the two top vote getters advance to the November general election.
(25:26):
And the reason that that process is in place is to ensure that a majority vote is required in order for a judge to end up sitting on the courts. Now, I personally think that's really critical, right? We can't have judges ending up on the bench with just a plurality of the vote and the way the amendment was worded is it would have allowed for that outcome. And so a number of others voted against the amendment not because of any strong opinion on rank choice voting, but because of that particular piece that included judicial elections in this process, because we've got a really great system currently in place for the election of judges, and it doesn't require special elections, it doesn't require runoffs. It just basically says in May and November we're going to ensure that for judges to end up on the courts, they will have had to have secured a majority vote. And so for that reason, I said I couldn't go there regardless of what it may have meant for other elections as it related to rank choice.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (26:24):
Yeah, there's some good background there. And is that, where does that exist right now? You voted against it. Is it in the Senate?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (26:31):
So for a resolution that's a constitutional amendment. To end up on the ballot, it has to secure two thirds vote of the body in both the House and the Senate. It fell short of securing that two thirds majority in the house. And so for now, that resolution has been set aside.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (26:48):
I love all that we get to learn. It's like being back in government class, but a little bit more engaging. So that's helpful.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (26:53):
Hopefully a little more interesting than high school government.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (26:56):
It's a little bit, I'm at least paying a little bit more attention now. Representative, we've covered a lot of policy. We've talked a little bit about politics, but I want to get personal now if that's okay. Since we talked last, somebody who's been a great mentor to me and you had passed away and everybody who in eastern Idaho who's dealt with anything in the Republican party, interacted with Bob Jones. And Bob and Carmelita have been strong advocates, veteran of foreign wars and a number of other things. But because he was just such a larger than life figure in Madison County, I wanted to give you a little bit of time to talk maybe about Bob and what he was able to do to you as a legislator, but also to so many in the community who are going to be listening to this, who knew and loved him.
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (27:41):
So Bob Jones was the guy who was always at a Republican event. First there was something scheduled, you'd show up. Bob was already there. And oftentimes the reason Bob was there is because he had arranged for an honor guard in order to do the flag presentation. Bob felt really strongly about the importance of honoring our nation and doing so in a way that did it justice. And so Bob was often the guy who made the effort to get folks there to ensure that there was the right procedure and process in place for that to happen. And along with that, he always brought just such a high level of enthusiasm to everything. One of his common phrases when you greeted him was, it's a beautiful day in Rexburg, or it's a beautiful day in Madison County, and you of course adapted it based on where he was at and just his utter belief in the ability for there to be good in the world set Bob apart.
(28:41):
He was one of the first people that I spoke with when I decided to run for office back in the day. And he was supportive, but he was also very blunt. And I could always count on Bob to give it to me straight. And I have so much appreciation for him and for his wife, Carmelita. It was a loss. Bob meant a lot, not only to the community, but I think to the state, given all the work he did for veterans. He just was one of those people who I think woke up in the morning and just said to himself, what can I do to make the world better? And Bob went and did it.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (29:15):
Yeah, and one of just the many greats. I think there's something in the water up there because not only has Madison County produced the Bob Jones' and your grandfather Del Rebel, but people that have mentored me like Kimber Ricks and there, there's just so many good people coming out of there. As you think about your legacy representative, Ray Bold, what is it that you hope when somebody long after us is on a podcast talking about how Representative Raybould is no longer with us, are the things you hope they say about you?
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (29:44):
Oh man. I think, I hope they say less about me and more about what I showed them could be done. I hope people look at the time I've spent over here and see the value, understand that there is a direct benefit to taking the time to serve in a position like this, and that it matters for our community to have someone over here speaking up. I hope at the end of the day, I've done justice to my district and to my community, and that they feel like I have represented them in a way that, well, they may not agree with me on every issue. They can, at least in the spirit of things say yes. She stood up for us when it counted the reality of this job. And I think about this often in the hallways, there's pictures of prior legislators and they're arranged by the term that they served.
(30:31):
And you walk down the hallway and you see these legislators from going clear back to the early 19 hundreds. And it is a reminder that we are all here on a very temporary basis because I look at some of those names and until I get up to the 1990s, I can't tell you that I really recognize a ton of those people. And so it's a lesson in humility to see that there are plenty of people who have come before and there will be plenty of people who come after. And the only thing that we can do right now is manage for what can be done in this moment and represent our best selves and represent our districts to the best of our ability.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (31:13):
Yeah, very well, very well put. We know that you are busy and you still have a lot more work to do in Boise, but you are chomping at the bit to get done and to get back to Madison County representative Ray Bold out of District 34 loves policy tolerates politics. That
Representative Britt Raybould, District 34 Idaho (31:28):
Sounds great, Brendan. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for the time.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Dirctor (31:32):
Thank you.
