Idaho Governor Brad Little

Episode 16 Governor Brad Little—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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We take the podcast back on the road for a special episode with Governor Brad Little at the Idaho State Capitol. After widespread discussions and months of debate, Little sits down with our host, Brennan Summers, to discuss the newly completed water agreement for Idaho farmers. Now known as "Idaho Water Day", November 22nd will mark the historic union between sensible water rights and long-term mitigation plans.

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Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast, where we talk about the issues that matter to you.

Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast. We're here with the 33rd governor, the great state of Idaho, other than governor Brad little governor. How are you? Good. Good. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having us in your beautiful office here. No, we just, uh, are all, we're putting the state Christmas tree in today and, uh, getting in the season and we'll turn the lights on Tuesday.

Oh, perfect. Well, you're all ready. Oh, well, uh, the, the state capitol's ready. I'm not ready, but the state capitol's ready. Nick, real question. Does Teresa have her Christmas tree up yet? Uh, there was a conversation about that. As a matter of fact, uh, I think maybe. One of our sons perhaps bought multiple Christmas trees at a fundraiser.

And so I think we have multiple Christmas trees. They're going up. So I've got to ask when you go to these meetings with governors from all over the country, do you ever feel a little guilty hearing about all their problems and knowing how good we have it here in Idaho? Uh, that's a great question. Uh, I just once would like to have governors say, Oh, and I'm almost on the verge.

Don't come to our state. It's not, you know, when everybody says we're number one, I go, I don't think so. I think we are, but I'm not going to tell anybody. Yeah, keep it quiet. We got enough people moving in that, uh, it's, uh, and it's. It's kind of, but they really, there is great value in talking to other governors about we, we always, uh, take notes about what we can steal from other governors and that's part of the process, but it's a, it will be very interesting when we go in February.

To the national meeting about the huge changes in, uh, in cabinet positions and agencies. And, uh, it's kind of an exciting time. I was one of the only governors there that wasn't looking for a job. So, uh, a lot of governors looking for jobs, but I couldn't be happier about the interior with, uh, uh, Governor Burgum, who's a real good friend of mine and the things he's going to do for both, um, interior and also energy.

So, we're excited about that's going to. That's going to be great opportunities for Idaho. Yeah, a lot of your colleagues that got promotions, if that's what you want to consider it, you, I think, won out because you got to stay. You don't have to go live in D. C. There's a tentativeness that in two years, generally, if you just look at it statistically, the party in power on the op year historically doesn't do very well.

So, uh, the Trump administration, rightly so, is going to hit the ground. Running hard on the very first day, uh, I, I put out something this weekend. I know this is a record for having all the cabinet appointments determined by the 22nd. Uh, first time that's ever happened, so. Uh, they, they fully recognize that eight years ago, they didn't start fast enough, but they're like, that's not going to be a problem this time.

Yeah. I just wonder how those newsrooms keep their head straight when every five minutes it was another appointment coming through and everyone's heads were spinning. There was great, uh, uh, interest, uh, in, uh, You know, uh, in a lot of the cabinet appointments, so we, uh, we're the one appointment that they haven't made.

But I think it's going to be somebody that we know pretty well as who's in charge of intergovernmental affairs, because that's who we dialogue with at the White House. Uh, and, and the other thing that they, they're doing different, and Governor Burgum was telling me that the, uh, Energy EPA and Interior, that the designatees are, uh, vetting the deputy secretaries in the other departments.

So there'll be more harmony at that level, which is really a smart thing to do. Yeah. That's perfect. So speaking of great interest, something big's happening here. The Western adage that whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting, uh, was a little too true this year, but the fighting's over. And it, I mean, this is a great opportunity to kind of celebrate the good stuff that's happening.

What's this experience been like this last year is you've led a state when Idahoans have faced the very real challenge and triumph of managing water in the state. Well, in 2015 and 16, when we put the last agreement together, uh, as time went on and we had some, uh, You got to remember, uh, we did that in 2015 and 16, but in 2017 we had record snowpack and record water.

So we all look great. Actually we should have been giving God credit for it because we had all that snow that lasted over two years. And, uh, now we've got a more normal, uh, water pattern and some years are wet and some years are dry, uh, but this agreement, uh, over four years is going to be, uh, a better, uh, a better scenario about how we manage water.

We want to, uh, we want to, uh, maintain and restore. Uh, the aquifer that, uh, so much of Idaho is dependent upon and I've got great confidence. I really want to give kudos to the, uh, to the Lieutenant Governor, Bedke, and to Jeff Raybold, who's chairman of the water board. They did a lot of work and, and Jamie in my office also.

But, uh, those three, uh, when I go to these water meetings. Uh, I would either go to the meeting or I'd call a lot of them, uh, when I saw him, uh, last week, it was, uh, I told you we'd get there, uh, but it's, uh, you know, other states, uh, uh, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, uh, Texas, California, uh, they have not done the heavy work that we've done, and everybody's going to be looking at how we manage water in Idaho.

Uh, there's only really two states in the West that manage what's under the ground with what's on top of the ground. Everybody's going to have to do that eventually, and they're going to look at our model, but it was, it was those farmers. rolling up their sleeves and getting together, uh, and coming up with a solution that is, is to be, uh, significantly praised for a resolution where, uh, Congress didn't intervene, a federal judge didn't intervene, which is what we worry about the most.

And we came up with a sustainable solution for Idaho. And it's going to be good for everybody. It's going to be good for irrigators. It's going to be good for agriculture. It's going to be good for everybody that's dependent upon water cities. Wildlife interests, uh, it, it was, uh, we were very pleased with it.

We did two things that don't happen very often in this political climate. Number one, uh, a comprehensive agreement. Then number two, you gave credit to other people in the process. How did you manage to get people, different sides of the states with competing interests that had a lot more in common than separated them to come together and to agree without digging in and just.

You know, Congress is a perfect example of what not to do in these situations. That's what you've just, whatever Congress does do the opposite. But, uh, it was. Uh, you know, it was, uh, the, the order, which, in fact, the courts told the department they had to do. It was, it was basically implementing, uh, the 2015 16 agreement, uh, but that was the triggering, uh, uh, event.

That got everybody together. We were pretty close in May at the water users, and then it kind of imploded, but what we would have had in May wasn't near as good as what we ended up with, uh, the end of November. And then I, I gave them a time frame, which they went over a little bit, but I, I, I'll tell you now, I didn't tell them I fully expected them to go over, but it kept enough heat on the fire for them to work together.

But, you know, it's really important for communities, for farmers, for food processors, uh, to have certainty going forward. Now they have certainty. And this was probably what I imagine. I mean, whether you admit it or not, a stressful time in the office because you, you're a I have a rich history of ag. It's how you fed your family.

It's how your parents and grandparents fed their families. You were elected with robust support of agriculture. And then you had a division of your friends and your family of agriculture and you had to figure out a way to get it together. My relatives, my, yeah, it was, it ended up being, uh, I've talked to a couple of the farmers that were very pivotal in the decision.

And one of them said, Oh, I knew we'd get there. I said, Well, a couple of times I didn't know whether we were going to get there or not. But it was, Uh, it, it was, it was really a good day for Idaho. And so to our listeners who've, you know, heard headlines here or there a little bit, what are you hoping the average Idahoan takes away from this process?

Well, the, uh, the, the best solution for Idaho, and it doesn't matter whether it's, uh, the administration of our precious water, uh, whether it's what we do on wildfires, what we do on other things, Uh, we can come up with a better solution than, uh, particularly a federal judge, particularly Congress and, and that's what happened.

Yeah. So Idaho solutions are the best solution. So you brought up interior before you just mentioned public lands. I think managing our aquifer and our water goes hand in hand with our public lands. When you look at an active fire year, when you look at what you have to be responsible for in a state that has Immense public lands is one of the reasons a lot of people choose to raise their families here.

What causes you heartburn when it comes to managing the lands or dealing with the federal managers in the state? I mean dealing with federal government is is always a little bit of a challenge and, uh, most people in the United States don't realize, uh, how big the federal estate is in the West, uh, and, and how we have to, uh, manage around.

And, and some of it's the laws, but a lot of it's the way the laws are interpreted by, you know, judicial decisions by rules. Uh, one of the things in the Western governors is that we all agree that we've got to do a better job of managing fires, particularly suppression early on. If, if we don't suppress these fires, uh, early on, uh, then, then we won't have the resources to do the fire management we needed to do in late August and September.

Uh, that's why when we had the fire at. Uh, in Stanley Basin near Redfish Lake. Uh, I was pretty adamant with the Forest Service. They need to put that fire out. They were inclined to say, well, we'll kind of manage it. I says, you let these fires get big in July, and then, and then it costs the federal government a fortune.

It's terrible for air quality for not only Idaho, but all the states downstream from us that get our smoke. And, you know, we do so many things for air quality. One of the things we can do is a better job of, uh, managing the forest. Our state lands, uh, you know, we, because we've, we have them managed, uh, and we jump on those fires right away.

And we're trying to encourage the federal government to look at the model that the states use in fire suppression and fire management. And when we look to solutions on federal land, uh, a great example pops up of, well, great. I might not be the right word. Uh, Lava Ridge wind project comes up. That's one that's been talked about over and over again, and probably a prime example of when they've looked at a federal solution rather than taking any Idaho consideration in mind.

You've been pretty vocal about your opposition to that. And it's because you've talked to stakeholders. What, what do you foresee happens with that project? Well, I mean, it's, uh, uh, it's, it's a good example. of what happens when, uh, somebody along the Potomac River tells people along the Snake River how to manage their resources.

And, uh, without getting input, without getting buy in, uh, you know, there, there are going to be wind projects that are going to go in the state of Idaho, but you don't do anything the magnitude of that, uh, surrounded by, uh, you know, whether it's, uh, it's the view shed, whether it's, uh, you know, obviously the hunt camp, Minidoka hunt camp was impacted.

Uh, there were a lot of things that were impacted, but it's just. You know, you do these things at the federal level without getting input. Uh, we wanted to send a message and fortunately we've got, uh, Congressman Simpson, we've got both senators, uh, that are helping with that going forward. So I, uh, there, there's a record of decision that you have to come.

Uh, but I am confident that, uh, but that still means we need to be on our toes until, um, We see the final outcome, but I'm, I've got pretty good confidence that the right thing will be done there. It was shocking to see how, uh, vocal the leaders of Idaho were and how it appeared as if they were being ignored at the department of interior.

How much confidence do you have in now that you have a new friend? It, uh, presumably, Oh, it'll be way better. Yeah. A direct line can help out there. It'll be way better. I love that. So, um, When you think about the day comes where Governor Little's not in office, 40, 50, 60 years down the road, there's a lot of things that the history books are probably gonna say, and I think there's some unique things that we can look at.

So you were a governor who made historic investments in education, which alone's impressive, but you did it at the same time with, by making historic tax cuts. As you talk to other governors in other states who have not managed to find a balance between those two types of things, What makes Idaho so unique in that we can cut taxes while still making necessary investments?

Well, I think a lot of it is just in the DNA of Idahoans. You know, you ask a hundred Idahoans, do they think Uh, you should spend money you don't have. You should, uh, uh, if you've got, uh, you know, good surpluses like we did, uh, that you invest in, in water, you invest in roads, you invest, and then you don't build the size of government to where, uh, where you're in a trap when things normalize.

Uh, and I know some of my fellow governors, uh, saw that federal money and, and, uh, you Build up government programs, and we didn't, and I tell people all the time, I don't know what's going to happen to the international economy, the national economy, even the regional economy, but you're going to be better off in Idaho than you are in any other state, just because we do what's, um, In the DNA of Idaho and you just don't take that easy money and build a program and then not be able to pay for it when things normalize.

Yeah. And a big part of something you've pushed is I think when you first running for governor, you, you kind of said your decision making will be through the lens of, I want an Idaho that my kids will be able to raise their grandkids here. And my grandkids will be able to raise my great grandkids here.

And a lot of that is formulated around economic development and education's a key point of that. Is that still the. The family, a lens for which you make decisions. Well, it's still the same lens. We use the same lens. But when I first became lieutenant governor, we had 10 percent of, uh, of our workforce that was out of work.

We had 100, 000 people out of There were no bad jobs. We have a much better position now. Now we can add quality jobs, uh, increase personal income, uh, more higher skilled jobs. That's what we're doing. What we're doing in the workforce area so that, uh, that our kids have better opportunities going forward.

And, and literally, uh, when, when we get. This training program, uh, on full stride to where, whether it's building houses and having plumbers, electricians, uh, contractors, whether it's healthcare to where we need more nurses, in every one of those fields we're going to be better off. And so many kids that just didn't have an opportunity to go on, now they all have a chance to go on and, and, and basically skill up to where they can make a, a better living than they were before.

I think it's an important point because you talk about CTE, you talk about workforce training, and you beat that drum very, very loud, but you sit in a little bit different seat than the average Idahoan in that you speak to employers far more often than a lot of us do. And so you're hearing them beat the drum to you saying, this is what we need.

And as a result that I'm assuming that's why you've been so loud about it. I mean, if you're a, if you're a eighth grader, And, you know, you're eighth and ninth grade, you're trying to decide what's going on. Now that you're going to have an opportunity, uh, that, you know, 80 percent of them are going to have an opportunity to go on compared to, uh, 35 percent before.

And when I say go on, that's, uh, get on. Certified as a welder, or a lineman, or a, uh, a, a nurse practitioner. Uh, those are all jobs that are going to help the state, and they're going to help those kids at the same time. Well, and the education in Idaho is almost unrecognizable from when you started, for the better, when you look at, Everything from teacher pay and their health insurance plans to even Vandal and BSU football, right?

I know you're not going to try to take credit for any of that, but a lot of investments have been made on the education front, but a lot of good things are happening. Well, there really are. And, and, uh, it's those things, uh, you know, you take a high school kid, uh, that's going to get paid. Whether it's eight months of training or two years of training or four years or more, uh, they're going to have a higher, uh, level of, of, uh, financial, uh, security going forward.

And then they're going to, you know, start families and look forward to building, having their own home, uh, stay here in Idaho. Uh, so, uh, what. What it took to get kids to stay here before is different today. We absolutely have to preserve the quality of life. Um, you know, outdoor recreation, uh, you know, better jobs, uh, new support, small businesses that are just getting started with the critical workforce they need.

So, uh, yeah, I'm very pleased with that, but we still got more work to do. Yeah, you, you've always had the approach of, you know, You, you don't rest too long after a big victory. You saw what happened with, you know, getting this water deal done, uh, all these investments we've made, but you've got a lot more on your to do list.

We don't need to get into details, but it's safe to say that, uh, looking forward, there's a lot more things that we can expect to see coming from the governor. It all goes back to that, uh, our kids and our grandkids having the opportunity to stay here. And so sometimes it's, they don't want to be stuck in traffic.

Uh, they want to, they want to have better jobs. They want to have better outdoor opportunities. Uh, those are all things that are going to, uh, create the bait to have our kids stay here and those that left come back. Yeah. Is you're around people all day who respect the office of governor that show a lot of deference when you're around the grandkids as a kind of humbling.

Do they, does grandpa look a little different than governor? No, not really. Not really. Is that your favorite title to have? Oh, absolutely. But they, they, uh, Uh, it's, and they're, I'm, I'm very pleased, uh, uh, you know, I got something. Some of my grandkids that are, uh, in charter schools and some of them are in public schools and, uh, as I spend time with them, I'm, I'm very pleased with where they are, but we need to make that opportunity available, uh, to all Idahoans.

You've got a unique heritage in Idaho. Grandfather immigrated from Scotland as a shepherd and sheepherder and came over here. Uh, when tough decisions come across your desk, do you think back to your dad, who is a state senator and think, man, how, how would dad have handled this issue with, with these farmers disagreeing in these waters?

Do you think back to, to grandpa and how he would have handled some of these tough problems? Well, but Idaho is a rapidly changing state. You know, we were traditionally, you know, mining, logging, agriculture, food processing. And now we've got all those new industries that are growing and, and, and little businesses, uh, all over Idaho that, uh, you know, I always look at the Treasure Valley, uh, and look at the great companies that were here and every one of them started with an Idahoan, uh, Jack Simplot, Joe Albertson, Harry Morrison, uh, uh, they were all, uh, Idahoans that, you know, they didn't get a, they didn't get a government handout.

They started out. And that's why, uh, deregulation is a, is a big deal for me because I want those small entrepreneurs to be, uh, successful that they don't need a, a lawyer and a regulatory person that the rules are pretty clear. We always want to keep, uh, our, our workforce and our residents safe. Uh, but then we want to have the maximum opportunity for bright Idaho entrepreneurs to, to do, uh, something that's never been done before, uh, that will, uh, create more economic opportunity in Idaho.

Well, and I think that deregulation is what allows you to do what some of your other neighboring states can't, is the ability to get government out of the way and, you know, you often talk about, you know, government can't operate at the speed of business as close as possible. It's advantageous, uh, that our three neighbors, uh, to the west of us, make life harder for their, uh, citizens.

And that's why, uh, there's so many people moving into Idaho. I say it's a cow problem, uh, uh, growth, uh, California, Oregon, and Washington. And they've, uh, and they, I see those people all the time they move here and, uh, state it's so much better here than it is over there. And it's, it's, it's not that I'm, you know, wake up every morning trying to compete with them.

I just do what I think I know people expect me to do and is the right thing. And as a result, We have all these, uh, people to move here to have that opportunity for themselves and their families. Yeah, I love it. We know you got a lot on your schedule, but before we let you go, there's a tradition on the podcast where we ask two of the toughest questions.

And if your staff's been good, they may have given you a hint and prepared you. So, the first question, you've been, uh, All throughout Idaho safe to say, probably nearly every city in Idaho you've spent time in as you've traveled around and grabbed a bite to eat. Is there a place somewhere in the state that you can think that's, that's where everybody needs to stop and grab a bite to eat.

And we're going to, I'm going to preface by saying, you can't say Teresa's cooking. That one is off limits and not fair. So cross that off the list. But if you were to pick a restaurant in the gem state that you think is fantastic and you'd recommend, what would it be? Well, I, uh, I've. I have, uh, consumed great nutritional, uh, substance, uh, substance all over the state of Idaho.

Probably one of my favorite places is Hudson's hamburgers in Coeur d'Alene. Cause it's Just a multigenerational family hamburger place, uh, that, uh, you know, just in there, you know, I third generation, uh, they're, uh, doing a good job. And, uh, but I, you know, these. You know, Saturday is small business Saturday and in Idaho, and it's these these small, small, unique restaurants that are unique to those areas that are, uh, speak to the culture in Idaho.

Hudson's hamburgers in Coeur d'Alene. We'll keep track of that one. Uh, we know how much, how important literacy is to both you and your wife. It's something that you've made a priority. Uh, as you think about books that you've read in your life that have changed your philosophies and your visions or the way you've treated other people, what's a book that you think everyone out there ought to crack open at some point?

There's, there's quite a few of them. Uh, but I, right now I'm reading, uh, kind of the life history of Winston Churchill, uh, which is, uh, uh, pretty fascinating. Uh, there's, there's, you know, leadership books. Uh, this is a biography that I hadn't, that I wasn't as familiar with. And, you know, and you look at the challenges Churchill had, uh, at his time and, uh, you know, what, We don't look back at, uh, you know, the Civil War, World War II, uh, the First World War, and we should be so grateful for what we have here because of what other people did in front of us.

And, uh, I know I won't make it any kind of a mark relative to that, but it's having to make hard decisions at the right time and whether, you know, you kind of instinctively know where your constituency is, but once in a while you just got to make a hard decision because it's the right thing to do. Uh, I, I don't have anything like World War II that I have to deal with and I'm very thankful for that.

I'm sure at times it feels like World War II around here though. Oh no, no, no, no. Well, but that's good to read those because then when you. Come home and you think, oh man, that, uh, health and welfare budget or that education budget or something, uh, we should be very, uh, thankful for the challenges we have relative, you know, there was, there was a time during the depression here in Idaho, uh, we could, we couldn't pay the state's bills, uh, that, uh, there was a time that, uh, that was, that was very, very, very, uh, but of course, so was the rest of the country.

Thank you. But our predecessors, uh, in, in dad would dad was chairman of the finance committee, you know, their hard decisions at that point in time, you know, telling people no, uh, in keeping government to a limited basis is why I have the incredible opportunity to do big things going forward. This sounds like you consider yourself an optimist.

Oh yeah, always. So, we know we've got listeners out there who, they've got their challenges. Some of them might be financial, some of them, you know, families are struggling, whatever it may be. As we look towards the holidays and the new year ahead, what message do you have for Idahoans? Well, I, I do think, uh, as we're approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas, remembering the rest of the people in your community.

Uh, I, I was at an event, uh, Friday, I guess, it was the, Uh, the giving event. And I tell them that I compete with Utah about the highest percent of, uh, individual giving in the state and Utah's one and we're two and I'm trying to get us up because those helping your community, uh, government cannot and should not do everything.

And so, but if. Like I say, if people have better jobs, better opportunities, they're going to be able to decide how they take their money and give it to their neighbors. And, and love their neighbors. Uh, and that's, that, that makes everything else we do easy. Is it somebody to say, well, we got to do this. So, you know, that, that community can kind of, uh, and, but there are some communities, uh, where it's a problem, but we are, it used to be, I would tell you, if somebody said, I need to hire 20 people or 40 people or whatever for, uh, where do I go?

We have the. Incredible situation where there is no one place in Idaho. Uh, some of it's remote work. Uh, some of it's obviously our internet connectivity, uh, but there is not a community in Idaho that's, you know, really challenged, uh, the mining communities and the timber communities, um, because there've been a big consolidation of, of, uh, sawmills.

Uh, but. We still produce the same amount of wood fibers we ever did, uh, with less than a. Probably about a quarter of the number of mills, uh, mining, we're going to be much more specialized going forward. Obviously strategic minerals is going to be important, uh, for all the things we need in this world. Uh, we have the most modern food processing, uh, facilities in the world here because Idaho is a long way from the global markets.

So we have to do it better, more efficiently, uh, have a higher quality product. I just was on a trade mission in both. Uh, Taiwan and Japan, and they're very interested in our products and we have to make, uh, great products here, uh, to basically, uh, keep our agricultural communities going. So we just got lots of opportunities.

I'm very excited about it. I love it. I love the message. Well, governor, we appreciate your leadership, both in economic development and education, but most recently, thanks for what you're doing in the water. Uh, farmers around the state are very happy. Well, I can say we, we got her done, uh, but we also put in places if, you know, if we have a record two or three year drought, we also kind of have a system in place to where we can deal with it, uh, with, with more certainty.

Um, and hopefully, and I believe they will, farmers will start dealing with a crisis. Prior to the crisis getting there. Uh, and that was part of it and that's very important. Yeah. We're cheering for you. All right. Let us know how we can help. Thank you for your time today.

Entrepreneurship for Idaho's Youth

Episode 13 Representative Josh Wheeler—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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Friend and returning guest for episode 13 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast, Representative Josh Wheeler of District 35 comes to discuss his efforts to promote entrepreneurship for Idaho's youth. In addition to his already impactful strides furthering Career Technical Education opportunities throughout Idaho, he's now turning his focus towards young adults in a new Lemonade Stand Bill.

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Brennan Summers, Host (00:00):

Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast, where we talk about the issues that matter to you. Welcome back to the Idaho Main Street podcast. We're here with a man who needs no introduction, who unfortunately is out blazing me today. For those only on audio, I will describe with great detail that Josh Wheeler, our friend from district 35, is rocking. Would we call that plum a plum blazer?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (00:27):

I think plum is a good description. Brennan?

Brennan Summers, Host (00:29):

Yes. I learned all my colors from prom when my date would say I'm wearing mov, and I was like, is that a color? I don't know what that even means. So that is plum and looking good. Josh, how are you?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (00:38):

I am well, thank you, Brandon. I mean, you're getting what? A light topaz going on over

Brennan Summers, Host (00:42):

There. Is that a color? I think that's like a,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (00:45):

That's a gem

Brennan Summers, Host (00:46):

From the Gem states. I

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (00:47):

Was going to say we try to use gem colors where we can. Brandon

Brennan Summers, Host (00:49):

Topaz, we're going to fact check you on Josh. It's been a few months. Last time we were able to chat was April.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (00:57):

Yeah, we were in session still. That's right.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:00):

Yeah. You're wrapping up and you did a recap of all the good stuff going on, and a few things have happened since then. Let's see. Let's recap. Let's check the box here. Number one, you had a birthday, so you're a year older since then, which makes sense because it's been about half a year. You had a daughter get

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (01:14):

Married? We did. How was that daughter? Number three? It was a ton of fun. We were betrayed by the Idaho wind a little bit. We had to take it inside so we could have the band, live band with my daughters and wife and even my son. So the band was worth it. It was if nothing else, the band was a ton of fun.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:33):

Is that your last daughter to be wed or

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (01:35):

Nope. One more left.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:36):

Okay.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (01:37):

Daughter number four is a senior in high school this year, funnily enough, potentially pursuing her career in political science. That's what she wants to study.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:45):

Quick talk her out of it.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (01:47):

No, the problem was she went to Boise with me last year and got exposed to all the good people over there. Really enjoyed the conversations with legislators and decided, I mean, she was kind of thinking about it anyway, but now she really is.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:58):

There should be mandatory minimums on people who study political science as one of 'em. . It's more addictive than most of the substances in the

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (02:04):

State. It could be.

