Main Street Idaho Podcast Episode 5: Representative Britt Raybould
“We are a model of good government for other states in the nation, and frankly, other states should be looking to us for guidance about how to be fiscally responsible, and yet at the same time ensuring that we’re not ignoring our obligations.”
“The Big tent Republican approach is very much needed in this state. And it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have different perspectives, but at the end of the day, we’re all conservative Republicans.”
Brendan Summers (00:00):
Welcome to mainstream podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome representative Ray Bold. It's it's great to have you here.
Representative Britt Raybould (00:16):
Thanks, Brennan. Thanks. Pleasure to join you.
Brendan Summers (00:17):
Thank you. Thank you. You represent district 34 up in Madison County. Yes. And everyone's gearing up for harvest, right?
Representative Britt Raybould (00:23):
Yeah. In fact, just last week we killed our first circle of potatoes. if all goes well, we will actually start harvest on August 21st. That's the
Brendan Summers (00:32):
Plan. Oh, fantastic. How's that, what's the outlook this year? We don't have to worry about like, some of the smoke issues we've had in the past.
Representative Britt Raybould (00:39):
Yeah, no, the, the weather's been relatively quiet. All things considered for us. You know, unlike our east coast friends that have been dealing with smoke from Canada we've had a pretty good growing season. what's gonna get us potentially is whether or not the temperatures can come down enough for us to be able to actually go out and harvest. We can't dig the potatoes when they're too hot. So we've gotta have that temperature start coming down in order for us to get 'em out of the field.
Brendan Summers (01:01):
Sure. So we've got temperature. We always have issues with workforce. Get enough people,
Representative Britt Raybould (01:06):
No question. workforce continues to be something that's a challenge for us. we're in a little bit different situation than some of the other operations because we go to early market, and so that means that we're out digging. We dig for half a day. We aren't digging full days 'cause we're basically just going to fill particular orders for that day. you think it'd be a little easier to get folks who just wanna come in and do part-time, but the struggle is that most people, if they're willing to work, are looking for full-time. And so trying to find that balance between getting a crew on staff early enough to get us through the entire harvest season when we start going into storage.
Brendan Summers (01:37):
Yeah. We could spend our whole time talking about spots and maybe we'll get back and talk a little bit about water later, but I wanted to kick off and talk about, you know, how you entered the political scene. Like where your history brought you to the point where you decided, you know what, I'm gonna end up in the Idaho legislature.
Representative Britt Raybould (01:52):
So I've been surrounded by politics for pretty much my entire life. my grandfather served on a number of state commissions before. He eventually ran for and served in the legislature for 18 years. My father currently serves as the chair of the Water resource board. public service is something I've been around for as long as I can remember, and it was always drilled into me that we had a lot of good things going our way, you know, for our family. But a part of that is because of the community that we were in. And if we wanted there to continue to be good things, we needed to be willing to give back and giving back meant making sure that there were other opportunities for people to come along and potentially have similar success to what we've done. And so for that, it, it really just does boil down to that. If you want things to continue to be good, you've gotta be prepared to step in there and do the work. And that's what this is for me, is continuing the work of my family.
Brendan Summers (02:41):
Yeah. And, and I know your grandfather left a just a fantastic legacy and the legislature and we miss him. A lot of people doing his voice, but yeah. You've, you've filled the shoes well, so we're happy to have you serving. Most people don't know who their legislator is or even what the Idaho legislature does. They hear House and Senate, and they might think DC I'm gonna give you a hard task here. Do you think you can sum up in just a couple sentences, what does an Idaho legislator do?
Representative Britt Raybould (03:07):
An Idaho legislator ensures that you have good roads to drive on safe schools for your kids to attend, and that you are not taxed beyond what is a reasonable for a fiscal conservative. the idea is that you should be able to live in Idaho to live your life freely, to be able to pursue the things that you want to do, whether it's starting your own business, going out onto the public lands on the weekend, to to hike and to fish and to hunt or to just raise your family in a safe community. It's my job to make sure that you can continue to do those things in Idaho freely.