Shaping the Future Through Education, Agriculture, and Conservation
Main Street Town Hall Episode 11—Representative Jack Nelsen
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Our first time guest, Representative Jack Nelsen from District 26, joins us from the Boise Capitol to share his current role in the Idaho Legislature. Executive Director and host, Brennan Summers, learns how Nelsen is actively impacting Idaho law in education, agriculture, and conservation. Nelsen also gives his insight into center-aligned politics in a polarized political bubble.
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Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Main Street Idaho podcast. I'm your host, Brennan Summers. We're here with a first time guest out of District 26, representative Jack Nelsen live from the Boise Capitol. Jack, give us some adjectives today to describe the legislature.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (00:28):
Absolutely never a dull moment and every time you think you might be a little bit bored, you need to think twice because you're missing something quite the privilege to get to do it and it's, my gosh, the mental drain on you through the day is just trying to stay up with everything. It's quite the challenge
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:52):
And you've got not one, not two, but three committees you sit on and three pretty important committees in education, agriculture, affairs and conservation and resources. So maybe briefly just tell us some of the big stuff happening in those committees.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (01:08):
Well, issues really dear to my heart that came through education and the whole, it's not just through education, it's come through lots of people in the capitol, but that's simply the launch program launch to my constituency I think is probably one of the more important things that we've done. This is the first time that to me, the trades have gotten any respect at all and being able to put up a scholarship program for kids that come out of high school and they want A-C-D-D-L, this is the perfect avenue to get for them and I really like the launch. I think it pays 80% of the cost. There's a little skin in the game, 20%, so I am expecting huge things. I think the first round of launch 300 and some kids from Mike legislative district applied for it, so it's super important to the people in the trenches in my community, healthcare, all the trades, truck driving, things like that. This is kind of the first time legislation with scholarships has really addressed those people. I was, for six years, I was a board member of the College of Southern Idaho. A really neat portion of the college is their career technical education from welding to you name it, all the things that they do and to me that's a really important part of a community like the Magic Valley that we've done to actually support them.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (02:46):
Yeah, we talked with Representative Wheeler last week and his favorite three letters are CTE. Right. And as you mentioned, career technical education. Help us understand why career technical education is getting so much attention right now and why it's so important to representatives Wheeler, you other people
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (03:07):
In a general view. I think the respect and everything has gone to bachelor's and master's and doctorates and maybe those are all really important, but maybe they got a little bit overhyped here and they've certainly become overcharged. You look at in just a manner of speaking, you look at all the people that have huge debt, college debt that they can't pay. To me, that's a little bit of what you paid for. Yeah, you got took because you can't make cashflow payments on your debt and it's, I think now maybe taking a little bit of focus off of degrees and putting it on skills. For me that makes really good sense. When you're operating system and a food plant gets the flu, you don't really care what credentials the person that fixes it has. You just want the thing fixed, and same with when you want your personal computer fixed.
(04:05):
I've never gone in and just, well, what are your credentials? Either they can fix it or they can't. So launch is really important and it's certainly not an issue of money. Some of these trades now are out paying degree jobs and if you click on really for user, for ease of use if you're a student or a parent, if you click on the launch site, it's the Workforce Training Council is the supervising agency, but on the first click it shows what are in demand jobs, but click on the second one and it shows you what the average wages in Idaho for those jobs and everybody should do what they love, but if you love something that simply doesn't pay, maybe you could look at a profession that's beside it that would be just as good for you.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (05:03):
Yeah, I should probably get on there, Jack, my modeling career is not paying what I thought it would, so we may need to start over and I'll end up in a food processing plant making a lot more than I would be as a model.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (05:14):
Somebody might've led you astray there. Kids
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (05:16):
I got took, as you would say, right? I got took. So we love hearing about launch. We're excited. I think what can bring down the temperatures of a lot of people is the idea that we're going to look at how this plays out and it's got an opportunity for some changes based on what we need to change. This is a first time thing, so we're all excited. We know you've been a big advocate of that, so that's eaten up a lot of space in the legislature. You're also, as I mentioned, sit on agriculture affairs and you've got an interesting background in ag, you know your way around the farm and a pitchfork in hay. Talk us through some of the issues you're wrestling with in that committee.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (05:55):
From a real general sense, I've always thought of Idaho as a really ag centered state. You look at Southern Idaho Magic Valley, Eastern Idaho ag is quite a driver in our communities. You come up to the legislature and there really aren't very many people that have spent their life in production agriculture. It's crazy how important it is to our communities and everybody means really well in the legislature and they try really hard, but there's a little bit of a difference I think if you grew up around ag or you actually didn't, and it's just a little bit different perspective up here than I would consider down in the Magic Valley.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (06:40):
Well, and you're kind of a die breed in the legislature. There was the day where it was a lot of cowboy boots in committee and now we have the Senator Harris's and we have the Burton Shaws and we have the Raymonds and the Nelsens, and there's a few of you still left. Why is it so important that there are people who have had firsthand experience in agriculture helping draft the policy that affects our farmers and ranchers?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (07:11):