Brennan Summers, Host (02:05):

This is coming from a kid who got hooked at a very young age.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (02:07):

You did. That's

Brennan Summers, Host (02:08):

True. Yeah. My dad, UConn city councilman and me like, yeah, okay. Daughter's married. We like the son-in-Law.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (02:15):

Yeah, yeah. He's a great fit. The funniest story about them, so they're in college now, you know how hard it is to find housing as a young married couple. So they call us one day and they're like, Hey, we're really excited. We just interviewed for this job. We hope you guys will give us positive thoughts and prayers to get this job. Got housing with it. Oh, awesome. So then we're like, okay, well what's the job? Well, we're the night dispatch at a mortuary. So they live in an apartment over where the Hirsch parks,

Brennan Summers, Host (02:49):

So they get the job,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (02:50):

They got the job, they got the job. They've got housing just 50 minutes from the campus. So they love it. They can walk. And the truth is, I mean, he's going into sports medicine, she's trying to go into obgyn, and so they got no squeamishness about bodies and death and that kind of stuff. But I mean, for me, middle-aged man that I am, I'm like, oh, that schedule will be hard every other night that they're on call through the night. ?

Brennan Summers, Host (03:15):

Yeah. And it's at a mortuary. Yeah. Did nobody tell 'em that's a dying business? Oh, I couldn't help myself, Josh. I could not had to. The people I get to interview, I have to hold back all my puns.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (03:27):

You can't do the puns,

Brennan Summers, Host (03:28):

But with you it's fair game. We go back,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (03:30):

It's in the contract.

Brennan Summers, Host (03:31):

Oh my goodness. All , so everyone's probably wondering when it comes to everything that goes on from session ending, you gave us the recap last time you were here, and if those who are new to the podcast need to go back and listen, because you talked about some big moves that happened in Idaho policy with physicians,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (03:47):

The

Brennan Summers, Host (03:48):

Way we handled that with career technical education funding, all the fun stuff going on in Idaho, does it feel like the last day of school and then you're just on summer break? Or is it quite the opposite?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (03:59):

It's not quite summer break for sure. I mean, especially in Eastern Idaho, we have had some happenings all through the summer and fall. I think we're hoping that the agreement, the mitigation agreement with water will hold. I'm one of the least expert people to speak on that, but I mean, our farmers across the state and especially in eastern Idaho, really worked their guts out to try to find an agreement that was sustainable and that would let all of our, whether it's small family farms or big industrial farms, go forward with the resources that they need. I, so I feel like that was one of the biggest deals that happened in this off season. Obviously there's all the parades that happen in the summer and visit with constituents. I've really appreciated a lot of the constituents that have reached out to me this summer and fall.

(04:57):

I mean, some about water issues too, but I've had some constituents reach out to me about things that might seem obscure, like abandoned vehicle legislation and how our sheriff's offices are able to handle that and how the ITD handles that. And there's so many how the towing companies, I mean, just again, some of that obscure stuff. And it's really nice to have those conversations in the off season to get a better understanding about, okay, how can we take a run at this and bring a solution once we get back into next session? Things like that. I mean, I've had some conversations with people about childcare, about father's s, and it's really nice to have just a little bit of experience under my belt and to know, oh, here's the legislator that I could call on that I know who to talk to about that and bounce some ideas off of them. So again, it's definitely not as intense as during the session. . Well,

Brennan Summers, Host (05:53):

Sure. It feels like to still a sports analogy when you get in the session, such a short period of time as if you're in the playoffs. But then outside of session, I mean that's training camp. That's practice, practice. So there's a lot of, you wisely acknowledge you may not be an expert on abandoned cars or some very specific and important water issues, but you are learning who to go to

(06:16):

And you mentioned you've got a little experience on your belt. So one thing that did happen, and since we've talked last is you had a primary election and you had a general election, and were there periods in time where you thought in the middle of seeing, I don't know, not nice things written about you or flyers coming in the mail or you out knocking doors in that Idaho, notorious Idaho wind, you think maybe this isn't a good idea. I didn't because you were elected once you went and did two terms. You check the box, buddy, why come back?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (06:51):

Well, the why come back and really it's a question of why even try to come back. ? Why put yourself out there again is it just feels like partly because of the way our system works and works the way that it should, it takes a little more time than just a single term to get some things done. I mean, now I want the record to show that Brennan mentioned CTE before I

Brennan Summers, Host (07:13):

Did on purpose. I'm not letting this smell trying to beat me to the punch. My notes always say CT and you beat me to it.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (07:18):

But I mean, we made some great progress during my first term on CTE funding, on CTE rules, on support. And I got to actually, one of the off season tours that I got to do was to some of our charter schools, including some that are focused on CTE, like Elevate Academy, and obviously I've been to Bear Lake High School before. They have a tremendous CTE program and got to see how some of what we had done in my first term was going to strengthen their funding or continue to incentivize that good work. And so for me to get out and see that stuff in practice, I mean it really just sort of hardens my resolve that like, Hey, we need to go back and we need to continue cleaning this up, strengthening these incentives, making sure that we're laying down a long-term road for kids, Idaho kids to get onto and learn those skills that are applicable and also just feel empowered to follow their entrepreneurial spirit.

(08:19):

I mean, Idahoans I think are by nature just entrepreneurs. We want to go out there and experiment with things, try things, find problems that we can solve and benefit our community by solving them and obviously also benefit ourselves and our families. And so one of the things I loved about touring Elevate Academy, one of their tracks that the kids go on is business and marketing. And that's after possibly going on a track for culinary or healthcare or construction obviously, which I am partial to. Sure. But to see them get all that exposure and then have their last two years require them to connect with a job or they could go on to college, but they've got to have a next step, man, I'd love to see that stuff in play. And so I think one of the things we did was revise the charter school laws in my first term. And so I love to see the ways that those are starting to take effect and provide more opportunities for Idaho families really.

Brennan Summers, Host (09:21):

And I think you lend yourself to a great point here where we talk about some elected officials, we see 'em get in office and they stay longer than they expected. And maybe they intended only to be their term. Maybe they only intended every few term and their Congressman Thurman and they're dying in office. So it happens, the cynics would say, oh, you stay in office because grown addicted to the power and the money.

(09:47):

Well, we know there's very little power when it comes to being one of the many Idaho legislators at times, and there's definitely no money. So tell me if I'm wrong here, but as you talk, the thought came to my mind that you are seeing complicated problems and you're seeing fantastic solutions. And term number one, you're able to chip away the problem and progress the solution. And as you said, it is the longer game than it should be, but that's kind of how the founders meant it. It's supposed to be a little messy. And if we could solve all the problems in one session, we also could create all the problems in one session. That's just a scary

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (10:21):

Yeah, I mean that's really what separates us from just rule by mob. I mean, we are not Lord of the Flies.

(10:29):

And one of the other things I think that was inspiring to me and made me feel like, Hey, this is worth trying to go back. I mean partly it's that you want to ask your community, Hey, did I do a good enough job that you also can see the unfinished work and want to send me back to do it? I mean, you really are asking the community that question. But I saw some of the problems that we solved while I was there in session. Some of the property tax relief that we ended up giving back title citizens, that was the work of years. And I'm working alongside of very experienced legislators who've been there for three terms, five terms, 10 terms, and they've been working on that stuff for that many terms. And again, they've chipped away at it or so man, just being part of that process is really part of why I said, al, I think we want to go back. I think we want to ask the people if we should go back.

Brennan Summers, Host (11:21):

So I want to double back this idea of CT because every time we acknowledge it as being a very important thing, but we don't necessarily dig in as much as I think we should. So first off, CT career technical education. So it looks different than your English classes and your math classes. The importance of CT doesn't devalue those other courses, but you have a very strong feeling about CTE. You've seen the value of it in your professional life, but help us make the connection of why you would burn so much time and energy on career technical education when are not at a loss for problems to solve.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (11:55):

That's fair. Well, I have to tell you, one of the books that I picked up this summer, Brennan is the Anxious Generation. Have you had a chance to read it already?

Brennan Summers, Host (12:03):

When we interviewed Governor Cox, he mentioned that I must read it, and so I took it on a trip and devoured it.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (12:10):

Yeah, I mean it's honestly a quick read for as heavy of a subject it is, ?

(12:14):

But it talks about that we have created this generation who has a phone-based childhood now instead of a play-based childhood. And the thing that the author talks about in the play-based childhood is that kids go out and they play in an unstructured way. And when they don't have adults looming over 'em telling 'em, no, no, you got to follow this rule, or you can't do that thing when they're less regulated, for lack of a better term, man, they create their own rules. They create their own systems, they learn things, they make mistakes and then pick each other up off the ground and say, oh, well, let's do that a little differently next time. And that literally wires the brain for long-term success. That's kind of what we talks about. And we have unfortunately through incredible technology, but sort of an unfettered creation of these apps like social media, we've created this phone-based childhood now that short circuits that. And it's just fascinating to see the data and recognize where that generation now has become so much more anxious. They've become so much more prone to things like self-harm and even suicide to a degree. And it's hard to argue with this premise that we have done that well. Okay, so what does that have to do with ct?

Brennan Summers, Host (13:34):

?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (13:34):

I didn't just want to mention the book that Governor Cox brought up. I mean, what I see with CTE, and I've talked to some educators who I really respect and they're telling me, Hey, representative Wheeler, there are other ways to do that. There's things like Project-based learning that maybe could still happen in our traditional public schools. But what CTE does, what project-based learning does is that they give purpose to those kids. They let 'em see, Hey, you're learning this obscure mathematical principle by a guy named Pythagoras because it's going to let you put together this chicken coop, ? It's going to let you figure out how your business should be laid out. I mean, math is one, it's easy to think of or you're learning about science so that you can be a welder so that you can understand that those angles work this way, that the metals hold together this way that the gases are processed in this way.

(14:31):

I mean, whatever it is, it gives those kids a purpose. And I think when I was a kid, you had shop class, and that's to me still the CTE is like the modern equivalent of that. And there's something about that hands-on. There's something about learning in that way. One of the things, again, I love about Elevate Academy is that they are their science, their social studies, their English, and they're tying it to those topics. So when we toured the construction section of that school, the kids are literally building chicken coops. Well, they've gone out and researched the plans, they've put the plans together, they're sawing the lumber and nailing the lumber together and putting the finishing touches on. And of course, the math is easy to see there. I mean, there's angles, there's cuts, there's measurements. But then for social studies, they're going to do a report on what is the architectural style of this chicken coop?

(15:22):

Where is it from in history and what is an alternate style that I could do? And so again, it's like here they're learning history, they're learning things about architecture, and they're tying it to a purpose. They're tying it to something they've been touching with their hands. And I think for a lot more kids than we realize, that just makes it that much more valuable and that much more real. And so the kids that end up in a business marketing class, I remember when I was a Bear Lake High School, I love their business and marketing teacher does a fantastic job of, they are creating T-shirts and hats. And of course when I went toward it was when they had been the state champions in both football, basketball. So here they have these shirts that have a football basketball on 'em together, and then they get to go market those and sell that apparel again. It gives 'em purpose that comes along with their education. And so I think that's part of what gets me so passionate about that type of learning. And again, it's almost like overcoming that short circuiting that we've inadvertently allowed to happen with phone-based childhood.

Brennan Summers, Host (16:25):

Yeah, because conceptualized education matters and we need it, and you've referenced it in all these circumstances, but experiential learning, which is the overarching principle you're referring to, is really where the education goes from filling a bucket to lighting a fire. We talk about your daughter has an experiential learning experience in Boise with you.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (16:45):

Yeah,

Brennan Summers, Host (16:45):

That's true. Gets to see how things work. That'ss true reading about the Idaho legislature would not have caught that fire of wanting to learn more. And so help make the connection here. Then as we talk about experiential learning, we talk about getting our hands dirty and learning and getting out of maybe away from the phones, which by the way, we probably need to do a whole episode just on the anxious generation. I want to pick your brain up, but you mentioned earlier the idea of the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit in Idaho and how that fuels the American dream. What you're doing with CT is an essential part of ensuring that the next generation of Idahoans are here and ready to start new jobs and innovate and create. So walk us through how you see the importance of policymakers helping make sure the well is the entrepreneurs are. Is it harder now to start jobs? Is it more difficult, or am I as an idahoan in a good fostering environment to become an entrepreneur?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (17:43):

Well, I will say that of the 50 states in Idaho, I think you are in one of the top states to be able to foster an entrepreneurial spirit. And it's one of the things that keeps me a conservative Republican is it's this idea of the lightest touch of government on the business community. Because in a strategically deregulated state like Idaho, you have those ideas. And the difference between idea and execution is frankly a chasm.

(18:18):

But if you've got very little government interfering with you between idea to execution, there's much more likelihood that you will get there. And then there is so much to learn. Frankly, there is so much to learn even if you fail as an entrepreneur, ? There are lessons you take. And I mean, I know I have neighbors who have lost everything in a warehouse fire and it was a disaster, and they're back on their feet a few years later and they learn from that. And so all of that matters. I mean, it's why, I mean, I'll just tell you one of the things I'm excited about now that we're through the primary and the general and really digging into some of the legislation that will bring this next session, I've got one that I'm calling the Snow Cone Shack Bill. ? Okay. Some people might call it the lemonade.

Brennan Summers, Host (19:05):

I like snow cones.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (19:06):

I love snow cones too. And that's the kind of business that we see kids all over the United States do, ? Where they're going out on a corner and they're selling maybe some homemade cookies and a picture full of Kool-Aid or snow cones with the tiger's blood flavor pumped into it.

Brennan Summers, Host (19:24):

There you go.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (19:25):

Whatever it might be. And one of the things that I think is super important for them to learn is about the process, about how government plays a role in that process, but again, make it as light a touch as possible. And so the idea behind the lemonade stand bill is that we ask local municipalities, Hey, don't charge kids under 18 who are starting a business. Don't charge 'em permitting fees. Don't charge 'em plan review fees or whatever. You could still have 'em go through the process because that might be a value. One of the times when I sat on Ammond City Council, we had a young entrepreneur come before the city council, and she was going to be selling basically snow cones at one of the newer city of Ammond parks down there off of 49th. And she was there partly because she had a smart dad who wanted her to experience that.

(20:17):

So she was there and presented her business plan to the city council. And frankly, I mean, all of us are just there wide-eyed like, oh, this is great. And that's one of the things that not only is it important for kids to learn that, but I think it supports Idaho families, ? Because some of, I actually just this fall, I attended my National Electoral Contractor's Association convention and I sat on a panel and presented about overcoming challenges in a family business. And one of the neatest statistics that the moderator brought up, and this is of all the Nika Al contractors, 98% of them are family owned businesses. Wow. So as we empower our youth to learn about business, to learn about the processes, to take part of that, we help their families, we help families also be stronger, learn a work ethic, learn again, connect what you're learning to an actual practical application. And I think we then increase the likelihood that we create productive citizens that those Idaho kids who had such a positive experience with their entrepreneurship as a young kid either come back to Idaho after their education or stay here in Idaho and continue to create opportunities to strengthen our economy, to just keep Idaho, that Idaho strong, ?

Brennan Summers, Host (21:44):

Idaho has been just this great test bed for innovators. And you can look at some of the largest businesses in this state started here. Some of the smallest businesses in the state have just started here. And you can look at just the tech world. You can look at the e-commerce world, but you could also look at your family

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (22:02):

Farms agribusiness all over the state.

Brennan Summers, Host (22:05):

And the lemonade bill, I think it's on first glance, it's a cute bill to help, but from a step back, it really does not.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (22:13):

You're saying it's almost an romio Idaho state dinosaur level bill,

Brennan Summers, Host (22:18):

Not quite, but impressed with, and people are currently Googling when he say, A what bill? Let's look it up. Dinosaurs. If you take a step back though, not only is it there to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs, but it also as a conservative Republican, you're setting a very clear principle of we're not asking the government to subsidize the sugar and the water for the lemonade, and we're not asking the government to purchase so much lemonade. We just want the government to stay out of the way. And that kind of lends it to the conversation we had with Director Adams about all that Governor Little is trying to do to just eliminate unnecessary regulations so that government can stay out of the way of business's ability to foster. And I think that's kind of what this would be able to do

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (23:05):

A very light touch for our youngest entrepreneurs. I mean, that is what it would do.

Brennan Summers, Host (23:09):

And a lot of the legislators that you work with, they've all got their bailiwick, their specialty, but then they have to know all these other things they work on. So we're not putting anyone in a corner here. But if you do look at Representative ald, she's good on budgets, she knows where those things are. And you look at a Senator Burton Shaw or a representative Mickelson Ag, they've got it figured out. And a senator lent when it comes to education policy, that's your guy. You've always, from day one, led with economic development, pro business, that light touch of government. So this kind of is your thing, ?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (23:39):

Yeah, absolutely Isn't interesting. One of the other things that sort of happened to me in this off season, my youngest brother moved back home to Idaho, and some of it is he moved back to help care for our alene mother. But again, because Idaho is an environment that fosters entrepreneurship and that fosters a strong business environment, whether it be a small business or some of the larger businesses, he opened up a game store. And so that's something he was passionate about. That's something he knew about. He'd been working in the industry for about five years or so, and the opportunities came together, but the opportunities came together because Idaho creates an environment that creates those kind of opportunities. And it's been interesting kind of cheering him on that process, but also seeing where a slightly heavier hand of government has been just not backbreaking. He's still got it done and he's open and he's running. But there are times when you're like, whoa, why isn't that just a little lighter? What did that heavier hand accomplish?

Brennan Summers, Host (24:46):

And the intention of the regulation, and again, I refer back to what Director Adams talked about of yeah, at some point, a four foot fence in front of a body of water for somebody fostering a child makes a lot of sense, but they didn't consider, oh, at the back of their property, there's a canal running and putting a four foot fence on the back of a canal maybe doesn't make the most sense and limit people. So, oh, there's so many things we got to get into. This would be a perfect time if we had sponsors for that new game business. And now word from our sponsor, the Child in a Lemonade, stand in am. Amen. City Park is

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (25:19):

Our sponsor

Brennan Summers, Host (25:19):

For that. There you go. There you go. You're done campaigning for a hot minute directly for minute. Yes, the signs are getting put away. The ballots have already been counted. Congratulations. No more mailers going out for a while. You've got a breath where you're going to just say like, okay. And to still align from the musical Hamilton, ? Winning's easy, but governings harder. I think that's true, especially all the drives you got to make back from Boise and everything coming up. Are you relieved or do you actually enjoy the battle of the campaign? Especially because you typically have a primary and a general

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (25:50):

Challenger most, it's such a mixed bag answer to be honest with you, Brenna, because when I am out just knocking doors and having face-to-face conversations with the people that I'm asking to let me represent them, I just absolutely adore that. And there can be hard conversations at those doorstep like, Hey, what were you guys thinking with this? And oh man, I'm glad you asked, and here's what we were thinking. Well maybe think about this next time. And it's interesting how those embodied conversations, you can turn the temperature down on them so much faster and actually accomplish something. And I feel that way even with a phone call. And it's like the further you get removed from that type of conversation, almost the less effective they become. And I mean, since our theme, our other sponsor would be the anxious generation probably. I think that we as adults are also seeing the negative effects of the algorithms.

(26:47):

Let's just call 'em what they are that are on social media in what it does to our conversation to the body politic, ? If there's anything that I have not enjoyed in my multiple campaigns. Now, I was going to say, I realize it's almost a half a dozen now if you count my city council campaign. But the thing that I've obviously enjoyed the least is the nature of that conversation where it's like a snipe on social media and then somebody picks that snipe up two weeks later and it just turns into this brawl. And in the meantime, I've gone out and I've knocked on doors in two different neighborhoods and talked to two dozen different people and heard very similar perspectives on a lot of things because a lot of Idahoans agree like, Hey, we should have a light touch of government. We should have the least amount of taxes possible.

(27:34):

We should have communities that are safe with decent roads and other services so that our kids can go out and have a play-based childhood and go out and grow and thrive. So I mean, if there's anything that I don't enjoy and it's not going to go away, I don't know the solution. I mean, even if we had a version of Senator Cook's bill that zapped all phones during the legislative or during election seasons from social media, it just wouldn't go away. I mean, it's here to stay, but I think we need to recognize it. We need to recognize that when that form of the conversation gets so nasty, maybe pick up the phone for just a minute, maybe go find that person and have a face-to-face conversation with them. I

Brennan Summers, Host (28:16):

Think that's a wonderful observation because as I worked in communications with a congressman,

(28:23):

I would see things that were said on social media or written to him or voicemails left in the office, and then we would go to events. I would see that person and I would be panicked. I'm like, they are going to punch my boss in the face, and they didn't. And is it because they're cowards when they get in the face? I don't think necessarily. I think it's more of humanity has a stronger pull than a lot of other forces, and differing on opinions is fine. I know as Governor Cox would teach us, but when you get across from somebody and we have conversations like this, it changes the whole conversation. It changes the intention, and it's just so much easier to be a nasty person the further away you get. But then it's so much easier to be a good and understanding person the closer you get. And we've seen that time and time again, and maybe there is a space in Idaho politics to get more people in the room, and that's one of the goals of this podcast is to just get people in the room and have those types of conversations. And we need to do a better job at that, obviously. But it is, it's a problem, isn't it?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (29:28):

Is a modern challenge for sure.

Brennan Summers, Host (29:30):

We

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (29:30):

Don't have the solution to that

Brennan Summers, Host (29:32):

As we look at, okay, campaign's over, you get to take a breath, you get to, now we did a grid recap back in April, so anybody who'd missed that, go listen to it. But now it's time to look forward. Now it's time to say, okay, what are you going to do? You've done the field trips, you've done the metaphorical training camp. Now it's time as we look to actually get in session, which will come quicker than we think.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (29:56):

It will come very quick.

Brennan Summers, Host (29:57):

That is true. Yeah. That cold drive to Boise starting in just a few short months, what do you have in your holster that you're ready to get across the finish line this session?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (30:08):

I mean, besides the Snow Cone Shack Bill, obviously.

Brennan Summers, Host (30:11):

Bingo. That's the one. Yep. Let's hope that's not all you accomplish this year, although it would be a great accomplishment. Do you think you've got a few more things?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (30:17):

I think that we're going to have a very serious conversation about public education again this coming session. And my hope is that whatever comes, we do not weaken. Especially, again, I've toured these charter schools and I've recognized what a great job they're doing in the public space providing these different options. I mean, one of the fun things about that tour, one of the other schools we went to is all tourist academy. We sat with a panel of the parents and the students and heard from them, Hey, why did you come here rather than maybe the elementary school that's down the road from you, and how hard was that in Idaho? It turns out it wasn't that hard. Open enrollment means that those parents can make those choices. So I hope that whatever conversation happens in education that we don't weaken these young innovative charter schools, ?

(31:14):

Because they are playing now in a more innovative space and making the kind of difference that I think we need to see throughout the state. . I will mention just briefly the other thing in the education space. I know we've been talking about it for years, but I really hope that we kind of take the next step in a solution for facilities. One of the things I was, again, when I toured Elevate Academy, they do a great job of bare bones in their building, polished concrete floors, nothing else than that. Open exposed ceilings. So you can see all the, and I'm partial to seeing all that electrical conduit, but you see the HVAC duct, you see the plumbing, you see the fire sprinklers. They built a building at almost 60% of the cost of some of the other buildings that we've seen proposed. They just went bare bones and partly because they want their kids who are pursuing the metallurgy or the not metallurgy, sorry, machining metallurgy is what you do when you go to college after machining.

(32:20):

But if they're in machining or if they're in construction, they want those kids to see that stuff in the real world. And I said to Senator Lent, who happened to be on that tour with me, I said, Hey, when you get to this standardized plan design that we put that out, let's make sure that we kind of emphasize, make it this type of design go as minimal as possible because, but go deliberate about it, ? Sure. You can tell that they've made that conscientious decision about the design, not just for the dollar signs, but for the education for the kids to see and understand, Hey, here's what that is. Here's why that hood is sucking the air out of your culinary class and here's what that looks like. And by the way, when you go to your welding unit in the next 10 weeks, look at those.