Brendan Summers (03:39):
And much like the federal structure, the Idaho legislature is divided into committees. You wanna walk us through some of your work on what committees you're involved in?
Representative Britt Raybould (03:48):
So, Idaho has what's referred to as standing committees in both the House and the Senate and those standing committees you get assigned to every two years. I currently serve on the joint finance and appropriation committee. That's the committee where we do all of the budget work for the state every year. Idaho's constitution requires that we pass a balanced budget every year, unlike the federal government, we're required to live within our means. I also serve on the Resource and Conservation Committee, which deals with a lot of our land use and water issues. And then the Environment Energy and Technology Committee, which deals with things like our department, environmental quality potentially issues that involve the I N L, and just pretty much anything else that wouldn't necessarily fall under that resources umbrella.
Brendan Summers (04:26):
And they say parents aren't supposed to pick favorite kids. Do you have a favorite committee?
Representative Britt Raybould (04:31):
I do. JAC is by far and away my favorite committee. it's a committee where you have to be prepared to go in and do a lot more work than other committees because you meet every single day for most of the legislature, for upwards of three hours each day. and it's because you are looking and reviewing it over a hundred different budgets. For the state of Idaho, you're looking at everything from the entire budget for the Department of Transportation down to the Commission of Arts. It's a wide ranging assignment that requires you to take in a lot of information in a short amount of time and make really big decisions while also balancing the responsibility to ensure that we're using tax dollars wisely.
Brendan Summers (05:09):
So, appropriations budgets, it can sound a little boring. Let's bring it to life with specifics. What are some of the budgets you've worked on that you're really proud of, what you've been able to fund and what you've been able to provide the citizens of Idaho?
Representative Britt Raybould (05:22):
So I take a slightly different approach to working on budgets in the state. as I said, there's probably, you know, just over a hundred individual budgets. I work on roughly half of them. some committee members just choose to specialize in particular areas. So you'll see some that work specifically on transportation budgets or corrections or education. I work on everything from education to the judicial branch to department of Juvenile Corrections to anything that involves natural resources. And so, as I'm looking at sort of like the practical day-to-day I would say that, you know, for instance, this last session we had enough additional funds that we could make an investment into water infrastructure. We put in another $150 million. So what does that mean to someone who's, you know, living in the state? Well, in addition to that 150 million, we did another 92 million that was specifically for water projects and communities. So if you happen to live in a community that needs to have its water system redone, so your ability to have clean drinking water, your community can come in and submit a grant to the state to get assistance to help complete those projects. And those projects are often big enough that it's really hard for some of our smaller communities to be able to come up with the financing to get that done. So we're helping make sure that your community's got clean water,
Brendan Summers (06:35):
And that's a big problem. And like you mentioned, a lot of these small communities, they're operating on shoestring budgets and all their money is spent. And then when a big problem comes with like water infrastructure without a funding mechanism, they end up
Representative Britt Raybould (06:49):
It can be a strug. Yeah. Right. And, and a lot of these water systems, you go back and you look at the dates when some of these systems were put in place, we're talking 50, 60, 70 years back to the original founding of the communities themselves. And they blasted a long time and they've done the job they were intended to do, but they weren't intended to last forever. And so, as a state, we have a responsibility to ensure that these communities these communities continue to have access to something that is so critical, like water, so that, you know, when they go to turn on the faucet, the kids have got water to drink and they've got water to do their laundry and to bathe their kids. I mean, it just, it's one of those sort of integral things that I think a lot of us take for granted until we flip on the faucet and no water comes out. and so, you know, if I look at something like that and knowing what a big investment we've been making, not only this last year, but in prior years, those are the kinds of things that I'm most proud of because it makes such a difference in most people's day-to-day lives.
Brendan Summers (07:39):
Yeah, that's a, a problem addressed, a problem solved. Love that. any other projects that you're working on or that have, have seen, funded that you're really proud of?