Not to degrade anybody, but just the way the general public looks at all the ag issues is kind of what's been fed to you on your social media account. And we all know social media is wonderful, but sometimes social media really doesn't have its roots in the truth or what makes things happen, and it's hard to just keep pulling things back to a really ground level view of how that affects us and stuff.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (07:41):
Yeah, we get that. It's an issue where Idaho, so much of Idaho's economy is dependent on agriculture, which means that so much of the issues you wrestle with in the State House is dependent on agriculture. Do you think that our policies headed in the right direction when it comes with protecting family farms and ensuring that Idaho can still feed the world?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (08:04):
That is so hard. I spent 20 years on a Jer County planning and zoning commission, and I guess the good way to describe growth in Idaho has been pretty much urban sprawl. We've splattered people out all over the place and real production agriculture, it always loses every time somebody lives next to an ag operation, whether it's time of day, smells, chemicals, all the things that are tools that production ag has to have. Nobody really likes living around them. They were all sure when they moved out there, man, I got to get out there in the countryside. Well, when they get there, they're not so sure. They like some of those uses and it's really hard to get the two sides and they both need respect, but how you get those together without doing a lot of damage to ag.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (09:03):
Well, you talk about urban sprawl and how things have changed. I think now is a good time to pause and go back to the beginning. You grew up in the Wood River Valley. Now people have heard of the Magic Valley, the Treasure Valley, the Snake River Valley. Probably the average Idahoan may not have heard of the Wood River Valley. Walk us through where it was that you grew up and what it was like.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (09:26):
Well, I'm a third generation northeast of Jerome Farmer dairy farmer, but I was lucky enough when I was a kid, I had a grandmother that lived up by Easley. It's about 10, 15 miles north of Ketchum. She lived up there in a cabin all summer and we were lucky enough to get to go and visit my grandma. That's kind of where I picked up my fishing sickness on the big wood up there, learning to fish and just appreciation of love for everything up there. But since I was just a little kid, I've been on the farm and working, grew up doing that.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (10:07):
I'm sure the farm's changed in the last few years since you started on it in terms of technology, in terms of workforce and how they've managed all that. As your community evolves, as it grows, as it changes, what are the things that concern you in how you represent them in the capital?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (10:28):
It's hard because everybody has a little bit different view of what should happen depending on their background and what they do. It's interesting the community of drone having an ag base all my life now, one of the main drivers economically are the food processing plants. Drones lucky enough that Trus beef has built a plant there. We've got large dairy processors and it's a whole different steady stream of jobs for people and input to the community that there really wasn't there for a long time. I think I'd also add I think the world of my community and I'm a huge advocate of local control and it's always been hard for bedroom communities that house the workers, if you will, and everybody drives somewhere else. Jerome, for most of my life, my opinion has been a bedroom community. If you weren't working on the farm, you drove to Twin or someplace to work and that dynamic has changed a bunch now and you can see it in the ability of the local organizations to fund the things that they want to do.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (11:40):
And your deep love of your community has been seen since really you hit the campaign trail. I know when elected, you said it was your priority to build meaningful connections with your constituency and once in the Capitol you made a comment about how you were going to leave ideology at the door and that your number one job was to represent your community. But we hear about ag and we hear about production and everything going on in district 26, but you have a very interesting constituency that you represent. You won in what might've been the closest election by less than a hundred votes. You beat your democratic opponent by what did such a close election tell you about how your community wants to be represented?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (12:28):
Well, if it ever wasn't there, I think it was, but humility I'd say wears well on everybody and our Jerome Lincoln Blaine or Blaine Lincoln Jerome, our communities by their voting record, it's just about did he between R's and D's, the only guy who lost on less votes than me was my Democratic Ned Burns who sits in the other seat from District 26. I think I won by a little over 80 and Ned won by a little over 30. So it tells you that our community, they see things a lot differently and what's really on the people's mind in Kechum and Sun Valley might not be what's on people's minds in Valley and Dietrich.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (13:18):
So a lot of your constituents aren't going in blindfolded and just checking donkeys and elephants. They're looking at the issues and they're looking for somebody that they know who's going to represent them. How do you gather enough information to know that your constituency is not just incredibly homogenous and that they say, this is exactly what we want and every time we want it now you go do it and we'll be okay? You've got a little bit more complicated of a job.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (13:47):
Personally, I think everybody ends up being you're balancing your constituency with what your basic beliefs are. I always have loved that saying that we're spending someone else's money. It needs to be done transparently, reasonably and very carefully, and I've taken a few pretty lonely votes. I have a hard time voting for a law that's a cookie cutter from across the nation. It's in core everywhere. And to jump in there and say, man, we got to pass this in Idaho and spend a bunch of hard earned tax dollars. From my view in court, if you will, coupled with that as a really strong belief in local control that it's been a little bit of an issue for me personally of where you come down on it in the community. Up in Blaine County, the Blaine County School Board has not had public testimony coming through Covid.