(33:13):

You can see where that work was done, and that's what that would look like. That's what that means. So I mean, I'd love to see us improve on some of that also, and then I'll continue to be a champion for just cleaning up regulation. Obviously a couple of things that I worked on last year that we don't talk about that much, but it is just licensing and regulation in the trades. I think we made some good decisions that the Doppel has done a great job. This was another sort of off season conversation, but they did a great job going around and having conversations with the electrical board and contractors and electricians all around the state and recognizing, Hey, what did we miss? What did we get? And I think if they apply what I saw them listen to as I read through all those meeting minutes, we'll have a better solution. We'll have a lighter handed government, we'll have less regulation, and we'll have our industries able to continue to advance the economy for all the citizens of the state of Idaho.

Brennan Summers, Host (34:17):

And obviously noteworthy that the things that you're excited about progressing next session are things that your constituents have had year out for. We got to get some of these things

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (34:24):

. Yeah,

Brennan Summers, Host (34:25):

For sure. Specific first to charter schools. In what ways are any educational proposals that are out there going to hurt charter schools? Are there proposals we need to be aware of that could hurt or help these charter schools?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (34:39):

None that I've seen yet for this session. When I am talking about that, I'm only worried about the specter of past conversations because in my first term, we were having conversations about whether you called them education savings accounts, or whether you called them education tax credits. There was just too much of a risk that they were going to take money from the overall education pool and not have any kind of accountability. And I think accountability is the one that I've sort of continued to drum on because again, we want the lightest touch of government possible, but that doesn't mean that we don't have some accountability, some measurement, because what you get better at is what you measure. If you're not measuring something well, who's ever going to improve that? Nobody's paying attention to it. I mean, whether you want 'em to improve it or not, you got to measure it.

Brennan Summers, Host (35:31):

Where performance is measured and reported, performance improves. So covered the charter school thing. I think it's telling that we get elected leaders out and they get to have their own CT experiences. They go out and actually get to experience some of these things and get to decide how they need to handle it. As we look at infrastructure funding for schools, clearly you, if you can't do it within budget, we can't do it. And that's been the problem in Idaho. Correct. So many new schools are not going to improve your bill because they are so much more expensive than, as Senator Lent would put the average Idaho in realizes they're really expensive. The governor made a huge investment last year to expect a similar one in the coming session.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (36:12):

I don't think we will see similar levels. I think that's part of what we've got to kind of buckle down and do the work of in this coming session is like, Hey, these investments have been made. I remember a time just in my own business where my partners and I, we had made some serious investments in leadership training in software, in empowering some of our field leaders, and we had a year where we sort of looked at each other and stepped back and said, we got to get this fully implemented. We got to get this baked in fully to the culture before we even talk about what's the next step. I feel like that's where we're at with the facilities conversation. I feel like that's where we're at, even with the charter schools conversations. It's like, okay, we've made these investments. They're baked in. Now let's make sure that we create an environment where that, I guess I'm going to make a culinary example here, but where that cake rises the way it's supposed to and we put the toothpick in and we don't pull out a bunch of waste, ? Then we're going to have the best result if we take the time to let that stuff be baked in.

Brennan Summers, Host (37:18):

Yeah. Your wife Laramie's listening to this now and saying, are you kidding me, Josh? You've known how to bake this whole time and you make me do it.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (37:25):

Listen, she's a cookie fiend. The oven's always taking up with the cookies at our house. That's all there is to it.

Brennan Summers, Host (37:30):

Would you consider launch also one of these that we need to sit back, let it play out, watch to see if it's successful?

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (37:36):

Boy, I would say so. Absolutely. Brendan, and I've had some conversations in this off season. It's funny, I've had conversations with parents who I consider to be very conservative individuals in their politics, and they have said to me, Hey, thank you so much for voting for that program because I have student A and I have student B, and they are now going on. I mean, one that's headed into sort of a med tech direction, another that's probably going to end up going the engineering direction long term. But the one mother I'm thinking of, she confessed to me. She's like, they would not have gotten pointed in that direction were it not for that next steps program and then launch supporting them in going in that direction. And I think I am confident there's a lot of those stories in this first batch of launch recipients. Now, does that mean that I don't think there might be some tweaks or some evolution that we make in this coming session? No, I think I'm ready to have that conversation for sure. Because again, that's one of the benefits of our system is that we have that ongoing conversation and we say, well, what about this? I mean, this ended up pointing a bunch of kids to something that is never going to be useful. That was a mistake. Let's narrow this focus down political science. I don't think it pointed a lot of them there.

Brennan Summers, Host (39:01):

So the argument against launch was we don't think this is the type of stuff that government should be involved in, and the governor and supporters like yourself have said, this is exactly the type of stuff that we think that government should be involved in because of what it can do, not just for these kids, but for our employers in the state of Idaho, for our educators in the state of Idaho and for the overall economic health.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (39:24):

I mean, the thing about that program and programs like it is it incentivizes organizations like our community colleges, and even to some degree like our four year colleges, and it incentivizes even private industry to step up and provide the kind of training for kids to do what needs to be done, whether it's welding programs, whether it's getting into cybersecurity programs, I mean apprenticeships through all the trades. I think that's important about a program like that.

Brennan Summers, Host (39:59):

So you've got a lot of things that you can be excited about as you go back to Boise and make that trip. But do you have things that give you that pit in your stomach of like, oh, no, this is the one thing I don't want to deal with. You have to take the good with the bad. Is there some bad,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (40:13):

I mean, there are some complicated conversations.

Brennan Summers, Host (40:17):

So we have early morning meetings that may not be the best. You may have some interesting characters you have to deal with. Other things is our audience loves the insider baseball of what's it like to be a legislator? What are some of the things that you can give those listening to say, Hey, I would not have known this if I wasn't sitting in this chair.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (40:39):

Oh, man, that's interesting. I mean, there's a lot, and it's interesting, you had Director Adams on earlier this year, ? There is a lot in the health and welfare space, especially the welfare space, that I would not have known without being in that space. I would not have understood even a fraction of what our foster families are going through. And I'm really appreciative of Director Adams recognizing like, Hey, we need to strengthen the way we're approaching our foster families. Again, it's sort of that lighter hand of government. We need to do everything that we can to protect the kids that are in the system, but that means helping incentivizing stronger foster families, more strong foster families, because the ones that do it, man, they're hard workers. They care with all their heart. And so I was really appreciative to see him take that kind of stuff on.

(41:37):

One of the ones that I remember in my first term was when we passed the bill basically outlining some of the requirements, some of the guardrails for surrogacy. I remember individuals coming and testifying physicians and also people who had been surrogates or people who their family had been built because of someone being willing to be a surrogate. And you're just like, you had no idea. You had no idea that kind of stuff was happening. And so I actually really enjoy the health and welfare space. I will confess here on air that I hope to be back on the Health and Welfare Committee again this next session. I've got some legislation that I want to work on to let's say make the insurance industry just a little bit, have a little bit lighter touch itself, working on prior authorizations, making sure that they're not onerous, that they're timely and that they are relevant.

(42:37):

I don't think that if someone's providing a prior authorization for a pediatric procedure that they should be a gerontologist. I mean, let's have it be related specialties that are making that decision. But the reason that that's so important to me is I think it is incredibly important that we don't overlook the value that our local physician brings to their patients. They know that patient a lot of times. They know that patient and all that patient's kids and every sniffle and funny wart and broken arm that they've had throughout their lifetime. And so I want to make sure that in Idaho, we are prioritizing our Idaho physicians and their relationship with their families. Anyway, that's the kind of stuff that I'm like, man, I would never have understood how all these systems are working together and what some people are dealing with if I weren't on that particular committee. .

Brennan Summers, Host (43:33):

Okay. Well, you obviously triggered me here because when it comes to insurance companies, I've never had a good experience. So I know you said it a much nicer way than I have, but on your to-do list might be for those listening, if there have been, you can't solve all the problems with insurance, but there's some things that you may be able to help your constituents

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (43:52):

On. Well, and that's part of what to me is so fascinating about the system, ? It's like, I am never king for a day. I don't even want to be king for a day. Those crowns and crap, they look heavy. That looks like a pain. So I get to, and you have to go have conversations with all these stakeholders, and I've already had some great conversations with insurance companies and they've said, yeah, we see where some of this could be improved. And oh, what you're talking about there, representative Wheeler. Yeah. I mean, how about this tweak here? And then I go back and talk to my friends in the hospitals, or I go home at night and I say, Hey, what about this? I mean, my wife doesn't even deal with the insurance industry anymore. And I think if we're not careful, we'll have more and more physicians that will go that route. And then medicine becomes only for the wealthy, heaven forbid. And so that's why we've got to just have this ongoing conversation in all these spaces and get to the best solution possible for Idaho families.

Brennan Summers, Host (44:54):

I don't want to say the average voter, but I think many voters, what you described is what they hate about government is they want a king for a day, but they only want a king for the day to do exactly

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (45:05):

For their topic, for

Brennan Summers, Host (45:06):

Exactly what they want. So we look back, and I know I've got very conservative friends who opine over the inability of a Republican either led presidency or house and able to accomplish everything. But even within, sure, we've got a lot of Republicans in the Idaho state legislature, and you're not able to get your perfect bill across because spoiler alert, everybody kind of has a different opinion on what they think is . Even within one party, let alone you start throwing in the other party gets messy.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (45:36):

I think I've said it before, Brennan, but I honestly wish that every citizen of this great country had the opportunity to run for office. And I really wish that everybody had the opportunity to be in office, even if it were only for a few days, because for me, that was a huge learning experience to go in there and go through that messy process, bring it to committee like, oh, drafted about 13 times, because you get great feedback and you get feedback that says it's not going to go any further without this tweak, and then get it from there to the floor and then go repeat the process over in the Senate, which has got its own warts. Let's call them just own differences of doing things and of opinions. And yet, as I saw that, it was sort of one of those things that made me say, holy cow, our founding fathers were truly inspired. It is impossible to argue that they were inspired. When you see the way that that system knocks off some of the rough edges, stops some things that maybe need a little more thought, and it doesn't always make them go away. They come back sometimes improved, or when they don't get improved, they just keep getting shut down by that system that again, separates us from the mob.

Brennan Summers, Host (46:50):

Yeah, the beauty of the system is in the complexity of the system, but the American people have demanded more transparency. And in a TikTok generation of shortening attention spans, we don't have the ability to pay attention to the length of the complexity and to follow the whole thing. So at times, I think as the voters get more and more fickle, I am worried that they will produce fickle politicians who are willing to engage in the complexities. Does that worry you? Do you feel like as you have constituents who demand more and may be willing to see less in terms of the headlines or the 32nd soundbites, does that make you feel like you have to more match those constituents who say, representative buer, I need you to fix this abandoned car issue now, not knowing that you then have to work through dozens of stakeholders, and it's going to take a whole session and you may get a little bit of improvement.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (47:43):

I'll tell you the read that leaves me optimistic with that question, Brennan, and I'm sure you've read it. Its profiles and courage, ? Sure. John F. Kennedy goes through eight different congressmen at eight different periods in the country's history. And I mean, even in the most contentious period of our history, the Civil War, he is talking about one congressman that almost beats another one to death with his cane on the floor of the house. And even in that most disastrous of circumstances in that most divided of eras, they worked through things. I mean, thank heavens for Abraham Lincoln, but thank heavens for his team of rivals who were men with all sorts of different life experiences coming at the problem from all sorts of different angles, and frankly, sometimes did not. We're not particularly fond of each other, I think as we read the history, and yet they would find that common ground to work on and rebuilt the union at that time. So I read that and I recognize, look, we have been a divided people from the beginning. I remember saying to my sweetheart one day, I'm like, if people didn't like George Washington, then there's always going to be people who don't like, who don't like the leaders.

Brennan Summers, Host (49:07):

No, George Washington,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (49:08):

Josh

Brennan Summers, Host (49:09):

Wheeler.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (49:10):

I do not even pretend to have that stature in any way, shape or form. But even with the sort of modern technology and the algorithms, and even in a world that is designed to play on our outrage, I just still remain optimistic that we as a people, we'll find each other, we'll find each other face to face, we'll have the conversations and we'll improve. And when we don't, we'll come back the next session and we'll fix it.

Brennan Summers, Host (49:45):

And this is what I love about our conversations. As much as I try to bait you into cynicism, anything bad, and you always find the optimistic look, and you're , you constituents who voted for you or a different opponent, whether in the primary or the general, they're the type of people who had the courage to walk to the polls. They studied out the issues. And that's the beauty of, especially here in Idaho, is we have, especially our listeners, people who are willing to want to learn more and engage. And that too leaves me with a very hopeful spirit as we look moving forward,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (50:17):

And not just talking about the polls, Brennan, but I mean, Idaho has an incredible spirit. The people that founded Idaho, I read a book this last year that some constituents in Soda Springs had given me called the Best Damn Doctor in the West about a Dr. Kackley, who was really one of the first physicians in Caribou County in the Soda Springs area. And I mean some crazy, he had to do operation to save a guy on a pool table. One time or another time, he goes out in this poor shepherd, I think he had to remove his gallbladder in one of those just old shepherd's tents, like in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a Caribou County winner, which you know how brutal those can get. Anyway, the reason I bring that book up is it just was another reminder to me of just sort of the stamina of people that came here and built Idaho, and they were optimists. I mean, you have to be an optimist to come here in the kind of wind we get and the kind of winters we get and realize, I can build a beautiful world. I can build a beautiful place for my family in this state, ? I mean,

Brennan Summers, Host (51:33):

Yeah. And to those of us who had ancestors that homesteaded here, it's a good reminder. It's time to look on the shoulders of the giants were standing on and revisit the pioneer roots of it's time to create circumstance, not preach a circumstance and just get it, get stuck in. And then to those who are new to our state, who've decided that they're making their manifest destiny to Idaho for the first time, well, we want you to acclimate to the pioneer lifestyle in terms of come contribute, come join, come participate, get involved. So for those who are listening who have an abandoned car or an issue with insurance, they can find you on Facebook, they can find you on, you've got a website too, I do Josh Wheeler for idaho.com,

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (52:16):

Wizard for idaho.com,

Brennan Summers, Host (52:17):

Idaho.com, and you're always welcome to come back here and talk more issues.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (52:22):

Happy to do it. B Brendan,

Brennan Summers, Host (52:23):

Josh, we appreciate time. We appreciate the banter, the time and effort you're putting into this service. Your wife put, last time you were on here, she put the link up and she made a reference to all of the drives in the snowy weather. I mean, it sounded like you were that best damn doctor in the West and everyone, the way she described all the late night phone calls with teachers and business owners and everything, and she painted you far better than you actually are. But she did make a point that I completely agree with where she says, it's clear when talking to Josh, he does love the people he serves. And I think that's not something we talk about enough when it comes to political leaders, is actually loving the people that we're serving. So thank you for being here, and we look forward to having you back.

Rep. Josh Wheeler, District 35 Idaho (53:03):

Thank

Brennan Summers, Host (53:03):

You, Brenda. Until next time.

Helping Businesses Thrive in Idaho

Episode 11 Bobbi-Jo Meuleman—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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President and CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce (BMCC), Bobbi-Jo Meuleman, is our special guest for episode 11 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast. Among her many accomplished roles, Meuleman highlights her past experience working with former Governor Butch Otter and current Governor Brad Little. Now advocating for businesses as the BMCC President & CEO, Meuleman explains how she plans to help businesses thrive throughout Idaho.

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Follow Along With The Transcript

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0:00

welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast

0:02

where we talk about the issues that

0:03

matter to

0:05

[Music]