Representative Britt Raybould (07:47):
some of the other things that we looked at, like for example the launch program that came through during the during the session this last time, I know there's been a lot of debate about whether or not the state should be involved in a project like that. And for those who aren't familiar with it, what launch does is it provides what amounts to an education grant to students who are Idaho High School graduates to go on and pursue careers for in demand employment. So we have a lot of open, a lot of openings in Idaho for different jobs, and we don't necessarily have enough people with the skill sets to fill those particular jobs. So we're looking to be a self a self-supply in terms of making sure that we've got Idaho students who are, who are capable and equipped to go in and, and do these jobs.
(08:26):
It's, it's, it's everything from your plumber and electrician to your high-end cybersecurity piece. it ranges all across the board. But the long and short of it is, is that we don't have enough highly trained people to do some of these jobs. And what launch does is it helps fill that gap for students who are going into what you think of is maybe a more non-traditional career that doesn't require a college degree, but does require some level of certification or additional training beyond high school. And so I look at something like that and that kind of commitment that we're making, that's about keeping Idaho students in Idaho, that's about filling Idaho jobs, that's about growing Idaho's economy.
Brendan Summers (08:59):
So if I'm a student up at, you know, sugar Salem and I'm graduating high school mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what does that look like for me? If my choices previously were either no additional training or leave the state for training, right?
Representative Britt Raybould (09:14):
Well, it could potentially be the difference between you being able to build a life here as opposed to having to go somewhere else to create something similar. And what I mean by that is when you're a student who's looking to make an investment in yourself in terms of your education, some of these programs didn't receive what we think of as sort of like traditional financial aid for students pursuing education. So, you know, some of people received Pell grants for, for doing college education. A Pell grant wasn't something that was available for a for a student who wanted to go and get his C D L so that he could do long-haul truck driving. there wasn't many available to a Pell Grant for someone to become a journeyman with an electrician. You know, there's just, there's some of these careers that our traditional financial system for ongoing education beyond high school just was not particularly supportive of.
(09:58):
It wasn't flexible, it didn't adapt to the needs that we have. Launch is about adapting to the needs of students today in a world that is demanding more of them and requires that additional training. We need more than high school diplomas for a lot of these positions. And a lack of access to financial support to help them get there is gonna make a difference in a lot of these students' lives. And I will note the launch program will not pay for a hundred percent of any student's particular program. At most, it will pay a percentage of that. And most programs are five figures. So the $8,000 that we're committing to students for their program is simply a down payment to help those students get started and get going, and so that they can be successful and build strong families for Idaho.
Brendan Summers (10:38):
Right. So they're gonna have a little bit of skin in the game. Yeah. And it's also some accountability and making sure that we can get 'em across the finish line.
Representative Britt Raybould (10:45):
Yes. In fact, they're working as part of the implementation for launch. They're gonna require or explore what, what they can do to essentially hold the institutions accountable who are receiving funds. And so if a student were to quit or to fail to graduate or something along those lines, there's the potential opportunity to claw back those dollars. We're holding the institutions in the organizations responsible for ensuring that students actually get through a program once state dollars have been committed to it.
Brendan Summers (11:08):
So J F A C has given you the opportunity to support and fund these programs that are solving some very serious problems in Idaho. But how have you taken your philosophy on government spending in general to not just fund programs, but also identify maybe things that are wasteful in Idaho?
Representative Britt Raybould (11:25):
So there is a question of accountability. Anytime you're spending taxpayer dollars, it's not just how much is being spent, but how is it being spent? And so that becomes a case of are we asking the right questions of the agencies who are doing the job? I think there's very few people that you would think of as, as being like malicious actors who are intentionally wasting money. But sometimes people get into habits, and if they've been doing things a certain way for a long time, it can be really hard to break that habit. And so when we're serving on J fac and we're asking these questions, when these budgets come before us, our questions are not intended to call people out or to, you know, put people in a tight spot, but instead just to say, help me understand what your thinking is. And if we don't get back the information, so like when we request data or when we ask those questions, it provides an opening for us to say, I think there's an opportunity to do this differently or potentially save money in the process.