(14:48):
They went to a written policy and the school board is really, they like it on the other side. I've had a bunch of people in the community talking to me, they think that's bad news that a public board simply doesn't allow public testimony. A bill started in the Senate. I asked if I could be a sponsor on it and simply to help get to be in the kitchen, if you will, and help from the idea to get with the bill. That doesn't really do harm and I think it's headed for the house now or excuse me, it's headed for the for the house floor. It came through the House committee and the hard part, I'm torn both ways. You have to respect your local community. If an issue is, it can be decided just as well in a county commissioner or a school board meeting as it can be decided on the floor of the house. I think we should stay out of that. This one, the bill, it's hard for me as local control guy to vote for this, but I like it. It doesn't say how you have to do it. It just simply gives the local board a little bit of a nudge that you need to have some testimony by your community.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (16:10):
Yeah, so we've seen on a national level, a lot of politicians who find themselves somewhat in the center, their center left or center right, they're kind of bowing out of politics because the primary system makes it really difficult for somebody who leans to the center to be able to win in a primary race because the primary intrinsically favors more base core voters. Do you ever fear that you're becoming more and more extinct because you're not a deep red ideolog or you're certainly not a blue Democrat As you lend to independent thinking in the legislature and take what you describe as lonely votes, does it weigh on you that you may not have a path forward?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (16:56):
Of course, it weighs on everybody, but frankly, I'm going to run, I'm running for reelection. I filed the other day, but I didn't come up here to be a career politician or to do what? One side or one group that rates people on. Oh my gosh, we're going to give you a bad rating. I'm kind of a knock yourself out kind of guy. I vote with my community and my beliefs and the voters will have to sort that out. But you're right, a closed primary, it tilts the vote one direction, and then in my district you open it up to a general election and it absolutely tilts it the other way. So unless it's tomorrow, I probably won't die in office. But it's quite the privilege to get to do this
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (17:43):
And at the end of the day, it will be your community that decides whether or not you get rehired. And that's the beauty of democracy is you get to represent them and you get to represent the votes. Now, I had to make sure I got through the three Ls in this interview. So you'll notice number one was launch. Number two was local control, and number three is Lava Ridge. So speaking of issues that are important to your community, so many in your constituency has been very vocal in opposition of the Lava Ridge Wind Project, but there are some in Idaho that probably aren't familiar with it at all. Can you briefly tell us what is the Lava Ridge Wind Project and where are you at on the issue?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (18:22):
I'm adamantly opposed. I co-wrote and co-presented through the house committee, house floor and Senate committee. The resolution that we passed last year of how anti lava ridge we were, and in my perspective, the community should be really upset about this. From my view, it's being rammed down their throat with absolutely no consideration for the impacts on the local community. If you own a business and these small rural communities and they're going to bring in 2000 temp workers for a couple of years and then pack up and leave, we don't have places to live now or can afford the places that we have, what in the world is going to happen then little school districts that graduate maybe 30, 40 kids, what do you do when here's 40 kids shows up, show up at the door and in a year or two they're all going to be gone.
(19:22):
It's just all these issues and maybe the I'd like to circle back with you and do one, possibly get one of Representative Simpson's reps here on your program. But Representative Simpson put a writer on a budget bill and it passed the house and the Senate, and I believe President Biden signed it. So it says that the BBL M has to come back, talk to the local community and then report back to Congress. And the thing that would help my community the most is the guidelines of what's fair to comment on and whatnot. If you haven't been around the desert very much, most people look at desert and just say, ah, it's that old ugly sagebrush desert. Frankly, a lot of us down there, we really like our desert looking Sagebrush Desert Lava Ridge project. If there weren't federal incentives behind it, my opinion is it would never have shown up to be a project.
(20:24):
But the original proposal was 400 windmills that are the largest, I think about the largest they have to put on land 400 and or 570 feet. We have a restaurant in twin elevation 4 86. It's 486 feet I believe, above the canyon floor. So if you dropped one of these windmills in the canyon beside the Prine Bridge, there would still be over a hundred feet of windmills sticking up above the Prine Bridge to go in and put 400 of these in four to 500 miles, excuse me, four to 500 miles of roads that they're going to put in. They have to blast holes about 45 feet deep for concrete to anchor the things. If you've been down there, I guess the easiest example would be if you drive north out of Shoshone, there's a bowling alley on the north end, and right beside the bowling alley is this huge air bubble back in the day that popped, if you will, when this country was setting up the yellow tone.