0:10

you we're excited today to have a

0:12

fixture of leadership in the Gem State

0:15

uh the current CEO and president of the

0:18

boyy Metro chamber none other than Bobby

0:21

Joe mman Bobby Joe thanks for joining

0:23

the podcast today thank you I appreciate

0:25

the

0:26

opportunity we're excited today to draw

0:29

from wealth of your knowledge you've got

0:31

a lot of experience You' got this

0:33

somewhat new role with the chamber we'll

0:35

get into but before we dig into chamber

0:37

and economic development and all that

0:39

fun stuff I think it would be important

0:41

to kind of cover your origin story here

0:43

help us understand how you went from

0:45

working in Washington DC for a Montana

0:49

Congressman to end up working for two

0:51

governors in of Idaho and boisee yeah uh

0:55

yeah it's kind of a fun story to talk

0:57

about um I born and raised in Montana

1:00

and when I was a junior in college I

1:02

went to the University of Montana in

1:04

Missoula my major was political science

1:07

not because you know I thought that I

1:09

would have a career in politics I simply

1:11

liked government and history so was

1:14

thought hey why not uh when I was in

1:16

junior a junior in college I did an

1:18

internship in Washington DC with Senator

1:20

Conrad Burns and I can tell you it was

1:23

probably a very pivotal point in my life

1:26

a decision I made that was would impact

1:28

me for the rest of my life life that I

1:30

had no idea I was making at the time

1:32

went back to DC absolutely loved it fell

1:35

in love with the office just loved

1:36

working out there it's a it's a great

1:38

fun environment had one year of college

1:41

left came back graduated and had a job

1:44

with them I graduated on Saturday on

1:47

Monday my Mom and Dad and I had my Chevy

1:50

Silverado packed up and we drove from

1:52

brownie Montana to Washington DC which

1:54

to give you a sense of where Browning

1:57

Montana is it took us eight hours just

1:59

to get out of Montana because we went

2:01

from one part of the state to the other

2:03

uh but moved to Washington DC and uh

2:06

worked for Conrad Burns for a few years

2:08

and then he lost re-election to John

2:10

tester at that time I went to work for

2:14

Congressman Denny reberg from Montana

2:16

when I was working for Senator Burns I

2:18

met my husband we started dating he was

2:21

working for Senator Craig and we got

2:24

engaged my husband got a job back out

2:27

here in boisee he's B born and raised

2:29

and as politics is or just life in

2:31

general it's a lot of relationships who

2:33

you know the congressman I was working

2:35

for was very good friends with Governor

2:37

Butch a because they served in Congress

2:39

together the congressman made a call and

2:41

said hey there's this Montana Girl

2:43

moving to Idaho and if you got a job or

2:45

know something she'd be you know G gave

2:48

me a gloating recommendation and

2:51

happened to be that Governor otter had a

2:53

job opening for the same job I was doing

2:55

for the congressman which was a

2:56

scheduler and I went interviewed with

2:58

him and the rest is kind of History wow

3:02

okay there's a lot to unpack there and I

3:04

think one of them that jumps out is this

3:06

is very topical because your old boss

3:08

that lost re-election to Senator tester

3:10

at at time of recording right now that

3:12

is a neck-and-neck race that could

3:14

determine who controls the Senate the

3:16

Republicans and Democrats isn't it funny

3:19

I think about that I was watching the

3:21

news the other day and they did a big

3:23

segment on it about the sheii tester

3:26

race and it's really fascinating to me

3:29

to think

3:30

I mean to think about I mean because

3:31

that was a really close race and no one

3:33

thought tester would win and he did and

3:35

it was a huge upset and now that race

3:38

could determine you know it's a really

3:40

big race it's funny uh Conrad Burns I

3:45

got a signed picture of his it's a a

3:49

United States capital and it's signed by

3:51

him it's actually in my office here if I

3:54

could if if I knew how to work this

3:55

computer I'd show you but when I was

3:57

working for governor little we actually

4:00

um Senator tester's nephew was an intern

4:03

and I called him in and I said do you

4:05

see that picture and he was like yeah

4:07

I'm like you know who that guy is and

4:09

he's like I think so and I was like it's

4:11

a guy that beat my boss and he was

4:13

terrified he now works for um Senator

4:17

rich and we laugh about it a lot about

4:18

that story but yeah it's kind of weird

4:20

to

4:21

think that now that is a really pivotal

4:23

race that could really determine a lot

4:25

of things wow and what a small world in

4:30

politics yeah yeah that's incredible so

4:32

from uh then Congressman Butch Otter's

4:35

office you then transitioned when he won

4:37

the governorship to to his to your first

4:40

stint in you know executive

4:44

office when I moved to Idaho he was a

4:47

governor at that point he was he was in

4:49

his first term as Governor okay so it

4:51

was a newly elected governor you joined

4:54

that staff great so you worked for

4:56

governor otter and you obviously have

4:58

worked for our current governor governor

4:59

Brad little talk to us about what

5:01

different experiences those were knowing

5:03

that many of our listeners have great

5:05

adoration for both men both very AG

5:07

focused business friendly but they are

5:10

different and they took different

5:12

approaches yeah they were both really

5:14

wonderful you know people often ask me

5:16

about you know my trajectory and my

5:18

success in politics and I mean I can

5:21

single-handedly said if it if it were

5:22

not for those two men I would not be

5:24

where I am today they you know being

5:26

elevated and supported by Governors is a

5:29

pretty cool thing and I will forever be

5:32

grateful for them they are wonderful and

5:34

are really I mean it every success has

5:38

people behind you lifting you up and

5:40

those two men were it for sure you know

5:42

it's really funny they're both similar

5:44

but different in their ways you know

5:46

Governor otter he's a guy that he's just

5:49

so personable right you could he'd go in

5:53

never read a memo right go in it could

5:55

be he's going to go talk to a bunch of

5:58

Educators and he'd start talking about

6:00

the Antiquities act and maybe not even

6:02

touch on education and everyone would

6:03

love it right they'd be raving and

6:05

roaring because he was just so

6:07

personable right and then Governor

6:09

little is you know he is just so smart

6:14

and such a policy guy right he knows the

6:16

details of everything which is really

6:19

fun because he he is engaged in every

6:21

level and so very you know detail

6:24

oriented data

6:26

oriented um reads everything I remember

6:29

once uh I did nuclear stuff for him and

6:32

there was a big nuclear report that came

6:35

out with the line commission and he

6:38

asked me he's like did you read this and

6:40

I was like no because I knew you would

6:42

and then you tell me about it so but

6:44

both very you know when we would go to

6:47

Republican Governor events in other

6:49

states everyone just they would Rave

6:52

about how personable and how kind and

6:55

how accessible and down toe our

6:58

Governors are and I think that's

7:00

something that's really special and so

7:02

they're very similar in that way right

7:03

that they're just genuine people and

7:05

they really do care um have such a great

7:08

understanding of the culture and the

7:11

history and the roots of this state um

7:14

it's it's really unique just the

7:16

knowledge that they that they have and I

7:18

think we're really lucky to you know

7:21

have had and have Governors that that

7:23

operate that way I I completely agree

7:26

and I'm going to shift the spotlight a

7:28

little away from them and a little more

7:29

on you at the moment because you're a

7:32

prime example of of meritocracy in Idaho

7:35

of somebody who started a position and

7:37

just I don't want to put words in your

7:39

mouth but you have a reputation as

7:41

somebody who does their homework who

7:42

works really hard who manages

7:44

relationships really well and cares

7:46

about the people she works with and you

7:48

found yourself in really significant

7:50

positions of influence in Idaho and

7:52

having the governor's years for those

7:54

who are listening uh walk us through the

7:56

approach of maybe where you credit

7:58

growth in Public Service in in in your

8:03

approach it's interesting and it was my

8:05

husband and it was when I took this role

8:08

and one of the things I had to do when I

8:10

first took this role was there was an

8:13

event where people got to learn about me

8:15

and I don't really like talking about

8:16

myself and my husband said to me you

8:20

have an interesting story to tell where

8:22

you started out as a scheduler right I

8:25

started out as a solely

8:27

administrative job and have worked my

8:29

way up through the different ranks and

8:33

you know I I don't really know how to

8:36

credit that except from you know hard

8:38

work right you you have to be responsive

8:41

you have to work hard um I think there's

8:46

real value in relationships and knowing

8:48

people and I I got to know that at a at

8:51

an early age and I think because I was a

8:53

scheduler I think that really C started

8:56

cultivating the importance of that you

8:58

know being in that role you are the the

9:00

face the front entrance to you know

9:03

these elected officials and with that

9:05

you get to know people and you get to

9:06

know their story and you get to know if

9:09

it's a good thing for your boss to do or

9:11

maybe not a good thing for your boss to

9:12

do and and through that you just build

9:15

these relationships and you really start

9:16

to see the power of knowing people and

9:19

how that just can can make things to get

9:22

done better you know I think there's

9:24

nothing more rewarding when you can take

9:28

an issue and bring people from all

9:31

different sides and Views work together

9:33

sometimes it's painful and it's torture

9:36

but there is no better feeling when you

9:39

work together towards something and you

9:41

achieve something and that gets done

9:43

through relationships and so I think

9:46

that has just been one thing that my

9:48

career I've continued to do is really

9:50

understand the importance of those

9:52

relationships Foster those relationships

9:54

and it takes time it takes time but I've

9:57

always made time for it right and I've

10:00

really been rewarded for that because by

10:02

doing that people get to know you people

10:04

see your quality people know what you're

10:06

capable of people trust you and it

10:10

really has been what has led me to every

10:13

kind of advancement that I've had in my

10:15

career I can pinpoint I think it's

10:18

because of relationships that have been

10:20

developed yeah there's definitely a

10:21

lesson there in both personal and

10:23

professional development uh so does that

10:26

mean that the learning curve when you

10:27

went from you know public service and

10:30

government to your current role at the

10:31

boisee Metro chamber was the learning

10:33

curve shrunk because of all these

10:35

experiences and relationships you had I

10:37

would say honestly the biggest learning

10:39

curve for me is when I moved from DC

10:43

from federal government and when into

10:45

state government that was a big shift um

10:49

the expectation is much different on a

10:51

state level the expectation for a

10:53

governor is much different than on a

10:55

federal level because you're closer to

10:57

the people and there was a huge learning

11:00

curve like I remember it was my first

11:02

day and I think I started it in November

11:05

and the chief of staff at the time Jason

11:07

Kerbeck came in to me and he said hey I

11:09

needed to get a meeting with the

11:10

governor and all the Constitutional

11:12

officers and I was like yeah on it I had

11:14

to Google I didn't even know what a

11:15

constitutional officer was I'm like what

11:17

is he talking about right who are these

11:20

people and so it's just it's much closer

11:23

and there's a big learning curve right

11:25

of getting to know you know obviously

11:28

you have to learn how the governor's

11:30

office works but how the how all the

11:32

agencies work how the legislative

11:35

process is the judicial process I mean

11:38

it's just all the way down to like City

11:40

County tribal I mean you're interacting

11:42

with so many different levels that it it

11:45

was that was I would say a a learning

11:48

curve from from that perspective I will

11:50

tell you going into this job I felt very

11:54

fortunate having the relationships that

11:57

I had I know a lot of people right and

12:00

so having that has been really helpful

12:02

also my time at the Department of

12:04

Commerce really I think set me up pretty

12:06

well for this job just in the sense of

12:09

kind of the economics of it and you know

12:11

the business component of it has been

12:13

really helpful um but there has been a

12:15

learning curve for sure too I've never

12:17

worked in an association world so I've

12:20

had to learn a lot about membership and

12:22

a lot about sales we have leadership

12:25

programs you know a lot of those things

12:27

so so there has definitely been a

12:29

learning curve but I do think my

12:32

experiences in working in the state for

12:34

as long as I did and just knowing a lot

12:36

of people knowing how a lot of things

12:38

work and

12:39

operate gave me a little bit of an

12:41

advantage in this job I think yeah me

12:44

many in the business Community heavily

12:47

rely on local Chambers but many in the

12:51

general populace probably aren't

12:53

familiar for me for example I spent way

12:55

too long thinking that the Bank of

12:57

Commerce and Chamber of Commerce were

12:58

the same thing so for those who were are

13:01

as ignorant as I am can you give us a

13:04

101 on Chambers how they work and why

13:06

they operate yeah so you know Chambers

13:09

are really their business associations

13:12

right they're they're a place where

13:14

businesses come together and they come

13:16

together for different reasons but

13:18

Chambers are facilitators of

13:21

conversations of ideas they are a place

13:25

where you come to be Community Advocates

13:27

they're a place where you can get

13:29

members together to talk about issues

13:32

that matter to the business Community um

13:36

they're a place where you can foster

13:37

Future Leaders you know I think Chambers

13:41

are we do a lot of uh connecting a lot

13:44

of

13:45

advocacy um a lot of partnering you know

13:48

it's really an association where you can

13:50

come together and belong and we have a

13:52

little bit of something for everyone and

13:54

you know at the boisey Metro chamber we

13:56

have a pretty big membership base and

13:59

you know we have membership from very

14:02

big businesses to very small businesses

14:05

we have businesses that are in retail we

14:07

have businesses that are in finance we

14:09

have businesses that are in healthare

14:11

manufacturing so on and so forth and

14:14

they all join a chamber you know some of

14:16

them for different reasons but a lot of

14:18

it is to be part of something and that

14:20

has been the coolest thing I think for

14:22

me in this

14:24

job is especially in this in the metro

14:27

area is

14:29

the generosity of our business community

14:32

and how much they give back I mean they

14:35

really are the factor that we are doing

14:38

so well in the Treasure Valley is

14:39

because of that generosity I'm kind of

14:41

embarrassed that I wasn't aware of how

14:43

generous they were and all of the

14:45

wonderful things that they do and I

14:48

think that's one of the coolest things

14:50

and things I've really enjoyed the most

14:52

about this job is is really getting to

14:54

have more of a role in the community and

14:56

and being part of keeping the community

14:59

the place we all like to live work play

15:03

and where people like to come visit yeah

15:05

can you highlight some of those may

15:07

maybe just some odd examples of where

15:09

you've seen local businesses uh show

15:13

this sense of

15:14

generosity well I mean you see it

15:17

firsthand right at for a chamber right

15:19

we're membership do based we're events

15:21

based and they always show up right

15:23

they're always there supporting us at

15:25

the different entities of things that

15:26

we've done I've gotten to really

15:30

get to know a lot more about our

15:31

nonprofit community in the Treasure

15:34

Valley and in Idaho uh this past year

15:37

and you know all of them have certain

15:39

events or fundraising levels that they

15:42

do and they all get success because they

15:46

have great Partners from our business

15:48

Community another example is in Idaho I

15:51

can think of or I'm sorry in in the

15:53

Treasure Valley I can think of five or

15:56

six Capital campaigns with some

15:58

nonprofits right off the top of my head

16:00

they're all being successful they're and

16:02

these are Big projects and they're all

16:04

being successful because of that

16:06

business support that you know

16:08

investment that their business Community

16:09

is making it's just it's really eye

16:12

openening and it's really cool and it

16:14

makes you realize that it's kind

16:17

everything's kind of bigger than us

16:18

right and one thing that's been kind of

16:23

something I've thought a lot more about

16:25

is okay now what do I need to be giving

16:27

back right how can we give back how can

16:29

I individually and how can the chamber

16:32

give back and so we're we're coming up

16:35

with ways of how we can highlight the

16:37

nonprofit sectors and things like that

16:39

to to be give back like our our partners

16:43

do and I'm so glad you you brought this

16:45

up because you can't really go to a

16:48

local school or the symphony or a sports

16:51

event without seeing uh you know

16:53

businesses who are willing to put their

16:54

name on things to are willing to try to

16:56

make the community better but it's not

16:58

all one-sided they need something back

17:00

and it's not just our patronage but as a

17:03

voice for business they also need

17:05

government to work in a certain way in

17:07

what ways have have you decided that

17:10

it's important for Idaho to better

17:11

foster the business

17:14

Community well you know I think that's

17:17

one of the biggest things it's one of

17:19

the things I'm the most excited about in

17:21

this job because it's it's you know my

17:25

it's where I came from and that's that's

17:26

government that's advocacy right and how

17:29

can we how can we be the voice you know

17:31

we get to be the voice for business and

17:33

so how can we be better at that and

17:36

Advocate better for them and I think a

17:38

lot of it is too is how do we ensure

17:40

we're the voice for all of our members

17:42

right and so one of the things we're

17:44

really trying to do is we have

17:46

committees and councils broken up

17:47

education Transportation all the

17:49

different big issues making sure that

17:52

we're listening to the members that

17:54

participate in that so we know the

17:55

challenges that business is facing right

17:57

now and so that's the first thing right

17:59

you need to know what those challenges

18:02

are for your

18:04

membership um you know some of the

18:06

things we're dealing with here in the

18:07

metro area is you know transportation

18:10

and homelessness and things like that on

18:12

a community level and so really being

18:15

engaged in understanding and being at

18:18

the table at those conversations you

18:20

know someone said to me what do you want

18:21

to see the chamber in in a year what

18:25

success for you and and really obviously

18:27

it's membership we need to Main mainin

18:29

membership and continue to grow but I

18:31

also want the boisey chamber to be

18:32

someone that everyone's like they need

18:34

to be at the table for these discussions

18:36

right like we need to be part of the

18:39

conversation and so it's understanding

18:42

our members needs it is maintaining

18:44

relationship with uh government

18:47

officials from all levels from State

18:49

local and federal having those

18:51

relationships so when there are those

18:53

issues that our members are having we

18:56

have the opportunity to sit down and

18:57

have those convers ation and then just

19:00

making sure we're present right we got

19:02

to make sure we're present when these

19:03

conversations are going on and

19:05

partnering I'm a huge advocate for

19:07

Partnerships and that's one thing I've

19:09

really tried to do this past year is get

19:11

out to our other associations members

19:14

you know folks like us and say hey let's

19:16

partner how can we work together because

19:18

I really think we're better together and

19:21

you know high tide floats all boats or

19:23

whatever that saying is I truly believe

19:25

that so it's kind of a a there's diff a

19:29

lot of things we have to do but it is

19:31

something for me that is a it's a

19:33

priority and I think it's a real benefit

19:35

for being part of a chamber is is having

19:38

a strong voice yeah and you you

19:41

referenced earlier the the learning

19:42

curve between the expectations of

19:45

working in Washington DC and then at a

19:47

state level and I I'll I'll fill in the

19:49

Gap that I'm I'm guessing the references

19:51

the expectation in DC if something

19:53

doesn't move gridlock is you know kind

19:55

of the the the it's it's the normality

19:58

right it's

19:59

it is whereas in in Idaho especially in

20:01

Idaho the expectation is that uh we will

20:04

have a balanced budget that the governor

20:06

will be able to step up and help with

20:07

whether it's infrastructure needs or

20:09

great programs like launch or cutting

20:10

red tape and all the things that you

20:11

were involved with it's kind of the same

20:14

in your role now in that businesses are

20:17

less concerned about the partisanship

20:18

but the expectation is that they they

20:20

need they need uh solutions to

20:23

infrastructure Workforce things like

20:25

that do you find yourself kind of pulled

20:27

between the needs of the businesses and

20:30

then a willing and welcoming government

20:32

to help solve

20:34

them you know I think so far we've been

20:37

successful right you know a good example

20:40

of one of the things that we have been

20:42

huge advocates for is Idaho launch uh

20:45

continue to be advocates for Idaho

20:47

launch I think from the business sector

20:49

obviously Workforce and the talent is

20:52

you need the people without the people

20:54

we not successful um and you know that

20:57

has been a successful program

20:59

again I think it goes back to having

21:01

those relationships and you have to be

21:03

able to have conversations and you have

21:08

to know that maybe sometimes you're not

21:09

going to get exactly what you want but

21:11

maybe you hopefully you can meet in the

21:12

middle and so right now I think we've

21:15

felt pretty good right um you know as as

21:18

there's been things that we've advocated

21:20

for and I think we're going to continue

21:23

with that approach right is how can we

21:25

help move the process forward how can we

21:28

engage our members and the business

21:30

Community to help move things forward

21:33

how can we if you know there's things we

21:35

don't agree with how can we be at the

21:37

table to say okay this is why this is a

21:40

problem for the business Community how

21:42

can we work together to try to you know

21:45

come to Solutions and I know that

21:46

doesn't always happen right and uh I

21:49

think we've been fortunate you know in

21:51

this the past year that you know it some

21:54

of the things we really cared about

21:55

worked out in our favor and you know

21:57

we'll see as we're going into the next

21:59

legislative session of of things that

22:01

we'll be watching and following but it

22:04

is all just it's a it's kind of an

22:06

approach of how you take it and just

22:08

making sure we can be part of the

22:10

conversation is something that I know

22:12

we're going to really work hard on Yeah

22:15

you mentioned the upcoming legislative

22:17

session I know one of your goals in the

22:19

vision is you kind of took the lead at

22:21

the the Metro chamber was to have a

22:23

larger presence in the State House are

22:26

there certain and I know that that's

22:28

largely due to as you referenced the

22:30

importance of relationships it's not

22:31

there to twist arms it's it's there to

22:33

keep those relationships alive and well

22:34

but are there certain legislative issues

22:36

that you already know that the the

22:38

chamber is going to want to have a voice

22:40

on yeah I mean I I go back to Idaho

22:43

launch um Idaho launch will be one that

22:45

we continue to advocate for to ensure

22:47

you know it continues to get funded

22:50

that's a program that the business

22:51

Community just really supports so we

22:54

always watch those um you know urban

22:57

renewal there's typically always an

22:59

urban renewal Bill and those give us

23:00

some concern we like watching you know

23:03

we support tax cuts right those benefit

23:06

our businesses things related to

23:08

Transportation you know education I

23:10

think will be a big topic this year and

23:13

you know part of that is being present

23:15

is it's it's you know making sure you're

23:18

paying attention but you hear things by

23:21

that collaboration by talking to people

23:23

you gain information so you can better

23:25

relay that information to your members

23:27

about what's going on and try to have a

23:29

plan we have a policy committee that

23:32

meets once a week uh during the session

23:34

and they're a very active committee so

23:36

we're excited you know now that I've got

23:38

a gear under my belt and you know

23:40

feeling settled and and I'm really ready

23:43

for this session because I think it's

23:44

going to be fun and I've got a great

23:46

team here that is ready to kind of roll

23:48

up their sleeves and be part of it but a

23:51

lot of it too is to be present is you

23:52

gain so much information because you

23:54

hear things from people right it's you

23:56

know a pass in the hall or you see

23:58

someone or sometimes it's just giving

24:00

you're like oh what's that person doing

24:02

here right and uh so I think just being

24:06

around and present it's it's really

24:09

important and it just it'll allow us to

24:12

make sure we know exactly what's going

24:13

on so we can relay that to our

24:16

members yeah for for those listening who

24:19

uh whether they live in the Treasure

24:21

Valley or other parts of Idaho who have

24:23

suddenly gotten excited about the idea

24:25

of their local Chambers what what advice

24:28

would give for anybody who now wants to

24:30

participate business owner or

24:32

not yeah I would say you know reach out

24:35

to your local chamber and and just see

24:37

what they can offer you uh have that

24:40

conversation um it never hurts to ask

24:42

and explore things you know I think one

24:45

thing too I want to highlight is I go

24:48

back to Partnerships and working closely

24:51

with my treator Valley Chambers as a

24:53

priority of mine uh the chambers of so

24:57

boisey n Meridian in Caldwell yesterday

25:00

as I'm sure October 16th everyone knew

25:03

was National support your local Chamber

25:05

of Commerce day and so we did kind of a

25:08

progressive series of events all day

25:10

which was really fun and I'm excited

25:13

about that about that partnership right

25:16

you know is anyone who lives here knows

25:19

the Metro we're we're becoming just one

25:22

right and again working together we're

25:26

just better together and and so I'm

25:28

excited about those Partnerships but

25:30

yeah if you're interested or kind of

25:32

curious you know what a chamber could do

25:35

for you you know reach out go to an

25:37

event you know get go sit down and and

25:40

you might walk away say maybe that's not

25:43

for me but it might be an opportunity

25:46

that you're you want to

25:48

explore I love that great advice so

25:50

we've got a long list of things that

25:52

next time you come on the podcast when

25:54

when you have have the time we would

25:55

love to dive into but we know how busy

25:57

you are when we wrap up we want to make

25:59

sure that there's a tradition here on

26:01

the podcast we do with our guests for

26:02

their first time where we put them on

26:04

the spot and we quiz them on one book

26:06

they've read in their life that they

26:08

would recommend uh to anybody out there

26:11

so is there a book Bobby Joe that you

26:13

think would be lifechanging for any of

26:15

us oh my goodness a book that would be

26:19

lifechanging no pressure do you have any

26:23

other questions that you

26:25

ask I don't know if any of the books

26:28

that I've read have been

26:31

lifechanging I think uh your old partner

26:34

in crime Alex Adams he we always

26:36

reference that's not fair you can't com

26:38

you can't compare the book question to

26:40

me and

26:41

Alex Alex not only did they have a lot

26:43

but they all sounded uh very boring I'm

26:46

sure there's a better way to word that I

26:47

think he referenced putting his daughter

26:48

to sleep with the regulation books he

26:50

would read her at night he gave me a

26:52

book for my birthday one year and I was

26:55

like you know I it's I mean huge it's I

26:57

don't even

26:58

know and he was like I

27:02

know okay so I take it you haven't read

27:04

that birthday present yet no I haven't

27:08

um there is I will tell you and I'm I

27:11

wish I could remember the name of it but

27:14

when I took this job there was a friend

27:16

of mine in uh North Idaho uh who was a

27:19

CEO of um of a hospital at the time and

27:23

he sent me a book uh and in the note it

27:25

was you know it's very lonely at the top

27:28

and it was a book kind of about right

27:30

like when you're the leader of an

27:31

organization it can be lonely and you

27:33

know there's a lot of decisions and

27:35

things you have to to do and so I read

27:37

that book and it was actually very

27:40

helpful um and I've used some of those

27:42

Concepts throughout the year and it was

27:45

it was good I think to prepare me for

27:47

what I was going into but I can't for

27:49

the life of me remember what it was

27:50

called but it was good come it'll come

27:52

to you the second we stop recording

27:54

that's kind of how it works but yes that

27:55

does sound like a very value book well

27:57

there is one another question that we do

27:59

ask that that's a little easier and more

28:01

topical because we're all about

28:02

supporting local businesses so are there

28:05

is there as you've traveled around the

28:07

state uh a hole in- thewall restaurant

28:09

that you would advise whether it's in

28:11

the boisee metro area or somewhere else

28:13

that everybody if they're right there

28:14

they probably should stop and

28:18

try I will tell you um in all of my

28:24

travels it's not so much a restaurant

28:27

it's just the experi experience I think

28:29

everyone in Idaho needs to go to Wallace

28:32

Idaho the center of the universe that is

28:35

what I will say on that lovely

28:37

restaurants lovely amenities but Wallace

28:41

is a place that I think everyone should

28:43

should see if you live in Idaho wow

28:46

we've had a lot of people sidestep that

28:47

question we've never had anybody give us

28:49

a whole city though so well done Bobby

28:51

Joe I love that K that's the

28:53

advertisement for the tourist Department

28:56

of Wallace Idaho go visit the center of

28:57

the

28:58

I love it thank you so much for your

29:00

time thank you for the you know over two

29:02

uh well over decade at least in the in

29:04

the Idaho governor's office and and all

29:06

the great your work doing with the

29:08

businesses over in Boise Metro we can

29:09

see it and we appreciate it thank you I

29:12

appreciate the opportunity okay until

29:14

next time

29:18

[Music]

Local Idaho

Episode 10 Kate Simonds—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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Head of Lift Local Idaho, Kate Simonds, joins us for episode 10 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast. As an emerging leader in the Gem State, Simonds outlines the mission of Lift Local Idaho to improve quality of life, economic development, and inform Idaho communities of public policies. As Idaho continues to see growth from outside the state, Simonds advocates for local option taxes to give voters the agency to decide what their community needs.

Listen On Apple Podcasts
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Listen On Spotify
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Follow Along With The Transcript

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0:00

welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast where we talk about the issues that matter to

0:05

[Music] you welcome back to another episode of

0:12

the Idaho Main Street podcast we've got a pretty impressive guest here with us today an emerging leader in the Gem

0:18

State the the head and leader of Lyft local Idaho the one and only Kate Simons

0:26

how' we do I get all those words right Kate that was perfect Perfect Look at that okay we're off to congratulations

0:32

you're the first K Kate was briefing me beforehand and making sure that um I pronounced everything correctly and now

0:38

we can have fun because I said everything correct once so now if I mess it up again H that's okay right yeah

0:44

that's great it's what post productions for right perfect so Kate uh we're really excited to talk about your

0:49

organization today lift local Idaho all the great things you're doing in that space But first a little bit about you

0:55

born and raised in Idaho graduated from Timberline High School in boisee but then dipped off for a little bit and

1:02

educated at UC Berkeley what was that experience like going from education in

1:08

Idaho to then education at Berkeley of all places you know it was brutal and I

1:13

also think it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me uh it would be hard to imagine a more different

1:20

culture than going from from Idaho to to the Bay Area during the uh you know I

1:26

moved in in 2015 so it's during the the presidential election during black lives

1:32

matter uh during pretty significant culture shifts um in in the area and

1:38

across the country so I I really saw the spectrum of political ideology uh and it

1:45

was a you know like being being thrown into a uh thrown into a a pool with a lot of

1:54

sharks I would say but I learned so much I learned so much about myself I learned so much about my own beliefs

2:00

and uh I feel really grateful for my time there and also feel really grateful to to be back here because I think it

2:06

made me a lot better uh at my job yeah and I love the analogy of you in the

2:11

pool with the sharks I think at times we look in Idaho at the US versus them and

2:16

we have to Discount everybody that's not us but there is some significant value as you mentioned in in being somewhere

2:22

else and then particularly coming back home what was it about uh Idaho that

2:28

brought you back it's the quality of life I really think that I I measure this all the time you know I'm somebody

2:34

who's really Enchanted by I I've done a lot of travel and I'm somebody who you know every time I go to a new city in

2:41

the first five minutes of being there I think wow should I move and every time I touchdown back home I'm so grateful to

2:48

be here I'm so grateful to be able to be on my bike in five minutes to be on my

2:54

skis in half an hour uh I love saying hi to everybody uh on the street um it's

3:00

just a a great place to be and I I just know that anywhere else I might move in my life uh it would be an erosion of

3:08

quality of life so it's hard to imagine myself leaving yeah it it does take leaving to to appreciate home we had

3:14

sender r on the podcast and he talked about wanting to uh make it a requirement for every uh you know

3:21

college freshman or senior you know some in their youth to go live in a different country for a period of time I think he

3:27

particularly said a communist country he said they'll come back and appr apprciate the country and well that may be um a pretty Stark requirement I think

3:34

that whenever people travel they appreciate Idaho a little bit more yeah

3:39

yeah I mean I think it's important to leave also uh to appreciate other places and and recognize how we might grow um

3:47

that's kind of the the Crux of the work that we're doing is is focused on focused on growth and I've learned a lot

3:52

about what I think cities and communities could and should look like based on the Travel that I've gotten to

3:58

do so I'm really great for those experiences and um also really grateful for for the community that we we have

4:05

here and the diversity of communities that we have across our state yeah I think that's that's a beautiful preface to the work that Lyft local Idaho is

4:12

doing uh so this is an organization that that you lead that meets at this this perfect intersection of public policy of

4:21

Economic Development and of community in involvement or Community organization and those three things are all essential

4:27

parts of enacting institutional ch change but also just general Improvement of if you want to get things fixed and

4:33

better that's the place to be and that's where your organization is yeah that's a that's a beautiful

4:39

introduction to our organization I I get to tell people all the time that I think I have the best job in the State uh a

4:45

huge part of my job is getting to travel around the the state of Idaho a friend of mine jokes that I'm Idaho's Johnny

4:52

Cash because I've been literally everywhere uh I spend so much of my time on the road visiting various communities

5:00

uh you know I've been to dozens and dozens in the in the two years that I've been doing this and uh man I just really

5:06

I really love our state and I I love getting to be at the epicenter of that work uh and it's it's such a broad

5:12

conversation as well right like you mentioned that we work in quality of life we work in Economic Development we

5:18

work in public policy and what I've found is these are are really emotional

5:23

conversations because Ians are so protective over this these communities

5:29

that we've built and we're very protective over our quality of life which I think goes to show why the work

5:35

is so necessary and and so important um and it makes the it makes the job it makes the conversations really really

5:41

meaningful because I get to be one of the people one of the many people across the state doing this work uh getting to

5:48

help them protect that and and bolster that and despite all of the challenges that our communities are facing you know

5:56

relating to growth or not uh I get to be one of the people to say I'm I'm here to help you maintain what you love about

6:02

your community uh and it's it's just really influential work really impactful and for our younger listeners we'd

6:09

encourage you to go on Spotify and listen to the song I've Been Everywhere Man by Johnny Cash they're probably missed that

6:16

reference but I caught it don't worry Kate I caught it thank you now then walk us through a little bit about the

6:22

mission so lift local Idaho has a fantastic name right it uh envelops the

6:28

imagery of of elevation of of rising up and then The Branding is awesome the

6:33

logo everything's cool but that's really just the paper tiger of it uh there's actually a a meaningful and passionate

6:40

Mission talk to us about why that exists and why you care so much about it yeah

6:46

uh first of all thank you for complimenting our branding I can't take credit for that that was done by by our

6:51

friends at Drake Cooper here in boisee and what I love about our logo is we have a mountainscape like like many you

6:57

know nonprofits like many organizations based and Idaho have in their logos but what we have is a a corner cornered off

7:05

uh triangles making up this mountainscape which are meant to represent the different regions of our

7:11

state um and what I love about that is that Idaho is you know relatively small

7:17

we're I mean a big state geographically but we don't have that many people and what we know in this work that we've

7:23

that we've done and in the research that I've done is these regions could not be more different but together we have this