(12:11):
the challenge that I think most people overlook is that given how fast Idaho's growing, given how many people are coming into our state, there's just that many more people that need services, right? There's just that many more people that have kids who are in classrooms. There's just that many more people who are on the roads. I mean, even something as as straightforward as, you know, going to the D M V to get your driver's license, if there are more people coming to the state, there needs to be more people to provide the services that are expected from us. And so we have to take that into account as part of how we evaluate spending. It's not just necessarily about the idea of, well, should we or shouldn't we be doing this? It's a question of are we actually meeting the needs that are being set forward by people who've chosen to call Idaho home now? And we've gotta make sure that we are fulfilling their expectations because that's a responsibility that we have when we swear that oath of office to meet the needs of the state to uphold our constitution and to ensure that we are being responsible with how we're spending taxpayer dollars.
Brendan Summers (13:07):
And how, how would you rate the legislature, particularly the appropriations committee, in terms of fiscal conservatism? It's Republican led, there's always critics that say, you're not doing enough. We need to return more tax dollars. Maybe highlight where you think we have returned more tax dollars back to the citizens.
Representative Britt Raybould (13:23):
So if I remember right, I think it was governor, but chatter that said you know, failing to make investments for things in the future when you've got those savings, that's the equivalent of deficit spending. Right? Right. And so I would point to the record over the last two to three years where significant one-time investments have been made in a range of projects, from transportation projects to water projects to education, there were a range of things where we took monies that people would look at and say, well, you took in more than you needed. And instead we said, there's an opportunity here to do several things. We've flattened our tax rate, right? So we're now below 6% in the state for our income tax. We did significant property tax relief during this last session, and it's gonna be ongoing property tax relief. And at the same time, we made these really big investments in areas of the state that are gonna pay dividends for future generations. And so if I'm looking at what fiscal conservatism looks like, it's the benefit of being able to say, because of our growth, because of our success, we can return dollars to taxpayers. And yet at the same time, not ignoring the responsibility that we have to maintain the systems and services that our citizens expect to have as being an an idahoan.
Brendan Summers (14:31):
Right. So, I mean, the comparison would be like, on the farm, you gotta buy new tractors every now and then. Yeah. And, and it's, it's essential to business.
Representative Britt Raybould (14:38):
No question. I mean, if, if you fail to invest in what you have already spent money on, you're basically going to be throwing that money away down the road. You know, it's, it's kind of like the person who who buys a house. And if you decide that you're just gonna live in that house and you're not gonna do any repairs, you're you're not gonna fix the roof. You're not going to, you know, plug that hole where the mouse got in. you're not gonna make sure that you have the right insulation installed to keep your heating bill down if, if you aren't doing sort of like this basic ongoing maintenance to ensure that your home stays safe and tight, that investment that you made when you purchased the house is gonna go down the drain. Because when it's all said and done and you go to say, sell that house, people are going around and go, why would I buy this house? You've done nothing to keep it up. And that's how I think about state government. If we've made an investment in something, we have an obligation to ensure that we don't lose the value of that investment going forward.
Brendan Summers (15:30):
So representative Vrabel to the critics who are saying Cut, cut, cut. You're saying sometimes it's time to invest.
Representative Britt Raybould (15:36):
I think there is a difference between cutting because there is waste mm-hmm. <affirmative> and cutting for the sake of cutting. Sure. And in this instance, I would say point to me the investments that we have made, and tell me where you wouldn't have wanted the benefit of that investment. Tell me how that doesn't benefit the state of Idaho in the long term. Tell me how that doesn't ensure that Idaho continues to be a successful growing region for, and frankly, an example for other states in the nation. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, we have a ballast budget. We have a really strong system in terms of our state employee pension. We are a model of good government for other states in the nation, and frankly, other states should be looking to us for guidance about how to be fiscally responsible, and yet at the same time ensuring that we're not ignoring our obligations.