(21:31):
Blowtorch geologically we're a pretty young substrate or land down there north of Jerome. If you drill wells, it's almost a flip of the coin. Are you going to hit a layer of senders and have to case the well down or are you going to just be able to get away without doing that? Canal companies blasting canals and altering, they've had to go in and replace a bunch of domestic wells. If you've ever served on planning and zoning for my opinion, when the approved stamp goes on something you don't walk in later and say, oh, by the way, here's a problem that you caused. We'd like you to fix it. Well, of course local citizens can go to court, but unless it's actually in the permit that if the aquifer has issues that the company would've to be responsible for it. So those are kind of some highlights and I think the grumpiest part is just walking right over the top of the locals and assuming this is going to happen, the Japanese internment camp minidoka out there, all the people that relatives, there's still a few survivors that were interned there, and the disrespect of slapping those right up next to 'em just could really, the challenge would be in my community to find anybody that is for Lava Ridge.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (23:01):
Yeah, I was going to say there may be somebody in the state is for it, but I haven't heard from him. And Congressman Simpson has certainly on the DC level, been doing everything he can to pull funding and to kind of halt the brakes on that one. But again, it goes back to your point of local control of what's going up in your backyard and how the local have a say. Now we know you're pretty busy representative, but we have a tradition here we got to end with. Everyone that comes on the podcast gets asked two of the toughest questions. The first question is, if there was one book that you've read in your lifetime that you would recommend to our listeners, what is a book that you could recommend?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (23:38):
Boy, that's tough. I
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (23:40):
Told you they were tough questions.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (23:41):
I have a sickness of fishing I some fly time books and some websites would be really great, but maybe the one that made the biggest impact on me was probably Fever in the Heartland. It goes back to the age of the Ku Klux Klan in the upper Midwest and what led to the fall of the clan, if you will, why it went sideways and how many people bought into something that later they were pretty ashamed of.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (24:13):
Yeah, that's a Timothy Egan. Great. We love his books have been recommended a lot by your colleagues over there. I thought you were going to say River runs through it, but we'll take fever in the heartland. That's a good one. Now the second question might be a little easier in your district, beautiful district 26, I'm driving through there, what's one place you'd recommend I need to stop and grab something to eat?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (24:36):
I'd say without picking one out in particular, I'd get in tons of trouble on that, but we have some of the neatest Mexican restaurants that have wonderful food anywhere. It's always sad when I travel and somebody says, Hey, we got this great Mexican restaurant. So we go in there and it just simply doesn't compare with the neat choices we have in Jerome. So absolutely all of our restaurants, we don't have a lot of tourists coming through Jerome, if you will, and for a place to be in business, they have to have great food. The flip side is quite the opportunity to go up to Kechum, sun Valley and all the vast array of restaurants that are up there. So I'll step around that as a politician. That
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (25:25):
Was a really clever step around,
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (25:28):
I'm a certified seafood guy. If I see it, I pretty much eat it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (25:34):
I love it. So you got Mexican food a little bit better than Taco Bell and some other great classics representative. We really do appreciate your time. We've talked about everything from Launch Local Control, lava Ridge, and everything in between. So we appreciate what you're doing there. We're going to have you back once this session winds down and ends, and we can talk about everything that was accomplished and what you're looking forward to in an upcoming session. But until then, we wish you well.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (25:59):
Thanks for all that you do. It's quite the pleasure to be here.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (26:03):
Thanks, representative.
The Values and Visions Shaping Idaho
Main Street Town Hall Episode 10—Representative Josh Wheeler
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Representative Josh Wheeler from District 35 comes back for another episode with our host and Executive Director, Brennan Summers. Josh breaks down his own core values and motivations for leading in the Idaho Legislature, as well as his own efforts to pass provisional licenses for internationally trained physicians.
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Protecting Idaho’s Borders
Main Street Town Hall Episode 9—Representative Kenny Wroten
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Joining us from the Idaho State Capitol is Representative Kenny Wroten from District 13B. Wroten comes straight from the Judiciary Rules Committee to talk about the latest topics affecting Idahoans. Among them, human trafficking through Idaho borders, the enactment of fentanyl mandatory minimums, and potential concerns for school choice tax credits.
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Idaho’s Success
Main Street Town Hall Episode 8—Senator Treg Bernt
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Senator Treg Bernt from District 21 returns for another round of legislative updates from the Senate floor. Bernt walks us through his daily routine at the capitol building, the current bills he’s supporting within higher education, and his advocacy for updated school facilities throughout Idaho. He continues to break down the continuing success of the Idaho LAUNCH program and a behind the scenes look at legislation to come.
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Supporting Law Enforcement
Main Street Town Hall Episode 7—Senator Todd Lakey
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Longstanding Idaho Senator, Todd Lakey—District 23, joins us to shed light on the current objectives of the Idaho Legislature to support law enforcement throughout the state. As the fentanyl crisis increases, so does the Senator's fight to impose mandatory minimums for its drug traffickers. Lakey additionally breaks down how he plans to support the uncontested border crisis, expanding resources for law enforcement, and alleviating property tax burdens for Idaho citizens.