7:29

this this shared state that we're all really proud of so uh thank you for for complimenting the the logo I think it's

7:35

a it's a great one um but yeah our lift local Idaho we were we were founded in

7:41

officially in in 2023 unofficially in 2022 by Casey Lynch who is the CEO of uh

7:49

roundhouse and our mission is to give all voters in Idaho the choice and the tools to directly impact uh and address

7:56

their unique Community needs um and this is of course uh including but is a is

8:02

not uh limited to the expansion of local option Authority which is uh kind of our

8:09

our our big thing right now so we're focused on uh who can utilize local option Authority who might use it in the

8:15

future and what that might look like for the state so I care a lot about this work um because as I as I've said and as

8:23

as you introduced me I am a lifelong idahoan I love it here um and in my my

8:29

travels with this job I have had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of conversations with idahoans across the

8:36

state whether they're you know concerned citizens their Business Leaders their

8:41

legislators their you know City administrators um whoever it might be

8:46

everyone really cares about Idaho everyone really cares about their community and they're also very aware of

8:53

the problems that their communities are facing idahoans are are in tune uh with

8:59

what's happening happening at home and they share those stories with me I carry those stories with me in in the work

9:05

that I do in the advocacy work that I do um and I I just care I care a lot about

9:10

about this work personally and selfishly I just I love it here I I want to

9:17

protect this state I want to protect the city that I live in um and I want to make sure that future Generations get to

9:23

enjoy it as much as as much as I did Growing Up So I'm really proud of the the work that we're doing and um really

9:30

hoping that we can continue with this mission of just letting cities have the ability to invest the in themselves the

9:37

way that they want to yeah and and when you talk about allowing these cities to

9:42

have the resources and tools they need to put government closer and closest to the people uh it feels good and it

9:49

mirrors a lot of what we see in campaign season when the Flyers show up in our mailbox and you know it seems like most

9:56

if not all candidates support local control and want to return as much power

10:01

back to their local leaders so you referenced um you know local taxing Authority uh you know the the ability

10:08

for taxing policy to be a solution to some of these growth challenges and for those of who aren't familiar with this

10:14

mechanism or this resource which is a vital part of what your organization is looking to do give us the oneone on it

10:22

sure so uh the tool itself is called a local option tax the formal name for it

10:28

is a non-property local option sales tax so what it looks like um in many of the

10:35

other states in the nation 37 of them including 56 of Idaho's neighbors the

10:41

exception being Oregon which does not charge any form of sales tax um it's also something that's used internally in

10:48

Idaho as well in 22 of our communities here those are all Resort uh Resort

10:54

cities with fewer than 10,000 people uh it's it's a local option tax so you

10:59

might you may have heard of it as a a penny tax or a tourist tax ultimately what it is is a tool where a city can

11:07

increase sales tax by a quarter percent up to a percent and that addition that

11:14

additional sales tax is maintained locally to be used on infrastructure and public service projects so a lot of the

11:21

time you'll see it for things like Street repair uh water police fire and

11:27

so on but what is unique about a local option tax is that is ex it is extremely

11:32

transparent the it is designed to be extremely transparent so it has to be voted on by the voters in in a specific

11:41

region so in you know various uh case studies across the country you see this happening at the city level at the

11:47

county level whatever ultimately voters have to know what the additional sales

11:54

tax is they have to know exactly what the project is or what the project projects are and the predetermined and

12:02

uh mandatory Sunset period so voters have all of that information before they are given the option to vote Yes or no

12:10

and ultimately the buck stops with them so a city like uh the city of Twin Falls

12:16

for example they're kind of our quintessential case study for what local option could look like in the state of

12:22

Idaho where they have a population of just over 50,000 people on any given day

12:28

in additional 100,000 people come into the city of Twin Falls which means that

12:33

public services are diluted for residents of twinfalls it also means

12:39

that property taxpayers in the city of twinfalls are paying for the infrastructure and public services to be

12:46

provided for the additional 200% of the population that comes in on any given day so they need more police they need

12:52

more fire they need more water they need more Broadband they need more education all of the things that fall within this

12:59

basket of infrastructure uh and so if the city of twinfalls wanted to they could increase sales tax by up to a

13:06

percent uh and that depends on on what the city of twinfalls would want to do and ultimately uh I have been told by by

13:15

um their team that that could raise up to almost $16 million a year for the

13:21

city to provide those services and the City of Twin Falls if they chose to uh

13:27

because they of course are already gener generating that funding in in property taxx Revenue they could potentially

13:33

decrease property taxes for the folks in their area by up to 40% so it really

13:39

looks like a diversification of of funds for the city um and so Twin Falls is is

13:46

a a really great example because they need this funding right they they want to provide the highest quality of life

13:51

possible for the folks the the residents in their area who are already paying these property taxes and and love the

13:58

city of twin Falls that they live in um in their most recent City survey they actually were able to ask this question

14:05

to their residents and say what do what do you think about two things one should we have the option to do this and two

14:12

would you vote Yes if if we were to put this on the ballot and what we saw was

14:17

that 70% of those respondents supported the idea of Twin Falls having the option

14:24

to ask their voters if they would like to enact the tax um and so we we know

14:29

that that is is a really popular idea um within cities and uh yeah we're we're

14:36

excited to be able to offer that as an option potentially and really become the forum for those for those discussions to

14:42

happen in all cities across the state whether they look like fnf Falls whether they are a University Town like

14:48

Pocatello like Rexburg like Moscow or whether they're a rural area with maybe

14:55

they've got a a pizza parlor and they need to stripe the the roads if they can

15:00

get a percentage of sales tax earned in their area that might be the uh be the

15:05

reason why they're able to maintain or improve the quality of life for the people who love and live there yeah I

15:12

think that's a great explanation of the tool is we dig in a little bit more to our our libertarian listeners uh they

15:18

love two-thirds of that right they love local they love option but you lost them at tax help us understand you you

15:25

referenced a few times the value of being able to reduce taxes out where you also referenced the tax burden shift I

15:32

mean and I'm binging the the Kevin Costner TV show Yellowstone and so a lot of this is ringing true of this idea of

15:38

having Outsiders come in and maybe take more of the tax burden than than the residents uh all this seems very nice

15:44

but why is this tax policy at times actually the fiscally conservative

15:51

option yeah thank you for thank you for asking that question you know a lot of the time you hear folks especially I

15:59

would say in in the state of Idaho saying that we should run government more like a business and the um the

16:06

truth of that if that if that were to be the way that things were right now in places like Twin Falls in places like um

16:14

I mean really any city that has any sort of it's on some sort of Transit Corridor maybe there's tourists whether they are

16:21

out of state or Regional you have people coming through town in a place like twinfalls for example where they maybe

16:28

have 200 to 250% of their population coming into their town on or the size of their

16:34

population coming into their town on any given day if it were a business it would mean that they're charging only a

16:41

quarter of the customers that walk through their door and so it doesn't make a lot of sense for us not to be

16:48

charging and diversifying who is paying for these infrastructure and those public services so from a business

16:54

standpoint that's that's the wrong thing to do right we also know that cities

16:59

because we are are limited they're Limited in what they can do uh to fund these infrastructure and public service

17:06

projects right they can either increase property taxes that's

17:11

the the tool that they have which is is limited right they can only do that up to a certain percent they can ask for

17:16

funding from the state or from the federal government which is not a not a popular choice either or they can

17:23

withhold from investing in in those Investments to begin with and we know

17:29

that delaying those maintenance costs can actually make those projects way more expensive down the road so the

17:35

number that I often I often see in my research is up to 600% projects can become up to 600% more

17:44

expensive if we kick the cost down the road uh and choose to deal with it at a

17:49

later point and that's just not something that is is the fiscally responsible choice right we know that

17:56

someone is going to have to pay for water services at some point someone is going to have to pay for roads for

18:04

police for fire for a new squad car whatever it might be uh and the right

18:09

choice the the cheapest Choice the the most fiscally responsible choice is to take on those costs as they come up um

18:16

not only because that's the best thing to do for for our residents and their quality of life but also because it's

18:22

the uh it's the cheapest choice and the timing of this matters because we have almost become a

18:28

inoculated to the phrase that Idaho is experiencing unprecedented growth to the point that we just kind of all accept it

18:35

but we almost all need to just take a breath and acknowledge that Idaho's unprecedented growth matters and at lift

18:42

local Idaho you you all talk a lot about how there's a right way to manage and

18:48

experience growth and there's a wrong way to grow and you know we're not we're not counting heads as people come in and

18:54

say okay sorry uh we're full for a little bit come back later it's coming and most these cities and these local

19:00

communities have to just inherently be reactive to it and as you reference the

19:05

idea of deferred maintenance and it's everything from you know roads and bridges to police and schools and all of

19:12

these complicated challenges that come as a result of growth what is the wrong way to manage growth and what is the

19:18

right way to manage growth right well the wrong way to manage growth is to ignore it and hope it doesn't happen and

19:24

I think that the truth of the situation and it it's it's hard for some people people to believe and it's it's hard for

19:30

some people to hear but Idaho is growing because Idaho is great and we've done a

19:35

really fantastic job building out a set of values that we all share we've done a

19:42

really great job building a quality of life that people are attracted to and people are moving toward uh families

19:48

want to be here young people want to be here um some retired people want to be

19:54

here of course businesses want to be here and if we ignore growth it means

19:59

that we are going to have skyrocketing property taxes later on we're going to have eroding infrastructure we're going

20:06

to have worsening traffic we're going to have overcrowded schools and we are going to have a quality of life that is

20:12

increasingly vulnerable and that is not going to affect whether or not people

20:17

move here people are going to move here because it's beautiful because we're familyfriendly because our economy is great we we know those things to be true

20:25

and so we know what we need to do is address that growth headon make sure that we're ready for it and make sure

20:31

that we have the systems in place and the tools in place to make sure that we're we're capable of handling that

20:36

growth when it comes and the local option tax is a key resource to help

20:42

manage that growth right it's one of the key resources to help manage that growth uh local option is is certainly not a

20:50

silver bullet for the state um you know not all of our our cities even have a

20:55

business that charges sales tax so it's it's not something that is a prescription it's not something that is

21:01

going to fix all of the infrastructure needs that we have so we know um because

21:08

uh of the research that we've done and we actually have a really cool tool on our website that we built out in

21:15

partnership with the association of Idaho cities and a group called Clearwater uh where we were able to

21:21

survey Idaho 200 cities and get a sense of what their infrastructure needs are

21:27

and we turned it into an interactive dashboard so it lives on our website and it's really cool because you can filter

21:33

by type of need by city by District by County by zip and really understand what

21:40

the needs are across the state um and what we found is first of all we have an enormous amount of needs at the at the

21:47

city level so uh with about 75 75% response rate we saw about $4.8 billion

21:56

in unmet infrastructure and public services needs uh so that's billion with with a B that is a a massive number and

22:03

is a I I think a bit of a jump scare it feels almost unfathomable how big that

22:08

number is but we also know that almost half of that is water related right

22:14

these are these are drinking water and and Wastewater needs and about 95% of water infrastructure is paid for

22:22

at the local level so that's scary right we know we have a lot of cities across the state have needs that will need to

22:30

be funded exclusively at at the local level and what we we learned is that

22:36

actually rural cities are disproportionately burdened with the task of taking that on because if you

22:42

have a town of 200 people your water project might

22:47

be $23 million it might be $30 million and if you have a larger population

22:52

you're able to distribute that amongst the population right who who pays for it but if you have a couple hundred people

22:59

there's no way that a small town like Gooding for example which is you know facing a um they they need a new a new

23:06

water infrastructure system they have a $23 million project the only way that

23:11

they are able to to do that is by potentially tripling the water bill for

23:18

the residents who live there so we know that local option is a is a great option

23:23

to be looking at for cities like Gooding cities like we see cities like Moscow

23:30

Rexburg Ammon cordelan um a lot of these Pocatello even a lot of these

23:36

communities that have a a tourist population flowing through whether they're there you know to go to they're

23:43

they're on their way into Utah they're going to Pocatello for a soccer game they're going up to Moscow for for

23:50

homecoming weekend or maybe they're doing what I did last weekend they're driving up Highway 95 and they stop into

23:58

to a gas station to uh get a snack and and fill up the tank on on the way up to

24:03

a work trip right there are people doing all having all kinds of movement across the state and if cities are able to

24:10

capitalize on that um as they as they should be right um then it will allow

24:16

them to help fund those infrastructure needs so it really is a conversation of

24:22

it it's not a conversation of should all cities have a local option tax it's

24:27

could they and and do they have the right to and that is the conversation that lifw Glo is is really uh excited to

24:34

facilitate so there are people listening right now who are hearing this and say yeah makes sense uh it gives the it

24:40

gives transparency it gives local power to local voters to decide whether or not that's a mechanism that they want to use

24:46

for funding and then the the question is with the percentage of approval that

24:52

you've talked about and just the common sense layout of of such a a fiscal policy why has there not been more

24:58

movement on this front yeah it's a it's a great question um you know I was up in

25:04

I was up in Moscow last week having a conversation with a bunch of businesses on on this exact topic and there was a

25:10

woman in the audience that said um you know I didn't really know what I was getting into today but I actually saw a

25:15

presentation similar to this in the 80s and it was uh you know it's funny right

25:22

it's it's clear that there have been a lot of people who have been shepherding this conversation for a long time time

25:28

and llo Glo is certainly not the first group to be taking this on and I'm in a

25:35

position where I get to look at at all of the efforts that have preceded me and

25:40

I get to assess what worked what didn't work what can we what can we do differently and that's why we're taking

25:46

such a unique approach we're a a business-led coalition first and foremost we're a nonprofit and I would

25:52

say arguably most most importantly we are we're Statewide and so we know that

25:58

there are a lot of people that have been left out of the conversation there are a lot of needs that did not exist

26:05

previously that are now at a Tipping Point uh and there are just a lot of people who have moved to the state since

26:10

these these conversations have previously happened that deserve to have a voice in this conversation so previous

26:16

efforts uh previous efforts have failed of course um which is which is why we're we're taking on this work now and I

26:24

would say the the answer to that question is because um despite unilateral or I guess

26:33

Universal excuse me um despite this sort of ubiquitous support from cities from

26:40

chambers from advocacy groups from Economic Development groups from citizens from people who are adjacent to

26:47

politics or adjacent to business folks who understand that our quality of life

26:53

is at risk and our infrastructure needs are reaching their their tipping points these are things that have been true for

27:00

a very long time yes the the severity of those needs has become more uh

27:06

significant yes the the salience of the topic has increased but ultimately the

27:12

reason why this has not been successful

27:17

legislatively is because the legislature has not wanted us to be successful we know that there are legislators who

27:24

believe and have believed for a long time that this is a decision that should not within within cities so it's a

27:30

really uh paternalistic relationship I would say between the legislature and and cities and cities are asking for

27:37

more cities have always been asking for more and this is this is why the conversation has been going on for

27:45

decades and decades at this point uh to which I respond with you know when are we when are we going to stop wasting

27:50

time talking about this if this is what cities are so desperate for if Idaho is really that much of a home rule state

27:57

then the legisl should take property tax relief seriously and infrastructure

28:02

funding seriously and let cities have what they're what they're asking for and have been asking for for decades um this

28:08

is within their power to to address those things with with one swipe um and they they haven't done so so uh we know

28:14

that there are a lot of legislators who are really eager to to work on this we recently finished our uh candidate

28:22

survey for the general election coming up I have heard from a lot of legislators that they're really excited

28:27

to work with us on this and that there are a lot of legislators who care a lot about the the communities that they

28:33

represent and so there's there's movement uh we know that progress is is incremental in this space and it's it's

28:40

really about moving the needle which is why we have set ourselves up to build a

28:45

a long uh a long on-ramp so we're not introducing legislation in 2025 uh we

28:51

might not introduce legislation in 2026 um we have a lot of relationships to build and frankly a lot of Education

28:57

work to do we know that the word tax is scary to folks and no one wants to be

29:04

charged more and we know that everyone is hurting right now and what we're our

29:10

primary focus is is really not to do not to do any harm so we have a lot of work to do to do the research we need to do

29:17

to make sure we're building a tool that will effectively work for for communities across the state and a lot

29:23

of uh education work to do and relationship building with legislators to get them to understand that yeah this

29:30

is something that has focused on boisey in the past it's something that has this tool the conversation around local

29:35

option has focused on things like transportation in the past and we're really hoping to be Shepherds of a much

29:43

broader conversation to discuss all infrastructure whether that's Transportation whether that's water

29:49

whether that's Public Safety whether that's education um and include all regions of the State uh to make sure

29:56

that this is something that ultimately you know will impact idahoans the way that we want it to so if I'm a legislator who doesn't

30:06

support um you know this this mechanism or or cities being having the autonomy to kind of make these decisions briefly

30:14

explain to us what my thought process is in opposition to this yeah well you know

30:19

the first thing I want to say is that it's fine if people don't want to have a local option in their city that is okay

30:25

it's not my job to tell a city what to do with their economy with their

30:31

money with their finances that's not up to me nor should it be right I'm not I'm not the Arbiter of this policy but I do

30:39

believe that every city should have the same toolbox regardless of what their economy looks like regardless of who's

30:46

in their City who's coming into their City who's leaving their City how many people live there what their industry is

30:52

we think that all cities should have all communities really should have the same access to tools

30:58

and that seems to me to be a pretty Idaho in value so I would first and foremost say to those legislators do you

31:06

agree with that right should every city have have equal access to these tools and ultimately whether a city chooses to

31:13

use this or not is up to them and I'm excited to be setting up a a long paper

31:19

trail of research for them to be successful with those campaigns should they choose to endure them later on uh

31:27

but right now again the conversation should focus on should cities have the right should communities have the right

31:32

should Counties have the right to even ask their residents this question so the

31:38

the Crux of this isn't necessarily okay do you agree or disagree that your city should have this tool um the answer is

31:46

that not every city it doesn't make sense economically for every city to be able to utilize this and what is so

31:52

great about the tool itself is and the way that it works now and what we're hoping to expand is that it is extremely

31:59

malleable so you look at a an area like um Valley County you know you have Mcall

32:05

you have Cascade you have Donley all of these communities have the ability to utilize local option all of them apply

32:12

it differently and use the funds differently based on what their Community needs and where they're

32:18

getting their financing where those tourists are are coming from and so that's really what we're we're hoping to expand is let cities do what they do

32:26

best which is know themselves right so that is the first thing that I would want to to say to a legislator in

32:32

opposition is okay great uh if if this is something

32:37

that you're personally opposed to that's fine maybe your city is opposed to it as well maybe your population is opposed to

32:43

it in addition that's fine but shouldn't we all have equal access to the tool and

32:49

I believe that most legislators would say yes no legislation coming so all of our

32:54

legislative listeners can take a deep breath knowing that you're not going to come knocked down on their door with with a piece of legislation but to

33:00

listeners who the listeners who are suddenly uh born again now when it comes

33:06

to local option tax and just these General conversations surrounding uh

33:11

growth and empowerment of cities what can we do H how do we get involved is there a spot for us in the

33:18

Coalition first of all I love the phrase uh Born Again local option supporters that's

33:23

hilarious I'm hoping I'm hoping to convert all of you um yeah there's a there a few ways that that you can get

33:29

involved the first thing is just having a conversation with me as I've said I spend a lot of time on the road getting

33:36

to travel the state and I would love to come speak to to you to whoever's

33:41

listening um reach out to me and and let's let's have a conversation about what your what Your Community needs are

33:49

and if local option might be uh might be a good tool for for your community so I

33:55

often speak in you know various settings I'll speak with Chambers I'll I'll do presentations even down to things like

34:02

lions groups for Lions Clubs um I'm all over the place and would love to would love to to come to your community it's

34:09

it's my favorite part of my job so reach out to me uh join the Coalition if you'd like to there's a a few tiers of of ways

34:16

that you can be involved whether you're a a supporter an advocate or a champion

34:22

and ultimately that just looks like joining the conversation and and doing what we can to to educate folks on on

34:29

what this might look like uh in the years to come and to learn more your

34:34

website is lift loal idaho.org lift loal idaho.org and the best part of Kate

34:41

coming to visit is not only is she gonna speak but she's gonna bring her dog

34:46

olive and Olive is a Springers spanel adorable we were bonding earlier on our love for Springers now Kate since this

34:52

is your first time on the podcast there's a few things we have to do to initiate you number one is we got to commit you to coming back next time we

34:58

got to get you in studio because you've been everywhere so you're going to have to come here in studio and have an interview so that's step number one

35:03

perfect do I get a walk song yeah it's gonna be uh Johnny Cash so you got it but we expect you in Black

35:10

next time all in black okay that's a Johnny Cash reference for our younger listeners that was not me telling

35:15

anybody what they should and shouldn't wear okay number two uh you've been everywhere so we have to know as you've

35:21

been traveling through Idaho what is one little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that you've been to that you would recommend

35:26

if somebody is traveling through through that town they need to try that place this feels

35:33

proprietary you can add a you can add a disclaimer I do I I have a I have a list

35:38

on my phone of of spots that I found whether they're I I love I love Hot

35:43

Springs um I'll I'll visit different hot springs or different Trails um I love to

35:50

uh you know put the put the skis in the car the bike on the car and um ex get to

35:55

explore our our our state as we uh as I as I take on these work trips um let's

36:03

see oh I think it was in the vice presidential debate one of the candidates looked at the other and said that is a daming non-answer and that's

36:09

what I'm going to throw at you Kate is that was a daming non-answer I don't want to give away my spot that's all

36:15

right well how about you what what's worse uh giving us your favorite Hot Springs locations or your favorite

36:21

restaurant locations I don't know the answer to

36:27

that okay there there's a really really great Hot Springs between

36:33

um I don't know if I can give this to you brenon all right well we're gonna we're gonna work on some trust okay

36:40

let's build some trust here on some trust um let's it uh you know what I

36:45

this is this is a really is not a unique answer but I love

36:51

to get a hot fudge milkshake at my father's place uh after skiing at Brundage or after any sort of uh

36:59

activity near Mcall so we'll use that answer we're gonna take that now the second question gets

37:06

harder so if you struggled with that that one we're in big trouble Kate book

37:11

recommendation one book that you would recommend our Millions our hundreds of millions of listeners right now uh I

37:18

mean List yep we got a lot of people listening what is the one book you would recommend that everybody needs to go out

37:24

and read because it will change their life does it need to be Idaho related I

37:29

I mean I read a lot of books on a on tax policy these days um that director Adams

37:38

when we had him on he told us about reading about regulations to his daughter to put her to sleep at night so

37:44

if it's something as dry as that we'll take it but we will also judge you in the process no no no I I've got I've got

37:50

interesting uh let me think you know I

37:59

I love I'm gonna you know what I'm going to do is I'm going to uh highlight a a local author uh I really really loved

38:07

Cloud cucko Land by Anthony dor uh who uh identified a a fake mountain town uh

38:16

in Idaho and a lot of this book takes place in it and it's it's about you know

38:22

protecting the natural environment it's about um doing what we can

38:28

to create and protect a sense of home uh and I just I just really loved it um so

38:35

I'm going to say cloud cucko Land by by Anthony dor Cloud Cuckoo Land yeah all

38:40

right well we can we haven't had that one come up yet very much about supporting our public libraries which is

38:47

something that I'm really passionate about so uh shout out shout out Tony door and uh and our our public libraries

38:54

and our public spaces I love it Kate you have been so so generous with your secrets today as well as your time we

39:00

appreciate your inaugural session on the Main Street podcast we've got you committed to coming back and coming in

39:05

studios we love what you've taught us today about the power of local control and the ability and tools that can be at

39:11

people's disposal this is the first of many conversations as you go out and build relationships we hope that we too

39:17

can be at the table and help you in your endeavors but until then thank you so much and we'll look forward to seeing

39:22

you and the adorable little puppy next time you got it see you Idaho Falls

39:27

thanks Kate [Music]

Idaho Education

Episode 9 Idaho Superintendent Debbie Critchfield—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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Joining us in-studio for episode 9 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast is Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, Debbie Critchfield. The Superintendent makes a pit stop to Idaho Falls while touring throughout Idaho educational facilities for her quarterly evaluations. Among the recent funding improvements for schools and infrastructure passed by the Idaho Legislature, Critchfield outlines her own recommendations to bolster school safety, how to handle excessive student absences, and promoting parent choices for their children's education.

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Peace Making

Episode 8 MWEG Director Emma Addams—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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The Idaho Main Street Podcast takes the show on the road to Salt Lake City, Utah, to chat with the Director of the Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Addams details the beginnings of the nonprofit organization, as well as its goals to empower women from all denominations to approach government ideology through a lens of ethical peace making.

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Improving Child Welfare

Episode 7 Alex Adams—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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The newly elected Director of the Idaho Health & Welfare Department, Alex Adams, is our special guest for episode 7 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast. As the former Budget Chief for Governor Little, Adams lends his background leading the zero-based regulation initiative to discuss how the Idaho Legislature has streamlined regulatory processes. He additionally highlights the immediate steps he's taken as the new director to improve child welfare for adoptions and foster care.

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0:00

Welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast where we talk about the issues that matter to

0:05

[Music]

0:10

you welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast we are fortunate today uh to have a fantastic guest somebody who has

0:18

a great reputation throughout the state former budget chief for governor little and recently named director of the idah

0:24

Health and Welfare Department none other than Alex Adams Mr Adams thanks for joining us glad to be here thanks for

0:30

having me we were just reminiscent on uh we met at a you know a rambunctious and

0:35

exciting party reorganization meeting where neither of us uh needed to be there and we got to be like the two

0:41

Muppets that sat up and ate the popcorn and watched the show it's been a it's been a fun Journey

0:48

working with you over the years yeah we've come a long way from then uh you know you've got a reputation not just in

0:54

boisee but throughout the state as somebody who's a doer and I'm excited to get into a lot of the accomplishments

0:59

that been able to have your fingerprints on certainly you know your boss Governor little uh you worked for him it was his

1:05

leadership but but your fingerprints when we talk about the governor's Legacy we'll be on a lot of it and I think the

1:11

biggest one we always hear about is the way that Idaho became the least regulated state in the nation talk us

1:18

through how that came to be I I imagine it wasn't just a a one light bulb moment that you all sat down and said hey maybe

1:24

we should cut all this government red tape but but give us some insight to how we got to that point yeah I mean it it's

1:31

talking about Journeys I mean that also has been uh quite the journey and something that evolved over time so I

1:37

mean kind of my background prior to becoming the budget director for the governor I used to just be a simple pharmacist you know dad Grandpa Great

1:44

Grandpa all pharmacists I pursued the the pharmacy profession and you know Pharmacy's one of the most regulated

1:50

professions at the state level so I always say you know all you have to do is read your 100 or so pages of Pharmacy

1:56

law and suddenly you'll have libertarian tendencies because you know many of them

2:01

don't make sense you know in a lot of States you know they get as granulars detailing how many square feet you have

2:07

to have per employee and things like that so my first job in state government was running the Board of Pharmacy and we

2:15

took our law book from a 100 pages of regulations down to about 25 and in so

2:20

doing you know demonstrated that if you cut regulations if you get government out of the way good jobs follow and

2:27

there's no uh you can do so without having any public uh safety issues so we

2:32

got rid of you know 75% of our regulations at the Board of Pharmacy and then we started to see Amazon moved some

2:39

of their Central operations to the state CVS moved some of their Central operations to the state uh we had

2:44

pharmacies including you know in Eastern and Rural Idaho uh open Tel pharmacies

2:49

to expand access to communities that had never had pharmacies uh for quite some time and you know kind of became one of

2:56

those success stories for regulatory reform so uh fast forward new governor gets

3:02

elected in Fall of 2018 and uh when he asked me to run the

3:07

the Budget Shop one of the conversations we had was federally uh the the federal budget shop OMD the office management

3:14

budget oversees both budget and regulation so we started the conversation about could there be more

3:21

of a regulatory role for the budget job similar to what has happened uh

3:26

federally and if you remember the governor's first state of the state speech um he announced that regulatory

3:33

reform was going to be one of the priorities of his administration and he uh announced that he would be doing an

3:39

executive order uh with a two to one regulatory cut any new regulation had to

3:45

be offset by a cut in two regulations kiring what the Trump administration had

3:50

done the year prior and my recollection this might be you Wishful revisionist

3:56

history is that was the loudest Applause line of that entire State of the State so um probably a

4:04

selfs serving recollection but uh uh it was one of the first things he did it

4:10

was one of his first executive orders that he signed upon taking uh his his governorship so it was a deliberate um

4:18

approach and wanted to replicate frankly what we had done at the Board of Pharmacy across All State agencies I

4:25

don't know that uh anyone thought it would become what it did but uh that's that's where some of us becomes happy

4:32

accident so Idaho under its administrative procedures act had a

4:37

provision that all regulations have to be renewed by the legislature annually so usually at the end of every

4:42

legislative session there's kind of a throwaway bill that was run saying every regulation that precedes this date uh

4:49

continues for the next year and uh for one reason or another in 2019 um the legislature did not pass

4:57

that going home bill so every regulation sunset on June 30th of 2019 so that kind of took the governor's

5:06

uh preconceived notion about regulatory reform in the executive order that he issued and frankly put it on steroids

5:12

and it flipped the script in a way that was really healthy rather than having to look at regulations and find those that

5:19

we thought didn't make sense and then go through a process to get them off the books every regulation was going to die

5:26

by default and then agencies had to expend effort justifying what they

5:32

wanted to keep flipping that burden of proof was an absolute GameChanger no longer did energy and effort have to be

5:38

expended deciding what to cut now energy and effort had to be expended deciding

5:44

what to keep and suddenly drawers of regulations were no longer necessary I

5:50

mean things as flippant or silly as a dress code for Deputy State veterinarians or female kickboxing

5:57

uniforms or a chapter of regulations on snails that didn't exist in our state suddenly we didn't need those and um

6:04

Governor said you know this is a healthy process you know let's flip that script permanently and he set up you know an

6:10

orderly process through a new executive order called zerob based regulation and here we are yeah here we are and the the

6:17

idea of flipping that burden of proof I think is is fascinating uh for those of us that you know weren't in the room

6:23

where it happened but if it were easy I think governors in past would have done

6:28

it I I I think maybe you you might have simplified a little bit how difficult actually was it to be able to sift out

6:35

these are necessary regulations we need to hold on to and then these ones uh we might be able to let slip you know

6:42

everybody's definition of necessity differs slightly so you know I think

6:47

what what the governor did really well is he set up different accountability mechanisms So within each agency he made

6:53

each agency designate a rules review officer because there's a lot of agencies my current one included that

6:59

has many different divisions you've got a division of Public Health a division of Medicaid a division of public or

7:05

Behavioral Health and child welfare and you want a singular person who has

7:10

responsibility across all of those to kind of be that neutral checkpoint on what really is necessary versus what is

7:18

not I would say the first year was probably the easiest because I mean

7:24

agencies in Idaho have been issuing regulations since you know 50s 60s and

7:29

there had been a lot that just accumulated over time and clearly were not necessary but nobody took the time

7:35

and energy to take them off the books so yeah there's there's a say that I've adapted for regulations it's regulations

7:42

rise like rockets but fall like feathers it's a lot easier to add them than it is to take them off because of that I mean

7:50

some of the the silly ones I mentioned earlier we had you know a lottery game show that uh was envisioned in the 80s

7:57

but never aired you know just a lot of things like that all of those came off the books on June 30th 2019 so that

8:03

first cut was the deepest to borrow a song title I mean I think Governor got rid of 1,800 pages of regulations that

8:12

first year now again most of those were Silly most of those were unnecessary so you could debate how much incrementally

8:19

Freer was Idaho by getting those off of the books what I think it did is it got

8:25

the fluff away and put a a brighter Spotlight on what remains and when you put a brighter Spotlight on

8:31

what remained and then you chunk it up like zero based regulation did where 20%

8:37

of all rules sunset in any given year and the agency has to go through the process of

8:46

rejuso Reform that we've seen a lot of work went into uh reforming our

8:51

occupational licensing Rags we're now top 15 in the country in terms of Occupational licensing we pushed hard on

8:57

our Charter regulations we're now top 10 in Charter School regulations in the country so I think clearing away the

9:02

fluff getting rid of the filler putting a brighter Spotlight on what remains created an orderly process uh by which

9:10

regulations can now be properly vetted and discussed with the public and all necessary stakeholders moving forward U

9:18

it's worked so well you know I've got this chart where again it shows about uh

9:24

you know from from 96 uh to 2018 average was about 100 pages regulations being

9:30

added Statewide then you take 1,800 pages off we had a moratorium here and

9:35

then zerob based regulation we're cutting you know two to 300 Pages annually now under this and regulation

9:41

is at the lowest level in recorded Idaho history and what's crazy too is there's you know some national groups that

9:47

publish like regulatory indexes and Idaho keeps widening our Gap we're already the least regulated State and we

9:54

keep going down other states are generally growing just at lower Paces but the gap of our deregulation is widen

10:01

and what what's you know probably the most important thing to note and this is a testament to how Governor L set up the

10:08

process there's no documented instances where regulation has been removed that

10:13

uh led to Patient harm you occasionally see snark online where you know an incident happen somewhere in the state

10:19

and somebody says that's because we're the least regulated State the incidents that they're referring to had no overlap

10:26

generally with uh state regulations so I mean I think uh the way zbr was set up

10:32

uh did it the right way for the right reasons and it's paying off dividends and you know I attribute that to some of

10:37

the draw of businesses reloca Idaho remote workers wanting to live in a low regulatory State the cost of doing

10:44

business here the friction of doing business here and I I think it's had a very positive feedback loop yeah and I I

10:51

appreciate the the context there that you know a lazy Governor could just cut every regulation and we would see really

10:57

some probably dangerous side effects of as you mentioned patient harm uh but the

11:04

goal of this was to lighten the heavy hand of government you referenced It generally the positive effects of it can

11:10

you give us some specifics as you talk about what kind of businesses came in you referenced when it came to the the

11:15

work on the pharmacy and the these businesses coming what have you seen overall as some of the effects of what

11:20

the governor's done with cutting the red tape yeah so uh what's interesting about regulations I mean you know I'll I'll

11:27

give you a preamble to answering your specific question every regulation has to be authorized by a statute so

11:34

legislature passes statutes and then agencies promulgate rules to fill in the details of those statutes so rarely are

11:40

you going to hit a home run or a grand slam through deregulatory generally you're hitting Texas League signals and

11:46

occasionally double if you will so I mean you almost have to go chapter by chapter you know agency by agency so

11:53

I'll tell you some of the singles or the the the doubles that i' I've seen child care my agent regulates child care we

12:00

used to have a ratio of 8 to1 for non-infants we expanded it to 9 to1 for non-infants study after study nationally

12:07

shown there'd be no safety issues for non-infants but what it did is with a

12:13

stroke of a pen we have 6 to 700 daycare Statewide that adds six to 700 seats to

12:19

daycare Statewide for no additional investment the state put0 and0 cents in

12:25

and conceivably could expand daycare seats 6 to 700 Statewide

12:30

any of your listeners have kids they know the weight list and the challenge of finding suitable daycare so I would

12:35

contend that that that created opportunities that didn't exist otherwise quite a bit with telea health quite a bit with h physician assistant

12:42

to physician ratios uh quite a bit to make it easier for retired nurses to come back to the profession just given

12:49

you know some of the the burnout that we saw during covid if you go to a athletic event at boisey State and have enjoyed a

12:56

beer while while cheering on the Broncos that was a regulation there used to be a regulation prohibiting alcohol sales at

13:04

those types of events and now it's probably one of the more popular things to do with those events so you know just

13:10

you know expanded use of technology for hunting and fishing and you know things like that so um what was really

13:19

impressive with how Governor little unveiled this is ultimately the governor

13:24

is not uh adopting regulations regulatory Authority is vested in the agencies and often boards and getting

13:31

the agencies and the boards uh to build this into their DNA and make this part of their agency ethos and you know him

13:38

to reinforce it through cabinet meetings and through uh uh his staff reinforcing

13:44

it as they met with agency heads it's uh what I I made a chart one time I should

13:49

dig it out but you know there's about 60 agencies naho that had rule making Authority they could issue

13:56

regulations um from 2012 to 2018 uh only like five agencies out of

14:02

those 60 had a net reduction in regulations through that time and I will proudly say the Board of Pharmacy which

14:08

I ran was one of those after the implementation of zero based regulation

14:13

every single agency in the state cut regulations on the net and they've sustained it over the five and a half

14:19

years the governor has been in office every single agency um so there's not one that has added regulations since

14:26

this Governor's been in office in fact the average state wies about a 3 uh2 33%

14:32

cut um it varies some agencies get 100% of their regulations I was one of those agencies at dfm and then when I ran the

14:38

charter commission we get 100% uh there's other agencies I think the low is like 18 to 20% Then you look at those

14:45

agencies like oh yeah that makes sense 18% cut at the board of sex offender management yeah that makes sense we

14:51

don't want to let cut a lot of regulations a 20% cut at the Department of Environmental Quality that makes

14:57

sense you know they do some uh pretty important things with air and water quality and we don't want to seed our

15:02

Authority back to the EPA in their ham-handed ways so you know what what's really cool is every agency took it

15:09

seriously made a meaningful difference gave a good story to tell within their Industries but did so responsibly

15:16

working with the public working with the regulated Community working with the stakeholders to make sure that safety

15:22

issues did not materialized yeah you've got to be thrilled looking back at how that process played out

15:29

I Source you know some of the stuff behind me is you know the big pair of scissors uh demonstrating our cut so but

15:37

you know the the coolest thing is if you talk to any of these agencies or you talk to the governor I mean a lot of the

15:42

philosophy is and we're still just getting started we've got two more years left to zero based regulation then the

15:48

legislature ins sconed it and law to make it a permanent process moving forward so I think you'll see that trend

15:54

line continue to to chip downward love it yeah and our small business owners listening will be excited by that um I

16:00

guess uh now I just recently learned Alex where the term red tape comes from are you familiar with it uh didn't they

16:07

used to buy government documents and red tape it's exactly it yeah and so the the

16:12

the term is to get to the heart of the government problem and get it get the get the bureaucracy out of the way is

16:18

you cut the red tape to get into the documents a fun fact for the day now then you not only were involved in a lot

16:25

of regul deregulation and you communicated very well the by product of that for the average idahoan but you're

16:31

involved in a significant number of legislative priorities and issues and we don't have the time to get into a lot of

16:37

them but needless to say a large part of your job working for the governor was dealing with the legislature

16:43

particularly jfac anything that had anything to do with funding you you kind of to lend your voice too you were you

16:50

know in the the metaphorical room where it happens you were cutting deals and trading horses and you were involved in

16:56

a lot of really big things that weren't necessarily uh that couldn't have

17:01

happened unless you made them happen talk us through the philosophy of what it's like working across an ideological

17:07

Spectrum in the legislature with very different personalities knowing that you needed for the governor to be able to

17:14

cut deals and get the get the ball across the Finish Line yeah I mean I I

17:19

would say I I had an easy job because my boss Governor little uh was a budget guy

17:25

by by heart I mean he would always talk about um he intered for jfac our joint finance and Appropriations Committee in

17:31

the 1970s and he would talk about how we had to calculate budget documents and fund shifts and all those things by hand back

17:38

then so he knew the budget in and out perhaps better than anyone in the state

17:43

which made it a lot easier for me to to do my job um we would know coming into a

17:49

session what his priorities would be and he also knew like the governor also had

17:55

been in and around the legislature for years interned for it in the 70s his dad served in the body he served in the body

18:01

he presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor he knew that the way to get things done was to work together

18:08

and not presume uh to have uh all of the answers so we would generally come into

18:14

the session with a concept like this last session Governor wanted to make a big uh investment in school facilities

18:20

he announced over a billion dollars in funding for school facilities you know and we didn't come in with a bill

18:28

pre-draft if we would have had our own school facilities Bill and say this is the bill and only this is the bill we would not

18:34

have been successful what the governor did really well is he would outline general concepts of things that were

18:40

important for the state and they were generally in tune with what uh the electorate wanted and therefore the

18:46

legislature was interested in and he would also limit how many asks we had in any given session because he knows you

18:52

can only do a couple big things in any legislative session so he would outline

18:58

big Concepts and the dollar amounts and fit those within a structurally balanced

19:03

budget where we wouldn't be taking on debt we wouldn't uh be making short-term moves and uh then gave his staff the

19:11

latitude to work with the legislature but then would involve himself in a very Hands-On manner working with legislators

19:18

uh working on uh you know uh statutory language and things like that so I I

19:23

would say my job was Made Easy by uh by my boss and I was fortun

19:29

to have somebody who is that uh ingrained in in the budget process

19:34

what's something about the working with the legislature that most of our listeners probably wouldn't

19:40

understand how committed they are I mean I I I think you know uh there's a

19:45

tendency you know for some of the Oddities to to attract headlines I if you think of some of the headlines this

19:52

last session I mean how many things did you read about cannibalism and whatnot but you know if if you're in the

19:58

legislative Arena if you're going to legislative hearings daily you're going to find a lot of committed folks who are

20:04

public servants at heart who are there to do the right things for the right reasons and you know too much of the

20:10

reporting is on the horse race aspect of it or The Oddities aspect of it and not

20:16

enough about the day-to-day stuff I mean there were so many good bills that passed in recent years that you know

20:22

frankly never got the coverage they deserved I remember tax credits for child care and you know things like that

20:29

that people probably don't know really happen but um there's a lot of solution oriented problem solvers and um we were

20:37

fortunate to work with many of them to to get some good things done for the people of Idaho yeah that's I love that

20:44

message we we talk a lot on the podcast of the damages of only covering like the

20:49

salacious the loud the you know because that draws eyes and attention and that's what but sometimes the boring stuff is

20:55

the most important stuffff and you kind of lend it there so love love hearing that let's talk about the new gig you

21:01

got named as the Director of the Department of Health and Welfare for those that don't know this is a very

21:07

large operation you're running over there over 3,000 employees a budget of what over five and a half billion

21:13

dollars is that right yeah exactly right so h i mean talk to us how you felt when you first uh I assume the governor

21:20

approached you on it yeah I mean um my background was Healthcare as I said I started my career as a pharmacist so in

21:26

many ways this is Back to the Future for me um I I saw an opportunity here I

21:32

don't think any Department in the state well there's no Department as big in terms of size or budget uh but it's also

21:39

an agency that touches so many lives often at their most vulnerable time of need we run child welfare we run

21:44

Medicaid we run food stamps we run um you know programs to help people with

21:49

car repair and other things that you just wouldn't expect uh through Department uh of of Health and Welfare

21:56

and you know these programs need to work they need to work well and um I I

22:03

thought I might be uniquely positioned to make a difference just giv kind of my background experience in state

22:09

government getting things done as well as kind of the the health care interest and and passion well you didn't waste

22:15

much time I mean it was day one uh you got to work you lived up to the reputation as a doer uh you immediately

22:23

came in and there were some positions uh 100 plus positions that were vacant that you recognized as redundant and

22:29

unnecessary and so you cut cut those positions but um more importantly you started doing some work with adoptions

22:36

and Foster uh that I think drew a lot of well-deserved positive attention anybody who's dealt with foster homes or

22:42

adoptions it they view it from a different lens but not enough people have dealt with it so I think it's

22:48

important for for you to help those that are not aware of what's going on in Idaho with uh Foster hor shortages or

22:53

the adoption costs walk us through what you've already done and what you plan on doing then

22:59

yeah well um because of an agency of this size um if you try to do everything

23:04

you're not going to do everything well I mean a lot of what I've I've tried to do is I said in addition to my start doing

23:10

list I want all my Deputy directors and division administrators to have stopped doing list so that we can take off

23:16

things that are less important less necessary because I want my team to spend a disproportionate of time energy

23:22

and focus on improving child welfare so uh and that's child welfare broadly uh

23:29

but in terms of where I started adoption and Foster Care was the initial focus on day one uh hour one minute one I waved

23:37

all fees for adoption uh through the department I don't want there to be any barriers to adoption of children in the

23:44

custody of the department and knowing what uh adoptive parents go through I didn't want application fees I didn't

23:50

want home study fees I didn't want there to be any barriers to entry to somebody who wants to open their home and their

23:55

heart uh to a child in need and then foster care um we have about 1,400 kids

24:02

in foster care and 1100 K uh families to take care of them um simply put we need

24:09

more Foster families uh so we've engaged in what I kind of call the colon Powell

24:14

shock and awe approach to have a total agency focus on improving uh foster care

24:21

we cut red tape and Licensing and got rid of some of the silliness we used to have a rule about having a 4 foot fence

24:26

around bodies of water if you're going to be a foster parent makes sense for Pools and Hot Tubs how many rural Idaho

24:33

properties have you driven by a 4- foot fence along the entire irrigation or Canal so we got rid of a lot of that uh

24:39

we worked with Governor little to do paid family leave for foster parents um

24:45

we uh are doing Innovative Partnerships like we're sending out free parks passes

24:50

through generous contribution from region Blue Shield and Idaho businesses for the outdoor to get uh opportunities

24:56

for family bonding for foster family and just kind of recreate you know a traditional family environment and since

25:03

I started when I started we had about 74 Foster families for every 100 foster kids as of Monday this week we're at 85

25:09

Foster families for every hundred foster kids so things are moving in the right direction but we've got a long way to go

25:17

um I don't want to give the impression that we're doing this alone a lot of this has been because of the thoughtful

25:25

oversight of of the legislature part why this was on my radar screen was

25:30

legislative oversight hearings that have happened this year and in recent years legislative oversight reports from the

25:36

office performance evaluation so I think you know to the extent my leadership

25:41

team has had success in this issue is it's because we're standing on the shoulders of a lot of committed passionate legislators who have brought

25:48

this topic to the Forefront and said we can and must do better uh just this this past session I I believe it was

25:55

representative Rael ran a bill designed to address the too many kids that we had in short-term rentals in congregate care

26:02

settings and I would I would be remiss if I didn't say that bill is working the

26:08

number of congregate care kids has gone down precipitously uh since I started because some of the parameters uh that

26:14

were outlined in that bill so I mean this has truly been an area where the legislature uh through oversight and

26:21

through issue attention has done a good job of bringing this issue to the Forefront and me having a leadership

26:27

team that had some ability to execute it within state government with a very supportive Governor cheering us on along

26:35

the way and nudging us along the way is it the fact that you're a father

26:40

have a have a of a child at home does that play a role in in prioritizing the importance of child welfare or is are

26:47

you able to switch hats as clean as some can well without a doubt it plays a role I mean my daughter's five and a half and

26:54

it's really important to her that I reveal the half and and uh she you know

27:00

I look at the opportunities that she has by virtue of what my wife and I do and and the supportive family structure that

27:07

we have and you know frankly the fact that we have local grandparents to watch her during the day or pick her up from

27:12

soccer practice not everybody has that and I'm mindful of that and I want every

27:17

child to be able to grow up in a loving home a supportive home a nurturing home and have the resources that they need to

27:24

develop and grow and be successful and so I I I think you know my focus on

27:29

child welfare is intimately you know connected to my my own family circumstances and um you know I it's not

27:38

lost on me uh that what I want for her I want for every child in the state of

27:43

Idaho I and I I think many parents listening can appreciate that I I recently started studying about you know

27:50

certain presidents of what their intention was when they came into office and how that changed once things happen

27:55

in office I think a great example that is George W who had these great domestic plans and then 911 hits and everything

28:01

changes that's maybe uh somewhat comparable to what happened to your predecessor who uh could not have

28:07

predicted what a pandemic would do to to that department are there things like that that keep you up at night where you

28:14

think okay what knowing how vast the responsibilities of your department are do you are you concerned about what

28:20

could come yeah so you know when I prepared for this job I actually got calls from you know several other state

28:29

uh Health and Welfare equivalent directors uh was able to chat with a former US Secretary of Health and Human

28:35

Service and everyone says come in with your priorities but know that circumstances will always be foisted

28:41

upon you that might take you away from those and you have to work with your Governor your governor's office the

28:46

legislature to determine when do you have to Pivot from those there's no question that covid dominated uh State

28:53

Health and Welfare agencies uh you know from 2020 through 2023 and frankly

28:58

Health and Welfare agencies used to kind of be sleepy backend you know agencies that existed but were not front-facing

29:05

you know highly visible and I think it forever changed how people will look at

29:10

State Health departments and in so doing we have to be mindful of that we have to be mindful of the increased transparency

29:17

on us and the increased accountability that taxpayers deserve uh from us so you

29:23

know while I've focused on child welfare you know one of the things we talk about as a leadership team is what would take

29:29

us off that course what would cause us to pivots I mean you know we've been tracking h5n1 we've been tracking you

29:35

know a lot of the ambient conversations out there and you know making sure that

29:41

um we're following we're responding to appropriate events uh but um we're

29:47

fortunate that we've been able to maintain a high energy a high octane offense on child welfare for the three

29:53

months that I've been here and uh intend to continue that until circumstances

29:58

dictate otherwise yeah and there are many of us who are cheering on from the sidelines

30:04

as we've watched you you know not just in this role but previous roles come in and exercise leadership and advocate for

30:11

causes that we care about is it your preference that those of us who want to see you succeed just uh Advocate through

30:18

our legislators for causes that are important to us or are there outlets where those listening can say okay I

30:25

have some thoughts and some feedbacks that would uh potentially help that department and

30:30

if so is there is there a way we can reach your team certainly reach out to to me and it's just my name at dw.