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Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Good morning and welcome to Main Street Idaho. I am here today with Senator Todd Lakey at a District 23 Senator Lakey. Good morning.
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (00:23):
Morning Brennan. Thanks for the opportunity to be here and kind of reach out to your folks.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:28):
Yeah, we're excited to talk to you. A lot of issues that we need to cover today and never enough time to do it. But you're a seasoned veteran. As the Idaho legislature gets younger and younger, your experience gets more and more, I won't say older and older, but this is your sixth term now, is that correct?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (00:46):
Yeah, my sixth term. Boy, it's gone really fast and that's 12 years, but in that 12 years, I think I'm third in seniority, so it just flies by and there's a lot of natural turnover, but it's gone fast, but I'm still enjoying serving, so it's been great. I love doing it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (01:06):
Natural turnover and some unnatural turnover too. But you've managed to survive that 12 years. How has the legislature changed in that decade?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (01:18):
Decade? Oh, you get new faces and sometimes you get new perspectives. The spectrum among our party shifts a little bit here and there. I like to think in the Senate where we're a little more reasoned and take a particularly thoughtful approach, but sometimes you get new folks that they learn with experience about how the Senate operates. But I'll say our spectrum shifts a little bit in the party with new faces depending on who's coming in.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (01:57):
Are there issues you look back on that you're most proud of being able to tackle or problems you've been able to solve in the last 12 years?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (02:07):
Oh boy. Yeah. I mean, it's been a great experience. I particularly appreciate the opportunities I've had over the years to support our law enforcement community as chairman of JU Rules, and I was a prosecutor when I started my career and working with them has really been a pleasure. Whether it's taking opportunities to, I look at it as strengthening our criminal laws. You have to have a balance of justice and mercy, so to speak. But I think Idaho's a great place to live because we take crime seriously and we appreciate safe communities and supporting our men and women of law enforcement is part of that. We have some wonderful men and women that serve, and I try to be supportive of them.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (03:01):
Love that. So, excuse me, let's delve in a little bit more on that. You mentioned that you're the chairman of Judiciary Rules and you have a different seat when it comes to law and order than a lot of Idahoans. Most Idahoans experience with police or law enforcement is a patrol car on the side of the highway checking speeds, and that's a good thing. And sometimes maybe our men and women in blue do such a good job that they go unnoticed and underappreciated. Maybe give us a glimpse into what our law enforcement Idaho is dealing with now and how those are some new and ever-changing problems.
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (03:41):
Sure. Well, I mean, they're always dealing with a changing and more aggressive, and I guess even technologically advanced criminal element in society, their ability to engage in criminal activity, particularly in drug trafficking. They use technology to do that. They're all about the business of making more money, and they find new ways to do that. And I think that's particularly the fentanyl issue that I know you've all talked about before, but that's something that's really, it's the most dangerous criminal change, I guess, as law enforcement describes it that we've seen ever. And it's replacing things like heroin is the worst of the worst, and law enforcement, they have to carry Narcan to save people's lives they come in contact with and save each other's lives. If somebody accidentally searches somebody or opens their wallet while they're being booked in the jail and a puff of fentanyl comes out, it puts the opposite flat on the ground and in the hospital, unless they help them quickly. So I think that fentanyl issue is one of the most serious and lethal changes we've seen in the criminal history of Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (05:06):
Now, we spoke at length with the representatives Dixon and Gardner about the mandatory minimums and House Bill 4 0 6, and it's good timing because that bill just went through your committee yesterday. So give us an update of where that mandatory minimums with fentanyl's at and where it's going.