30:38

idaho.gov I've spent quite a bit of my time the first three months talking to external entities particularly Foster

30:44

families and I my deputy and I estimated that we've personally talked to 10% of

30:50

the Foster families listening to them hearing their issues hearing their concerns because you can't build

30:56

Solutions without hearing from those who are directly affected uh by the problems

31:02

that you're trying to address I mean any and all feedback I welcome you know certainly you know there's a distinction

31:08

between the legislative and executive branches but I would say there's a healthy distinction I mean what we're

31:13

focused on you know frankly has been uh covered by years in legislative oversight hearings and legislative

31:19

oversight reports so I mean certainly um encourage folks to work through their local legislators as well because

31:26

nothing gets an agencies attention quite like a call from a legislator saying hey I heard from a constituent this uh so um

31:34

I think that's why the work you and uh the members of the legislature do is so important because they hold us

31:40

accountable and uh we go to them asking for uh resources and policy changes and

31:48

the more they're hearing from constituents as to the why behind those requests I think it's a healthy

31:54

symbiotic yet distinct uh relationship any chance I can get to get a

31:59

constituent uh spun up and and call in your office is is a good day for me so we'll we'll keep working on that now

32:05

Alex uh one of the traditions we have on the podcast is when when we have a time to do it we love to ask our guests uh

32:12

about a book that they've read in their life that they would recommend everybody and of course we always have to put them on the spot to do so so putting you on

32:18

the spot is there a book that you could recommend that any of our listeners should read in their lifetime well uh my

32:26

wife will jokes I have piles and piles of books I have more books now than I have bookshelves and something about

32:32

reading physical hard copies is still uh so uh important to me I haven't been

32:37

able to switch so I mean um I'll I'll give you a couple just because of how many books I have first you know from a

32:45

leadership standpoint uh what I've been working through with my leadership team is a book called the four disciplines of execution and general premise is you

32:53

know if you try to do everything you're not going to do everything well sharpen your focus this uh have a wildly

32:59

important goal put a disproportionate amount of time and energy towards that and then once you've achieved that let

33:05

that fade into day-to-day work and then pursue the next goal so I think you know

33:10

a lot of hopefully what you're seeing from the Department is US following that Playbook and hopefully following it well and successfully to the betterment of

33:17

public health and safety for idahoans in terms of regulatory philosophy I'd be remiss not to delve into some books

33:24

related to regulatory reform probably the most interesting book for me it's a short read you can even find a

33:29

PDF of it free online it's a book called permissionless Innovation it's by Adam the at the time of writing he was a

33:36

faculty member at uh the marcada center at George Mason University and it talked

33:41

about different philosophies of Regulation and how do you regulate in a fast-paced you know technologically

33:48

changing environment and it talked a lot about allowing permission to be the

33:53

default and uh using courts and others to reconcile some of those safety issues

33:58

and not regulating in advance and preventing good solutions from coming to the marketplace and I think it

34:05

transformed a lot about how I viewed the role of a regulator and what the role of

34:10

permission uh versus prohibition is and um it's really written uh with

34:17

technology regulation in mind but I've been able to apply it to a lot of fields including some of what I currently

34:22

oversee so those are the two books I'd uh I'd recommend and I will immediately

34:28

after hanging up kick myself for not revealing five other books but uh

34:34

um I'm I'm really hoping that those are not the books that you read bedtime for

34:39

your daughter and maybe that does help her fall asleep but that might not be the ideal uh nightly bedtime

34:45

story you know ear early on uh when she was really little you know we would just

34:51

read anything uh to her because I mean you're trying to form vocabulary and just words and I remember my wife Tak a

34:57

picture of me reading a book to her that was literally called how to regulate so as I said uh she's five and a half but

35:05

she's currently cutting regulations at a third grade level so I'm very I love that hey I so I just

35:11

finished uh the anxious generation have you got your hands on that one yet I have not I I recommend it'll it'll scare

35:18

you uh you know it's social media it's technology in the hands of this generation so with a daughter that's

35:25

cutting regulation she might find it interesting so you'll have to pass it on I'll check it out Alex we know how busy

35:31

you are we know how much you're working on not only do we appreciate your time we appreciate everything that you have accomplished in your previous role with

35:37

Governor little and what you're doing now to to help Idaho family so we hope to have you back on as as a lot of these

35:42

priorities that you're focused on come to fruition but until then uh we hope you know how much we appreciate your

35:48

time thanks so much appreciate what you guys do thanks Alex till next time

The Integrity of Idaho Elections

Episode 6 Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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Idaho Secretary of State, Phil McGrane, joins our host, Brennan Summers, for episode 6 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast. Following the 2020 election, Secretary McGrane explains how election security is continually bolstered to maintain the integrity of Idaho elections. In addition to preparing for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, Summers and McGrane highlight the importance of primary elections and how to engage more Idaho citizens with more information and voter turnout.

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Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (00:00):

Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast where we talk about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast. We are thrilled today to have a much anticipated guest that we've begged for years and years to come and join us. A barbecue award-winning Grill master, a self-described election junkie and Idaho's Secretary of State, none other than secretary Phil McGrane. Phil, thanks so much for joining us.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (00:32):

Thanks. I'm glad to finally be here.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (00:34):

Yeah, it's good to have you. So I don't think most Americans on average would be able to name who the Secretary of State is, and I think that probably holds true of I Idaho. Is that fair to say that the Secretary of State is one of those constitutional offices that most people might not know what they do?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (00:51):

I think that's especially been true historically is that it's an office that if everything's running smoothly, no one knows it's happening. Things just work the way they're supposed to work. Obviously, following the 2020 election, this role has gained a lot more attention than it's ever had before. So many people may recognize a name like Brad Raff Asperger from Georgia because there are positions that have gained greater notoriety, but by and large, this is a role that most people don't think about each day,

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (01:19):

And that notoriety comes largely because of the effects that the office has on elections. Right,

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (01:25):

Right. The Secretary of State generally is the chief election official for most states. That's the case here in Idaho. So usually when people think of me, they think of me as the election nerd, just like you said in the introduction. I'm the bald guy with glasses who's usually on the news talking about elections

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (01:41):

And you love it.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (01:42):

I do. I absolutely do. I fell into it right out of college and I've been working elections for 20 years in the administration. Obviously I've run for office as well, and so I spend a lot more time than the average Idahoan thinking about elections, which is why I'm here in this role.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (01:58):

We're going to nerd out today, so if any of our listeners buckle up because this is going to get good, but before we get into all the election talk, Phil, what are the roles in your job that don't have anything to do with elections?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (02:11):

Most people, if they're familiar with the office, it's probably because they're a small business owner. Every business in the state of Idaho is registered with our office. That's actually one of the most frequent ways that people interact with us is registering businesses. It could be someone who's say, starting a lawn business and registering their LLC or it could be a corporation like Simplot, it doesn't matter. Everybody works through our office, and so we're processing hundreds of applications a day in terms of businesses and the renewals and everything else that goes along with that. The other part though is I always, when I ask school kids and they come into the office, what the Secretary of State does, most people miss the most obvious piece, and that's I am the secretary of the state. I'm the official record keeper for so many things for the state.

(02:56):

So I always joke on my very day when I was sworn in, I was in the governor's office, the governor made a mistake initially on signing his oath and somebody had to make sure we got it right, and I fell into that role. The ones that the oaths are stored with every executive order that happens is with our office proclamations. Most people don't realize through the legislative process, every bill comes ultimately to me and I'm the kind of referee at the end to make sure the process was conducted properly. And so there's just all sorts of state important records and ministerial functions that the Secretary of State does.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (03:32):

Yeah, secretary, you don't get governor little his coffee, you just make sure that the oaths are signed. Right,

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (03:37):

Exactly. I definitely don't interact with, but it's one of those things for an executive order to be official, it both takes his signature and my signature in order for us to actually come together and say, all right, this is official action of the state of Idaho.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (03:51):

So somebody's ears perked up the moment you said all businesses are registered through your office. To those who have concerns about the government being involved in anything, help us understand why it actually is in their best interest as a business to register with you and your office.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (04:04):

Our office, really the main function of it is to build trust in government and we serve as an intermediary in so many things. It's true in elections. We sit kind of in the center trying to balance it out, and it's true in business as well. So the reason that every business registers with us, it allows other businesses to have confidence that who they're doing business with is legitimate and so there's no scam. So if somebody starts a small business, one of the things they'll find is they won't be able to open a bank account until the bank verifies their information with our office. And it's not because we require that. That's not the government saying, it's just the banks want to know before they lend money, Hey, this person's legitimate and if there's ever a problem, we know how to track 'em down. And so we maintain basically a public listing of all the businesses, their registered agents and how you can get ahold of that business if you ever needed to.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (04:53):

See, I'm learning something already. I had no idea. So this is all very helpful, Phil, when you decided to run for Secretary of State, you were currently holding office in Ada County, but you decided you're going to run for statewide office and you had some pretty notable endorsements roll in. So governor little endorsed you, former Governor Otter, Congressman Simpson Senator, but if I may speak for you, I think that you might be most proud of the over 120 county officials that came out and endorsed you. Why were those local endorsements so important to you and what does that tell you about your mandate in serving?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (05:29):

It's been really good for me. So I came from county government, so it's not real surprising that I had so much support. I was very active in the Idaho Association of Counties for years leading up to it, served on the legislative committee for a long time and did a lot of work with county government and at heart. I really carry that still to this day. We provide a ton of support in this office to all of the county clerks around the state helping them and run their elections offices. The county clerks are really the boots on the ground who are going to be counting the votes this November. They're the going to be ones training the poll workers running the polling locations. Our office is really sitting high above providing support for all of those offices, and when we look at decisions as a state, it's been really important in terms of how we interact with them. There's plenty of instances where there can be tension between local government and the state government. I've worked really hard to maintain those relationships I've had over the years and to having been a county official to sometimes say like, well, hold on. This is going to have huge ripple effects down at the local level. Let's talk with our partners to make sure we're making decisions that when they finally hit a small community in the state that they actually make sense and it's not just coming here from Boise.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (06:42):

So you talk about the importance of local leadership, particularly when it comes to accounting ballots and running elections. I think there's a lot of misconception because sometimes we think of presidential elections and we think one big election, it's actually 50 but might not even actually be 50 because when we look at Idaho it's more so let's start from the beginning. Help us out here. If I want to run for office, let's start at the moment of filing, where do I start and then walk us through where it ends with certification post-election, how do we do our elections in Idaho? From the moment a candidate says, I think I'm interested,

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (07:15):

Well, I will say I'm happy to get into the weeds. This is one of those processes most people don't think about and they really shouldn't have to. When someone goes to the polls to vote, they should be thinking about who their choices are marking their ballots and have confidence that not only their vote is going to count, that the process is fair and smooth and clean, and we really have dedicated professionals working on that, whether that's local election officials, whether that's the county clerks, people here in our office, we all work collaboratively together, and I always like to frame election administration as we are the largest event planning operation in the state of Idaho. Going back to my days working in ADA County, you think about it, we're hosting a big event on November 5th. We're just inviting a million of our closest friends and most of them are going to show up and we have to have everything in place to be able to do that.

(08:06):

And so that starts, like you said at the beginning, when candidates file candidates file both at our office, whether that's the members of Congress, state legislators, others at the local county offices for county commissioner, some of the school districts and other roles that are going to be on the ballot, and then we work together to build out that process. Right now we're really in the early phases for the November election. Ballots are being printed right now. We just finished designing all the ballots across the state over the last couple of weeks. It's where we finalized the candidates who are going to appear on the ballots and got things ready. They're preparing for absentees and right now we're recruiting poll workers across the state. It's going to take about 5,000 Idahoans to serve as poll workers to pull this election off. It's not a small workforce because again, we're hosting a giant event with a million of our friends. So all the logistics are what are happening and when people like you and I talk about elections, we'll talk about the elected officials, the campaign tactics, some of the principles like democracy and our republic for mostly election administrators. It's really a giant logistics operation, trying to have the people, the materials, everything in place to make sure the process goes smoothly and that every Idahoan gets the right ballot and that each of those ballots are counted and we can account for them.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (09:24):

I love this balance you talk about because it absolutely is a logistical nightmare at times to think how you're going to do this, and I'm sure that so many that are close to it like yourself can get caught up in the idea of making sure that the supply chain of the project gets done correctly and everything is safe, secure. But I also know on that flip side that you have such a soft spot in your heart for what the beauty and the simplicity of an election is and the idea that it is us coming together and choosing our leaders, and it is one of the simplest but most beautiful thing that the founders have come up with. Talk a little bit about how you being so close to that, you're still able to keep the vision of what a special event an election is in our democracy, in our republic.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (10:05):

No, I think it's really part the United States was really built on this simple principle of self-governance, right? Rather than have King George tell us how to live and what we're going to do is that we decide for ourselves and decide as a community who our leaders are going to be, what the policies are we're going to advance. We're going to see that on the ballot here in November. This is where people get to have a voice. It's been really powerful for me in this role. People who visit me in the Capitol, I love to share my pocket copy of the Constitution. It's something I go speak about from time to time. Right before I was sworn in, my dad came in and gave me, it's a leather bound copy of the Constitution, but what makes my personal copy unique is it was handwritten by my father in calligraphy, and I can tell you the constitution's powerful on its own, but when you get to see it in a sentimental way like that, it really has deep meaning and that really is what we're all coming together for.

(11:01):

So while there are a lot of logistics, and I might be worried about getting the supplies to a polling location, at the end of the day, this really is where communities have a voice and one of the cool things about presidential elections is this is where most people show up. We're really preparing for record turnout this November. The president drives a lot of attention on the ballot. We're going to see the most idahoans show up that we've ever seen vote in our state. That says a lot. I would love to see that for every single election where we get involved and there's so many decisions that impact our lives that are determined at the ballot box, and that's part of what drives us. Even what gets hard here in the office, it's really knowing that the founding ideas of our country and the belief that we all have a say in the process is what motivates us.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (11:49):

I mean, that's a beautiful imagery of both your father and how this all plays out. I love the optimism when you talk about turnout coming in November. I hope you're right.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (11:59):

I'm always Pollyanna at heart. I'm confident we're going to have great turnout. There's so much attention on this election, especially nationally, but also locally we have some issues that should bring people out

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (12:09):

And I'm happy that you're Pollyanna happy that you're optimistic, but I'm going to play the opposite of this, right? I'm always very discouraged by our turnout numbers, both in our state and in the nation, knowing that this beautiful, right, we talk about of self-governance is often not used. Right, and maybe there's probably a lot of reasons I'd like to get into, but first give us the facts. What does turnout look like in Idaho in a primary versus a general on a typical

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (12:32):

Cycle? Yeah, primary versus general. There is a big difference, and in a state like ours, and this is not unique to Idaho, most states around the country lean one direction or another and primary elections matter a ton because that determines who advances to the general election ballot. Here in Idaho, we usually see between 20 and 30% turnout for a primary election where headed into November will probably be somewhere between 75 and 80%. In terms of our order, that's huge. I mean, that really is a significant difference. President is going to motivate most people to show up. It's hard because on any given day, it's tough for each of us to point to how the president is specifically impacting our lives versus when you look at your local highway district, it's really easy to see how they're impacting your lives, whether it's road construction, potholes, detours, whatever. It doesn't matter what part of the state you're in, you see that. And so trying to get people engaged down the entire ballot, not just beginning at the top, but getting through the whole process. That's really been one of my missions here in this role is to get people more engaged, to get voters more information about what they're voting on. And I'm hopeful that we can get more turnout, but that is always one of the big challenges is especially these local elections, how do we get people engaged in the process?

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (13:49):

And to be clear, when we look at a 20 to 30% turnout, that's of eligible voters, so we're looking at of people who can vote, 80% of them aren't in a primary on average. If you look at this ballot, if you had to predict what percent of the ballot do you think was decided already in the primary?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (14:08):

Ooh, it really depends on what communities you're in, but through most of the state, especially when you look at legislative races or county races that are partisan, overwhelmingly the majority were predetermined and we actually see that throughout the state on a number of the ballots. In some of our smaller communities, many of 'em don't have competitive races. There's only one candidate, so it's not even like there's a choice between that and another candidate. The race really was determined in the primary election and it makes building the ballot a little bit easier on our side administratively, but it doesn't really serve the principle of allowing people to have choices and have a voice.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (14:42):

Yeah. Secretary, how does Idaho's turnout both primary in general compare? You say it's similar to other states and it's big drop off, but how does it percentage-wise to maybe surrounding states?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (14:54):

On average, we perform better than the national average in terms of turnout. I expect that to be the case this election. It's always interesting. Some of the people who have the most difficult time getting to voting actually turn out best. So some of our mountainous counties like Idaho County for example, actually has some of the highest turnout that we see in any given election. I think that's a point of pride for a lot of these communities. One of the things you talked about in terms of it's not just 50 states voting. There are different processes across the country. So if we look to the west, we see Oregon, Oregon and Washington mail out absentee ballots to every single registered voter. Idahoans generally choose to vote on election day, about 70% of voters will show up to the polls on election day. We do things differently, and we even see that within the state. Some of our communities are more dispersed and others are more condensed. And so one of the cool things we have here in our state is each of the processes can be a little bit different based on the makeup of the community where they're at.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (15:52):

Interesting. So obviously, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but clearly as an election junkie, the important of engagement and you would very vocally encourage everyone who can vote to vote. Why do you think they're not? What's keeping so many people from getting to the polls?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (16:10):

There's been plenty of polling and things done at times. Most of the time it's just people are busy, they're just busy living their lives. I think most of the time when people engage with government, they really want to be focused on their lives. It's that pursuit of happiness that we all aspire for in it. I always liked when I was out on the campaign trail, to use the analogy, when you're driving down the road, you really want to be focused on your destination, not the government that put it there. If there's a pothole, government's not doing enough and if there's a speed bump, government's doing too much. Really our role in government, and this truly is my philosophical view, is to support people in living their lives in a way that doesn't disrupt them. It's really challenging. People are busy, whether it's work, whether it's taking care of kids school, we see all sorts of things, and so part of it in our role is trying to, how can we make this process easier?

(17:07):

I think through some of the work we've done with the vote idaho.gov website is a good example of just getting information, trying to remove some of the barriers so that people can know how to register, where they're going to vote on election day if they need to request an absentee ballot. How to do that. We're really trying to remove some of the barriers and this, one of the things I really advocated for in the legislature is a voter guide that's really driven on the idea of voters want information. It's hard to make a choice when you don't know who the people are that you're choosing between, and so the more we can get information out there, the better. Everyone's going to head to the polls and know who they're voting for president in November. The rest of the ballot, it becomes a lot more of a challenge.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (17:49):

And as you pointed out, some of those other items and individuals on the ballot have at times more influence on an individual's life and they don't know what that proposition means or they don't know what that candidate stands for. So the voter guide seems like a no-brainer, giving information to the voter so they can study out why was their opposition to that.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (18:09):

It really is. Voters want, the most common request that we get in our office as well as the county elections offices is where's my voter guide? People from other states, especially surrounding states, are accustomed to getting voter information mailed to them. I mean, interestingly enough, our office right now is producing a voter pamphlet. It will send out information about voting, about the constitutional amendment, about the proposition, all the things that are on the ballot except for the candidates. We won't have any candidate information in there and we need more of it. One of the stories I love to share and highlight is the 2020 election. Everyone's familiar with it because of the presidential election, but I was the 80 county clerk at the time, and we had a very close race for the 80 County Highway District. It was two votes apart, so the race was determined by two votes out of 40,000 votes cast, that's less than five thousandths of a percent difference.

(19:02):

So the expectations in our work are extremely high, and I'm happy to say when we did recounts and we went through the process all the way to the very end, the results stood, the process worked the way it was supposed to work, but as we did those recounts, we learned a lot about it. Any candidate you ask can find two people that didn't show up and vote. It doesn't matter how high the turnout is, it's easy to find somebody, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker who didn't vote. What was really shocking in that recount though was out of the 40,000 ballots cast, 10,000 voters skipped that race. So this wasn't trying to get people to show up and vote. These are the people with a ballot and a pen in a voting booth who just didn't know who the choices were. And this is for an entity that impacts everybody's lives all the time.

(19:51):

Anybody who's ever been to Boise has run into a CHD at some point in time, and so it's really surprising to see that, and that's one of the things is how do we get people to go from president to Congress to vote on our legislators? As a former county clerk, most people don't know who their county clerk is or what the county clerk that they even vote on the county clerk. How do we get all the way down or to things like our school district elections, and so we're really working hard trying to push that forward in the legislature. The Senate has voted to produce a voter guide twice. The house still hasn't been willing to take it up yet. We're going to continue to bang the drum because at the end of the day, we know Idahoans are wanting more information when they vote.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (20:33):

Yeah, like I said, it seems like a no-brainer and more communications better than less. I love that story. I think that articulates well the importance of voting and the importance of knowing what you're voting for. I do have a question when it comes to, it seems at times that there's this dichotomy between elections for persuasion and then elections of just get out the vote. And I wonder, as you deal with so many campaigns from a distance and can objectively look, do you think that whether on a national or on a state or local level that it's about trying to persuade people to vote for you? Or are you just trying to get people to show up to vote? Is there value to one or the other?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (21:12):

From my perspective, especially for candidates, just getting people to show up was one of the biggest things. Especially many communities, you kind of know where the people are, who they support, whether if we're in Blackfoot or we're in the north end of Boise, we kind of have a sense of what the voters are like. It's really just getting people to show up. That's always the biggest challenge. I've seen people over the years who were really focused on very wonky policy issues. I think there was a great commercial, I don't know if it was the 2018 cycle. It was from another state where it was a wonky county commissioner race that did a TV ad talking about cutting the levy rate from 0.006 to 0.004 something. Most Idaho voters aren't interested in all that, right? They want to find the right people. I think one of the beauties of our republic is that we don't instinctively go to direct democracy all the time.

(22:03):

We're not all voting on every bill in front of the legislature. We don't want to take the time to figure out all that. That's why we find good people in our communities to represent us, and that's the kind of beauty of the process, whether it's our legislators here in the Capitol or our congress members in dc, it's finding good people to stand up and represent our communities and our values. And a state like Idaho, that's really important on the national scene is to make sure we have a voice in the process and heading to the polls is part of our opportunity to weigh into that entire system.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (22:34):

You're absolutely right, but there's instilled in this in elections this collective action problem, which if everybody thinks that somebody else is going to step up and vote for the right people, then the beauty and the simplicity of elections falls apart when the wrong people are the ones who are running and the wrong people are the ones who are the only ones voting. So talk to me about number one, your concern level regarding turnout overall, because you seem very optimistic. Is your office focused on getting it together and then your concern level surrounding if people are confident or trust our elections in general?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (23:08):

Oh, absolutely. I mean, we're really working on turnout. I just earlier today was cutting some TV ads that we're getting ready to promote the election to make sure people know where to get their information that idaho.gov is their resource to, whether it's to register to vote, to find their polling location or request an absentee ballot. So we're doing everything we can to get information out to voters. Hopefully that will help in making it easier for voters to head to the polls and vote. And the other part is we are focused a lot more on the integrity of our elections, the security, making sure people have confidence that it's not just about showing up, but part of that process is having trust in the system. When you stick a ballot in a ballot box, you're putting a lot of faith in the system to know that yes, that ballot's going to count.

(23:53):

I think one of the things we lose sight of sometimes is that's not true across the world. There are plenty of places where people don't have confidence when they stick their ballot in the ballot box, and that's really one of the things we have focused on is trying to add transparency. That's everything from having cameras in some of our elections offices to be able to watch, but really just most of it boils down to having some common sense practices that all people can know really make it easier to trust the system. One is we require photo ID to vote, so people are going to be asked to show their driver's license when they vote. Overwhelmingly voters use a driver's license. We have a paper record of everybody's vote, so when you cast your ballot, that official piece of paper is your vote. So when we do an audit, which we do random hand count audits after each of elections or we do a recount, we actually go back to the paper record and review those.