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (05:27):
Thanks, Brendan. So that's a bill we've actually been working on and trying to achieve in various forms for three or four years now. I've been working with law enforcement and some of my co-sponsors for quite a while, and it's faced a different resistance. Some folks just feel like mandatory minimums aren't appropriate, and there was that recent survey that shows that 86% of Idahoans think need to add fentanyl to the mandatory minimum statutes. They're seeing the growing problem and the lethality of it. And we had a good debate in, well, I should say from listen to folks in the hearing yesterday in my committee, I carried the bill, so I didn't share the meeting, but presented the bill and there was strong support in our committee came out six three. But there's efforts to amend it, to water it down, to take out the mandatory portions to change the intent language that we, it's the exact same language that we have for meth, cocaine, and heroin. So it's something law enforcement and the courts are used to dealing with, but those that oppose it want to change that and make it easier for dealers to do business in Idaho. The safest drug to deal in Idaho right now is fentanyl because it's not covered in that mandatory sentencing.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (06:57):
Wow. So it passed your committee six three, as you mentioned. I know there's a great quote from you about how you believe this is going to be a deterrent and if passed, then it's going to lead people away from Idaho when it comes to trafficking fentanyl. Now, where does it go to the Senate floor, and then what's the outlook there?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (07:19):
We've been working on this a lot, and there is strong support. They try to attack tangential aspects of it. We do also have included in it a drug-induced homicide. So somebody sells somebody some fentanyl and the person dies. If we can establish that they violated the criminal code regarding that trafficking or that possession and that drug killed them, they can be held accountable for a drug-induced homicide. It's not murder, it's not the death penalty. The judge has discretion on what to do with them in that context. But I think what folks are really trying to do is get it somewhere where they can amend it to do more than just that. And we worked on that language with prosecutors, and it's important 25 other states have that and even have more serious penalties. But from here, it goes to the floor. Like I said, I think we have strong support for it, and I also anticipate that there'll be further efforts like we saw in committee to amend it, to stop it, and we'll just have to keep our support strong and resist those things and get it to the governor.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (08:36):
And you work very closely with Governor Little. Is there any indication that he wouldn't sign a bill like this?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (08:41):
No, not at this point. He's been very strong on Fentanyl. He's talked a lot about what a scourge it is on Idaho, and he's talked about how it comes across the border and it's a focus, but we also need to work it like any other bill and make sure that we convey to him the importance of the issue, the importance of the legislation, and garner his support.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (09:08):
Yeah. So you mentioned the southern border in national news. There's been a lot of drama recently over legislation on how and if and when and where to address our southern border. And it's a lot of fireworks in the US Senate in the Idaho Senate. What can you do, and where are you at when you look at the problems of fentanyl, flooding Idaho from the southern border, the lack of really any kind of controlled response by the Biden administration as an elected leader? What goes through your mind?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (09:43):
Well, I mean, it's just really clear to me that the federal government, the Biden administration has failed us and that border policy, most of the fentanyl comes across the border from Mexico. After the cartels. They get the elements and the ingredients for fentanyl and make it in Mexico and ship it across the border through there. And there's just no control. They're, they're not taking responsible action to limit it really in any significant way. And they're stopping states that are Texas that are trying to take some action on their own to control it. So it's just really a failure. And I hear a lot of comments from my constituents about their concern for the illegal immigration coming across the border and the border being so porous. We are limited as state legislators and what we can do. We have authority within our own borders. I think we try to support our fellow states and do our best to make sure Idaho is safe, but we can try to influence our fellow congressional delegation. But I know they're supportive, so it's kind of trying to do what we can, but I think ultimately it's going to take a change in administration at the federal level.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (11:10):
Sure. Frustrating to say the least. On a more optimistic tone, let's talk about some things that you actually can do. Like we mentioned before, you deal with law enforcement often and they come and they talk to you, they testify in your committees, they bring in their canines. Talk us through some of the issues that they're having outside of the Fentanyl challenge that they're communicating to you, that you're either drafting policy, have already passed policy, or maybe it's something down the road that can alleviate some of the challenges that they're experiencing.
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (11:42):
Sure. We've worked on various issues with them over the years. Human trafficking is one. We all know that that's a growing problem, and it's kind of the ugly underbelly of society that's often hidden on social media. But it's a problem not only in sex trafficking, but they traffic humans for employment, almost indentured servitude, that kind of thing. And we worked with them to try to give them more tools to be more effective in combating that. We changed, for example, the human trafficking crime to be its own crime, not an accessory crime to assault or battery or those violent crimes. It's its own crime that you can prove and convict someone of. And we're doing some updates this year on human trafficking, adding some of the forfeiture provisions like we have for drug dealers where if they're selling drugs out of their car, their boat, or those kinds of things, you can take the things that they use, hit them economically where they do business and seizing that property if it's used in human trafficking.