(24:47):

A great example of that is the recount we did in district 32 right after the primary election. It again was two votes apart, and we went through and went through both the hand counted ballots in Butte County as well as all the machine counted ballots in Bingham County to make sure that the results stood. And it was great to see the candidates get to see that process and feel validated like, oh, yep, this is the outcome. One candidate likes it better than the other. That's always going to be the case, but it's really important for people to have confidence in it, and we're doing everything we can to highlight some of the really simple great practices. One more that pops into my mind is last year we had a bill in the legislature to ban internet connectivity to all of our voting equipment. We already weren't connected to the internet, but now it is by law, the equipment cannot be connected to the internet and the state of Idaho. I think that's one more way to reassure voters that their vote will count this November.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (25:41):

Yeah, a great reminder on how it's so different here in the US compared to other countries with voting confidence, but particularly Idaho, you list out the reasons of why we can be confident going and voting in Idaho that our vote will count. Secretary, you're on record in the past of saying that you don't love the narrative and it frustrates you that there's widespread voter fraud that undermines our election results, but you're almost equally as frustrated that there is no voter discrepancies and there's no irregular voting that occurs in the country. Is that still true? Do you still stand by

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (26:14):

That? Yes, that's definitely true. Having spent my career working in elections, having been in the room reviewing ballots, working through some of the tough issues, there are dedicated election officials, not just here in Idaho, but across the country, and we hear these narratives. It's like every other thing in politics where you hear some of the loudest voices suggesting either there's widespread thought or I think it is important to highlight. There's lots of organizations saying, oh, that doesn't exist. Look the other way. I can say that our does pursue voter fraud cases. I have been involved in the prosecution of people for either voting twice or registering when they shouldn't be. We're regularly maintaining our voter rolls and monitoring to make sure that they are current and accurate. We put the safeguards in place to protect people's votes, and one of the interesting examples is going back to that same 2020 A CHD race where we had the two votes apart in that race, our office had rejected three absentee ballots.

(27:15):

Now I can tell you when it's a two vote race and we reject three absentee ballots, people pay a lot of attention. Two of them were easy because the person didn't actually sign 'em. One person drew an inappropriate picture, but one of the other ones I always like to talk about is the voter, the signature on the absentee ballot envelope, and we verify every signature on every absentee cast in the state of Idaho. It doesn't matter what county you're in, it was a beautiful flowing signature, full first name, full middle name, full last name. Honestly, looking at it, you almost wanted to accept it because it looked good. Now, the driver's license signature was a hot squiggly mess. Now, many people may wonder like, okay, what was that? Well, the voter was an 18-year-old male, which of those signatures sounds more likely in terms of their signature?

(28:06):

It didn't take us much research to figure out that mom had voted her son's ballot, and it doesn't matter that you're related, you still only get one vote. And so it was one of our voter fraud cases that we pursued during the 2020 election, and while there are not large volumes of them, there are some every election that we're pursuing to make sure we protect the system and hold those people accountable who are trying to interfere with it. We've got a lot more safeguards in place than people realize, and I think that's one of the beauties of it, is that you have people who are dedicated taking care of it so that when you head to the polls, you don't have to think about that. You know that it's going to be fair and that your vote's going to count just the same as anybody else in your community.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (28:46):

The takeaway is Idaho's elections are safe, secure, but you're always working to ensure that they become safer, more secure, and

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (28:54):

We're always building and growing on it. Yep,

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (28:57):

Love it. Do you see practices in other states that concern you?

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (29:02):

I think some of it is one. I know professionals. I've been working in this industry long enough. I know a lot of my peers across the country, and they're very dedicated professionals. A lot of it boils down to policy decisions more than anything. States do things differently. As I mentioned already, Oregon and Washington do it very different than we do here in Idaho. There's pros and cons to each. I think we have a really good balance system in the state where you can request an absentee ballot, but you have to actually go request it. We have early voting available. Polling places are throughout the state, so you can use 'em. A really good example for me to highlight is the 2020 election. That was during part of the pandemic. The Idaho legislature actually got together for a special session to address some of our election needs, and I think that was great because the legislature weighed in on what we're going to do, and one of 'em was just the pre-processing of absentee ballots.

(29:52):

That's something that would help the entire country that isn't done and actually isn't done still in Idaho at this point. We just did it that one election, but allows the offices to be more methodical to take the time to do it without the pressure of after election day, once the polls close, every news outlet in the world is looking for results. Everyone's clicking refresh on their computers and there is an immense pressure to get things done. Idaho was the second state in the nation to have all their results in during 2020, and I can contrast that with Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania took up a very similar bill that Idaho did during the 2020 election except for Idaho passed it and Pennsylvania, and we all watched and followed as we were wondering what was going on in Pennsylvania afterwards. I know the current Secretary of State, there are dedicated people, but some of those decisions didn't help build confidence in the process, and I'm hopeful that we can all learn from that and that we can have better systems in place to get people results when they want 'em because it's very clear the country wants to know who the president's going to be right around election day, not weeks to follow.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (30:55):

Absolutely. And sometimes this perception becomes reality that even though everything could and should be on the up and up, if it looks like it's not, then suddenly there's just no trust.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (31:05):

I think that's a big part of it is everything could actually be going well, but if it takes days and then weeks later it raises the question, there's no reason people need to know what's going on on the inside. Just saying, wait a second. There are some practices we can all have in place and do things. We can have our differences among states, but we can still try to meet the American public where they're hoping to be on election. And I don't think that's something unique here in Idaho. I think that's cross country.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (31:30):

Yeah. So I'm going to ask you to do something a little unconventional if you'll take off the Secretary of state hat and even take off your partisan hat. And as just put on the election junkie hat, we've referenced a few times. We have a big election coming up and anybody who's following polls or maps knows that it looks like the presidential election could be quite close, and as of right now, it appears quite close, unprecedented, and not only former president coming back, running again, but also a vice president coming to the ticket with the president last second coming off so many new things as an election junkie, what are some things you see looking at this that more of us should be paying attention to in the landscape? Give us just some insider baseball here. When it comes to the presidential race,

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (32:13):

I will say I'm definitely an elections junkie. Probably a lot of the stuff I focus on are the nerdy things that no one else does. It's really interesting to see how it plays out. The presidential race has been a rollercoaster over ride so far. I mean, going back to the first debate where I think all of us just were slack jawed and didn't know what to think, I still don't know what happened there. I'm actually surprised as a, we've moved on from the assassination attempt pretty quickly, and that is a really, really big deal for those of us who are in government and close to it. That was a terrifyingly close moment, not just for President Trump, but for all of us. I think that was really significant here. As you already mentioned, the switching candidates, that all happened over the summer. We still have a ways to go between now and election day.

(33:02):

It is interesting. Those of us here in Idaho, when we turn on the television, we don't see presidential ads. In some ways. You wouldn't know there's a presidential election until you turn on some national news and know what's happening. One of my colleagues here was in elections training in Detroit recently, and he said, every single commercial in Michigan is a presidential ad by one of the two candidates or some super PAC or somebody else. That's one of the interesting things is a lot of attention is on the battleground states. I think as we get closer to November, that's going to continue to be true. This is going to be a close selection and then it has trickle down. What does that look like here in Idaho? People are very passionate in our state. People have strong feelings, and I think one of the biggest challenges for us as we head towards November is just how does this reconcile itself?

(33:50):

Because there are people who have very strong feelings in both directions, and hopefully we can come together as a country afterwards and really continue to build on the system. Our system is better today because of the 2020 election. We've really bolstered what we're doing. We've added more transparency elements. I'll highlight one great thing, the ADA County Clerk's office, so it was my successor, Trent Triple. He has a new tool called Ballot Verifier. This is as nerdy as election nerdy gets. He is now posting every image of every single ballot. So if someone wants to conduct their own hand count and ADA County, they can go and flip through every single image and count all the votes. They can see how the machine counted the votes, and he's gained national attention for it because it's something across the country people are watching. They're like, there's transparency, and then there's Trent level of transparency. And it really is eyeopening to see behind the curtains. And that's part of our efforts to really say like, look, we're doing it well. You want to check our work? We want to invite anybody who has questions in, I've given lots of tours of our election shop. There's a lot of good things in place and I feel confident going in for all of us here. I know you asked me to take off my Secretary of State role, but it's hard for me to get out of the system when I think about all this stuff.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (35:07):

No, I love it. And I have zero desire to go in and hand count any ballots in ADA County, but I love that it's an option and that people do. Secretary, not only do you appreciate your time today, we appreciate what you and your office are doing. I go back to this idea that you don't want us to have to worry about anything when we go vote except who we're voting for, and just have trust that everything will be counted and correct, and we know it takes thousands of people to make that work. So not just you and the great county clerks, but all those volunteers that show up and make sure I get my sticker. We appreciate it. So Secretary Phil McGrane, thank you so much for your time today. We hope to have you back after the election to talk more and recap on a few things. And again, we appreciate your time.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane (35:48):

Yeah, it was great to be with you today.

Brennan Summers, Podcast Host (35:50):

Thank you, sir. Till next time.

Helping Build Families

Episode 5 Dr. Kyle Tobler—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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For episode 5 of the Main Street Idaho Podcast, we join Dr. Kyle Tobler at the Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine in Boise, Idaho. Our host, Brennan Summers, discusses the truth behind fertility treatment and its unique role in helping build families. With as nuanced a subject as in vitro fertilization, Dr. Tobler takes that time to cover fact from fiction in an in-depth look into creating families that otherwise wouldn't be without help of modern science.

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Fights for Idaho Values in Washington DC

Episode 4 Idaho Senator James Risch—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3

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From the rugged landscapes of Idaho to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., U.S. Senator James Risch has been a steadfast voice for Idahoans. With a career spanning local, state, and federal levels of government, Senator Risch brings a unique perspective to the challenges facing our state and nation.

In this week's podcast, we dive into a conversation with Senator Risch, exploring his approach to representing Idaho's interests on the national stage. Here are some key highlights from our discussion:

• The importance of maintaining an Idaho-centric approach in Washington, with most of Senator Risch's staff coming from the Gem State.

• The fight against the Lava Ridge Wind Project, which Senator Risch views as detrimental to Idaho's interests and landscape.

• The critical role of small businesses in America's economy and the need to protect them from burdensome regulations.

• The challenge of navigating complex legislation in D.C., compared to the more straightforward process in Idaho's state legislature.

• Senator Risch's perspective on public service and the importance of appreciating America's freedoms and opportunities.

Senator Risch's insights offer a glimpse into the workings of our federal government and the ongoing efforts to ensure Idaho's voice is heard in national policy decisions. His commitment to fighting for local control and pushing back against regulatory overreach resonates with many Idahoans concerned about federal intervention in state matters.

We hope you find value in Senator Risch's perspectives on public policy, the challenges facing our state, and the importance of engaged citizenship in preserving America's democratic traditions.

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Brennan Summers, Host (00:00):

Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast where we talk about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast. We're here today with former Idaho governor and current US Senator Jim Risc. Senator, thanks so much for being here.

U.S. Senator James Risch (00:19):

Glad to be here. Thank you. Thanks

Brennan Summers, Host (00:20):

For having me. I got my first start in DC as a college summer intern in your office, and what was interesting is you made sure that your team knew that although the office was located in the district, district of Columbia, you wanted an Idaho approach. You wanted them to operate like they were in Idaho.

U.S. Senator James Risch (00:38):

Well, we hire most everybody from Idaho, certainly in the personal office. The vast majority are in the foreign relations office. It's a little tougher, but we still have a lot of people from Idaho because that's got lanes that people are specialists in and you have to go for a wider group there, but no, look, you got to dance with who brought you to the dance, and so we are focused on Idaho. Every decision I make is based first and foremost on how is this going to affect Idaho people.

Brennan Summers, Host (01:14):

Yeah. How difficult has it been to take your no nonsense, solve the problem approach to a city, an area that's not typically known for that?

U.S. Senator James Risch (01:24):

Well, look, it's a legislative job, be it the state level or a federal level is very different than an executive job. People always say to me, which would you like better being governor, being the US Senate. They're very different jobs, and there's about a dozen of us, any one time that have been former governors in the Senate, Republican and Democrat, the ones who were in their state legislature before they were a governor, they move right into the Senate job and it really isn't a problem if they'd never been in a legislative experience. They're just astounded at how different it is and how the legislative democratic process is so different than the executive job. The executive job. People bring you a problem, you get the team around the table, have everybody give you the input. What's the problem? What are the issues associated with? What are the options that we have?

(02:24):

What are the upside downside of the options? What do you recommend? What do you recommend? I chose doing number two, go make it happen. That's not the way the legislature works. They put a loaf of bread on the table and the first thing you do is start debating about it and goes on for a long, long time, sometimes for years, and when all is said and done, you never wind up with a loaf of bread like you do when you're governor. You wind up with a piece of it if you're lucky, and it's a give and take process, and it's unique to problem solving, but look, we're all human beings. We solve problems like human beings do and everybody's different.

Brennan Summers, Host (03:02):

I love the approach to, you got to solve the problem. You got to engage in it. Most Idaho Idahoans, their understanding of how the government is operating or not operating, it's just coming from what they see here or read. Is it accurate, do you think we, is there a story going on in the US Senate that we're not seeing?

U.S. Senator James Risch (03:22):

It's hard to describe being as close to it as I am, but I will say this. I read the national stories and state stories too about how toxic it is back there and how awful the relationships are and that sort of thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Are we polarized? We are deeply, deeply polarized on the issues, but as far as getting along, look, there's a hundred of us in the Senate, just as an example, a couple of times a year we have dinners where with spouses, and so you go to the dinner tables of 10 round tables, open seating, so the Republicans on one side of the room, Democrats on the other side of the room, it's open seating. You sit wherever out of the a hundred people, there's only maybe five or six. You hope, yeah, maybe I'd like them, and it isn't on a partisan basis either, I can tell you that.

(04:16):

But look, we get along very well. We're human beings. When we get together, we talk about what people talk about, whether you're at church or school or whatever. You talk about normal kinds of things, your families, your fishing and hunting and all those kinds of things. But when it comes to issues, we all represent our constituencies, and if there's one wish I had for Idaho people is everybody could stand in my shoes for a couple of days because you'd come back and kiss the ground here in Idaho. I mean, you hear a lot of complaints about the legislature and this, that, and everything. I can tell you having served 28 years up there in the state senate in one capacity or another, that place runs like a fine tuned Swiss watch compared to back in dc. But look, we're all human beings. We get through these things and we're headed for an interesting rest of the year. I think I've run 36 times myself. I've been involved in a half a dozen presidential races, either as a state chairman or a national surrogate or what have you. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, it's going to be be interesting.

Brennan Summers, Host (05:24):

I listen to old Obama advisor who is criticizing what that administration had done in that they hired too many people who look at the rest of the country with Periscopes. They have to look at the country from a distance. Your office, as you mentioned, you dance with the people that you brought. You've stayed close to the issues, and one of the issues that you've stayed really close to recently and making sure that even if you're not always in Idaho, you can know what's going on in Idaho, is this issue with the Lava Ridge Wind Project. Talk to us a little bit about when that came on your radar and what you're hearing.

U.S. Senator James Risch (05:54):

First of all, I'm in Idaho a lot. I come home every weekend, so I'm here every week. The Lava Ridge project, the first, I mean my undergraduate degree was in natural resources. My bachelor's degree was in forest management, so natural resources are not foreign to me by any stretch of the imagination, and I've had a lot of experience with it. As you know, when I was governor, I wrote the roadless rule for Idaho, which is in place now and will be hopefully for a long time. When they threw that thing on the table in front of me, it didn't make sense on every possible level, and so you start to think, what's going on here and what's going on is it was a typical proposition by this administration who you can understand really simply. People say, oh, this is so confusing. It isn't confusing at all.

(06:48):

If you want to think about the Biden Harris administration, think of woke and think of green because that's all they care about. That is everything they do. All they care about is woke and green, and so green, gosh, this is wonderful. They're like Idahos. They value public lands. All I can see is after looking at that is the hell they do, that's a hundred thousand acres that they're taking and going to pollute with these towers that are higher than the space needle. What are they thinking? Well, what they're thinking is the other side of the coin, oh, well, we need green energy, and I says, you don't need a hundred thousand acres for green energy. Build yourself a small nuclear plant that'll put out way more power than this, and it'll take up maybe five acres instead of a hundred thousand. And then since this energy that they're making is going to California, don't build it here, build it in California for crying out loud. Anyway, so the fight's on and they have their neck bowed and well, as you probably saw the videos of my goal with both the head of the BLM, the tree

Brennan Summers, Host (07:50):

Spiker

U.S. Senator James Risch (07:52):

And the woman who's Secretary of Interior, both of 'em are just dead wrong on this. Somebody in the White House has said, you're going to do this, and they just got their head down and going forward. So if Trump gets elected, this thing's over because within an hour we're going to do just what they did to the pipeline, and that is we'll have an executive order ready to go, and that thing will be ended. If Trump does not get elected, then it's a bigger fight and that lawsuits are going to go on for a long, long time.

Brennan Summers, Host (08:25):

Yeah. You referenced the committee meeting you had where you got the Secretary of Interior, Deb Holland right in front of you, and you were able to ask her questions about if everyone in Idaho hates this and doesn't want it, are you still going to do it? And she seemed to double down.

U.S. Senator James Risch (08:36):

Yeah, no, she didn't say yes, but she inferred, yes, they don't care about us. It is what everybody loves to hate about the federal government. What they're doing here is they're going to do what they want to do from thousands of miles away without any regard for those of us that live on the land. And it's heartbreaking, number one, but it also enrages people and rightfully so.

Brennan Summers, Host (09:09):

Yeah, and the precedent that it sets, that local control really is just kind of thrown out the window. You always try to empower the state legislature, so you've proposed if the state legislature doesn't want something, then the federal government really should not do

U.S. Senator James Risch (09:20):

It. Absolutely. And it goes even further than that down. If the county commissioners and the local people don't want it, even to me, that's even more powerful, but they want these extra kilowatts in what they call green energy from this wind, which is, and there's all kinds of things wrong with that. The cost of those things and the fallacy that building a wind tower somehow is a green way to do business. I mean, the cost of those amount of energy that goes into 'em. What most people don't understand also is those blades on there have to be changed regularly, and I've seen pictures that they've got these, they've got landfills where these blades are just stacked up by the thousands and they're not made out of metal. I was surprised when I saw that. I thought you put a blade on there and that was that, but they have to be changed regularly. It's not metal. It's some kind of a composite that you can't even recycle. And so I mean, it's wrong on every level that there is.

Brennan Summers, Host (10:34):

The deeper you dig, the worse it gets is what it sounds like.

U.S. Senator James Risch (10:37):

No question about it. No question about

Brennan Summers, Host (10:38):

That. So give us some hope. You mentioned that this presidential election matters, but you've also introduced legislation. You've teamed up with the delegation, the don't do it act. If anyone wonders what that's about, it's pretty clear.

U.S. Senator James Risch (10:50):

Don't do it. Don't do it. Yeah. Pretty clear.

Brennan Summers, Host (10:52):

Where do we go with that legislation?

U.S. Senator James Risch (10:54):

Well, those are always tough. What you try to do is you try to find a spot when you're doing legislation in DC it is so different than doing legislation here. Here you really can't tinker with legislation and pull a fast one. In Idaho, we have a constitutional requirement that says one bill, one subject matter,

(11:18):

So that's the way it is. You can only legislate one thing at a time. You get a straight up yes or no vote on it back in dc you can put anything in a bill. There's no prohibition on that, so they got everything from abortion to zebras in the same bill, and so you wind up always with a multi-thousand page bill, and it's awful because you're faced almost always when you're faced with one of those, it is a hobson's choice. If there's stuff in there you really love and there's stuff in there that you absolutely hate, so what do you do? And so Mike ple and I always meet before the vote. Our voting record is substantially closer. Well, a lot of states have an R and a D and they just offset each other, but we, out of the almost 5,000 votes I've cast since I've been back there, Mike and I have only separated I think on three of them that were minor pieces. Actually, they were confirmations that weren't even legislation. So we always sit and we talk and make a decision that we're going to, whatever happens, we're going to I Idaho is going to get two votes out of it.

Brennan Summers, Host (12:27):

And one of the reputations you have not just working so closely with Senator Crapo is when there's something like this you don't like that your constituents tell you they don't like that industry and stakeholders say, don't like you, fight like hell to make sure it doesn't happen.

U.S. Senator James Risch (12:37):

We try.

Brennan Summers, Host (12:38):

But on the flip side, senator, there are things that are important that your constituents and stakeholders tell you are important, and you fight like hell to get it, and one legacy you'll have is your advocacy for small businesses. Walk us through why these local gems, these small businesses throughout Idaho, you highlight and you try to empower and make their path to success kind of easier.

U.S. Senator James Risch (12:57):

Small businesses, America, I mean that's what we are all about, is what our economy is all about. Small businesses actually, big business, if you put 'em all together, you wake up in the morning, you open the paper and you say, well, general Electric is hiring a thousand people today or firing a thousand people. Small businesses do that before breakfast every day, but they do 'em one, two at a time and they don't make the headlines, but they are really the backbone of America. And amazingly, if before the internet, before the big box stores, if we were sitting here talking about it, you'd have to think that those two inventions, first the big box stores and then the internet would put small business out of business. They haven't, has it caused them to struggle some, yes. There's no question about that. Has it hurt? Yes. But they're still the main street business.

(13:58):

There's still the heartbeat of this country, and so you want to do everything you possibly can. And when Congress does things so often, they totally ignore small business. They're talking about a rule or a regulation that first of all, you shouldn't be doing anyway. But secondly, big businesses can handle this. I mean, they got an army of lawyers. They got an army of army of accountants. They got an army of compliance officers, a guy that's fixing lawnmowers in his garage. He doesn't have the ability to do that. When he gets this 25 page form that takes two hours to fill out, it's incredible burden for 'em, and they just ignore that. I try to bring that to their attention every time they do that and slap 'em around and say, think about what you're doing.

Brennan Summers, Host (14:48):

There you go. And it's seen, and I know the small business community appreciates the way that you try to fight back on the unnecessary regulations coming down the pipe.

U.S. Senator James Risch (14:55):

Yeah. The regulatory structure is one of the subtle things that really influences businesses in America when first of all, when a Republican gets elected president, stock market always has a big bloom. And why is that? Well, they know that we are just death on regulations. Look, we're supposed to make the law. Congress is supposed to make the law. Now, there is substantially more effect on people's lives that happen from the bureaucracy passing regulations than Congress making laws, and so we push back on that all the time. Regulations are just a horrible, horrible thing. Now, are there some that need to be in place? Of course there are that Congress or state legislature, the best example I always give is fish and game regulations. Well, fish and game regulations have the rule of law behind them, and they should, the legislature can't sit there and determine in each of the game units what the harvest should be, what the shooting hours should be, and days and that sort of thing.

(16:11):

Same way with the federal level with weights and measures. I mean, we can't sit there making regulations on how you have to regulate weights and measures, so there's a place for it. But when you're doing horrendous things, I mean, these guys, you've seen 'em try this where they pass, the president does an executive order scene. Well, if you're in business of manufacturing automobiles, 30% of your cars have to be electric by such and such a date. What the that, that's not the executive branch's job. That's our job. That's a policy decision that's got to be made by Congress. Right or wrong. So we are really big on scene that we, Congress are responsible, elected officials are responsible for what happens and the regulatory stuff. Lava Ridge is a good example of that. I mean, there it is a regulation right in front of you that's biting us badly.

Brennan Summers, Host (17:09):

Yeah, we know you're fighting the good fight on that front, if we had time, we'd get into your good work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, your work with intelligence. Another time we'll have to pick your brain on how you sleep at night, knowing what you know.

U.S. Senator James Risch (17:20):

We'll do this

Brennan Summers, Host (17:21):

Another time, but Senator, I was privileged, as I said, as an intern to peak at your calendar here and there, and I don't know if I've ever seen a calendar so busy. So as we let you get back to your day, I want to just wrap up. You've been in public service since your twenties and you've given your life at local, state, and federal levels. So, so many different things. What do you say to the people out there who are getting disenfranchised and disengaging on this idea of

U.S. Senator James Risch (17:42):

Public service? That's a really good question. I'd say this, God bless America with the problems we have here and the issues we have here. It's easy to get closed-minded and say, oh, this stuff is so terrible. First of all, as a culture, we are the most fortunate people to ever live on this planet in the history of this planet. We live better. We live freer than anyone has ever lived on this planet with all the problems and all the difficulties that we have. If you travel around the world, you come back here and kiss the ground. One of the things I always said is, if you really want to straighten out this country, require that every high schooler in their junior year leave America, go to a communist country that's a third world country and spend the year there, and then have them come back and finish out their senior year.

(18:33):

This country would be a different country. They would, first of all, have a real appreciation for what we have here in America. Look, we've been through a revolution. We've been through a civil war. We've been through world wars, we've been through a depression. We've been through all kinds of issues, and we're still standing and going to continue to stand, and as long as the people are in charge of this thing, it's going to go on. Is it ever going to settle down? Of course not. Founding fathers didn't want it that way. They wanted it so that we would have a robust democratic argument about it and where things should go. When it's over, we vote and then we live with it.

Brennan Summers, Host (19:11):

God bless America. God

U.S. Senator James Risch (19:12):

Bless

Brennan Summers, Host (19:13):

America. Senator, keep up the good fight. We're praying for you. Appreciate your time today.

U.S. Senator James Risch (19:16):

Thank you.

Brennan Summers, Host (19:17):

Okay, till next time.