(12:57):
Another issue, our men and women of law enforcement, our first responders really face some horrific things every day. They see things that you can't really get out of your head sometimes the broken bodies, the murder scenes, I've seen a few of those as a prosecutor long ago, and it affects them mentally. And we've done some things to try to help them make sure that those kind of mental impacts are still covered and addressed in their retirement system. Their critical injuries are covered in the law enforcement retirement system. We've passed the ability to have peer counseling worked on all of those issues where they can talk to their fellow officers in regards to the things they deal with. You often see that counseling thing in human resources, but talking one-on-one to law enforcement amongst themselves with people that understand their issues helps them. So it's not just about the criminal justice part, it's about helping them deal with life as well.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (14:05):
Wow. Yeah, a lot there that we wouldn't imagine were resources that were needed and that are now available. You in judiciary rules don't handle their budgets that would go through jac, correct?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (14:20):
Correct. JAC does give me an opportunity to talk to them every year, at least they have in the past. And so I try to be supportive of those requests that I think are important. So I do get a chance to usually go in front of J FFA and say, okay, here's what law enforcement or courts are asking for and try to be supportive that way. But I'm not on J fac, so I don't make the actual decision. I just try to be supportive.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (14:47):
So as you offer your views and what your hopes are happen in budgets, how do you walk the tightrope between a fiscal conservative that wants to safeguard the public trust in their tax dollars and return as much of Idaho's hard earned money back to them, but also making sure that expenditures that will keep Idaho and safe and empower police are also spent and invested? How do you make those decisions?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (15:19):
I think it's kind of like anything else. You look at it and you try to evaluate the need and what they're proposing and then the pluses and minuses of it, what's the benefit to it, what's the cost? But things like enhanced funding for Post, which is where our law enforcement officers go to get certified and making sure they're adequately staffed and there are opportunities for our local law enforcement to go there and be adequately trained. You want to support that because if they're not adequately trained, they're not dealing maybe in the best professional manner with the public, and they also may be creating liability for their local entity. So you want to make sure your law enforcement is very well trained for their own personal safety, but also the taxpayers that they serve and they work with. So those are the kind of things that I kind of go through in my head when I'm looking at what to support and what not to support for law enforcement.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (16:27):
Okay. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So shifting gears now, we want to take advantage of having a seasoned veteran on, and as you look into your crystal ball, give us an update or some predictions of what you think will happen for him now until the end of the session. What are some things insider baseball wise that we can look forward to seeing? Are there new issues and bills that are going to pop up out of nowhere? Are we expecting an early ending to the session? What's your prediction?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (16:56):
Oh, boy. So it's an election year. Everybody knows that we have to run again in the primary. Usually that's incentive for everybody to get done timely and get back in their districts and talk to their folks and get ready. So that's usually incentive this time of year to just be efficient and get things through. We are having, there's a new approach to JAC this year, and that's causing a little bit of friction. Anytime you have a new process and change, they're trying, basically the idea is they're trying to look at what's called a maintenance budget and get that looked at and passed first, and then look at specific line item requests. So that's creating a little bit of just delay as we're trying to figure out that process. They are still hearing budgets, and we should probably see, I think that log jam break up a little bit now that things are starting to get figured out and we'll get more budgets out, but I don't know that it's really causing that much of a delay once you get back on top of it because they have been hearing budgets.
(18:08):
Also every year as Republicans, we try to provide some additional tax relief, and that's one thing. As a senator, I kind of have to watch and wait and see what the house gives us because they have that constitutional responsibility to generate the tax bills from the house. But I know there's always some effort to look at income tax reduction, maybe some additional property tax reduction. We did a big property tax reduction bill last year that I've heard from constituents and I've seen on my own tax bill that have made a good impact. So I think we'll see some kind of tax relief bill come forward. I'm not sure what that's going to look like yet. Lots of people have different ideas and we'll see what's conglomerated to the final bill.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (18:56):
Sure. As you go back to your district, district 23, what are you going to tell the constituents of ada, Hawaii and Canyon Counties as you reapply to return as senator for them?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (19:11):
Well, I always run on my foundational principles first. I'm about trying to support a strong Idaho economy where people have an opportunity to build a good life for themselves with the lightest touch of government on those lives. And so they really have an opportunity to make life better themselves. I don't think governments there to make people's lives better by inserting itself. It's really to provide them an opportunity to do that. I'll continue to talk about my strong stance in supporting law enforcement and making Idaho a great place to live. And another issue I've been working on this year is the Convention of States. We talked about federal problems and jurisdiction, and that's an effort that our founding fathers gave us to as states propose constitutional amendments. If we have two thirds of the states that ask for that, we can get together and propose amendments. And the amendments we're looking at are things like a balanced budget, the federal jurisdiction issue, and maybe even term limits. So trying to really make sure that state's rights are respected. And then I always every year try to look at how we can reduce the tax burden on our citizens, but also make sure we're providing those necessary services. And with a strong economy, we've been able to do that.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (20:46):
Now, I'm going to probably get in trouble for this one because this podcast is supposed to kind of stay specific to the policies and the topics of the day. But I've got to squeeze in a question that in season one of the podcasts, we asked all of our guests, and since it's a first time year on, I'm going to have to ask, what is one book that you would recommend that everybody reads
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (21:07):
One book? Well, I think if it's kind of personal improvement related, I really like, historically it's 20 years old, but seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I think it helps you focus on what's really important in life and set your values and make your decisions based on that.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (21:31):
All right. Seven habits. And if it's not personal improvement, one just off your shelf, what are you reading?
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (21:38):
Boy, I'm kind of a fantasy escapist reader guy, so Tolkien's always one of my favorites. Lord of the Rings.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (21:48):
Love it. Love it. See, we get to learn more about you every day, Senator, you're well known both in and outside the Capitol as being somebody who is the adult in the room that is easy to work with, that can build consensus. And we really appreciate you taking aside some time for us today. We know you're busy with your chairmanship and everything going on. A lot of candidates run on backing the blue, and I think it's obvious that supporting our law enforcement isn't just a campaign tagline for you. So we hope to have you back on as we talk about some more issues in the future. But we really do appreciate your time today. Senator
Senator Todd Lakey, District 23 Idaho (22:22):
Brennan, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (22:32):