Brendan Summers (16:20):
Yeah. And I know Governor Little, when he goes and meets with the other governors is often pointing to the legislature and the work that you guys have done as this example right. To them, you've highlighted a few projects, you're proud of some things that you're able to check off the to-do list. Let's look forward a little bit, what are the issues that you're gearing up for? What are some problems even whether we're looking at security issues or energy issues, what's coming up that you're thinking these are things that the legislature needs to make a priority in the coming sessions?
Representative Britt Raybould (16:46):
So during the last session, I proposed some legislation that would have increased the penalty associated with trespassing or damage of critical infrastructure. Okay. some people may be familiar with at the end of last year, there were two attacks on two different power installations. So in North Carolina and then one up in Washington the outages affected tens of thousands of people. Most recently last month, there was a gentleman who opened Fire on the Hells Canyon Complex over on the other side of the state. these are individuals who are intentionally trying to disrupt our energy supply for whatever reason they might have, but are attempting to do so in a way that I think undermines the safety and security of our state. And so I will be bringing back legislation that does propose to increase both the penalties for trespass and for damage of anything that falls under an umbrella that will be defined for critical infrastructure.
(17:38):
So things like dams power distribution pipelines wells, all of those things where we just sort of, again, it's one of those things of of we are taking for granted because it's always just kind of been there. And I've been asked, well, you know, why can't we just say you've gotta harden your physical security? Why, you know, why is it that we're saying that just the posting of a sign or doing some other things? Well, would you like to run the fence that would have to go around a pipeline? Right. Right. How, how do we fence off our transmission lines for power? How, how do we physically secure some of these really large and frankly kind of awkward physical arrangements that we have for some of this critical infrastructure? And so what's left to us is the ability to increase the, the pers at least the, the understanding that should you choose to attempt to trespass or damage these properties, that there will be se serious consequences for that behavior. And that's one of the things that's available to us that is reasonable in that context of, you know, we can't fence off everything.
Brendan Summers (18:37):
Yeah. And hopefully a deterrent to keep people from wanting more. That's great. An issue that most of us have never thought about or would want to think
Representative Britt Raybould (18:44):
About. Nope. But I'm guessing when the lights go off in the middle of, you know, winter and there's no heat because somebody decided it'd be fun to just go and shoot up that energy transformer, you're gonna be thinking about a little
Brendan Summers (18:54):
More. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, you've been in the legislation for how many sessions
Representative Britt Raybould (18:58):
Now? So I'm in my second term. Okay,
Brendan Summers (19:01):
Fantastic. How would you, like, how would you describe the changes that have happened in the legislature? is does it look different in the years? You, you've watched it for many years, you've participated in it for a few years. How has it changed and how do you hope it continues to change?
Representative Britt Raybould (19:15):
I think the biggest changes are just the fact that the state itself has changed, and you're seeing that reflected in the legislature. So as more people have come into the state, you've seen different sets of viewpoints appear in the legislature. you've seen that individuals who have, who have moved from, from other states have decided to, you know, put their name on the ballot and run. So you have the perspectives of, of people who, who didn't grow up here and who are coming in and are making their voices heard, you know, through that legislative process. I think that if I'm looking at sort of like the, the biggest sort of like obvious change is there seems to be within a minority a desire to be more confrontational, to be more conflict oriented in a way that I did not associate with the legislature in, in prior years.
(20:02):
the, the desire for us to, you know, from my perspective, to collaborate to try to find solutions for whatever reason that's, that's been looked down on and that's been viewed as a negative. it's very much an attitude of, you know, if I can't get a hundred percent of what I want, then I will walk away with nothing, which makes absolutely no sense to me. if, if you have an opportunity to make some progress on an issue at a particular point in time, you take that progress and then you come back and you move the, you know, you keep moving the ball down the field to, you know, use a football metaphor. you, you do not give up on an opportunity to make an improvement simply because you can't get a hundred percent of what you want at any given time.
(20:39):
And I've heard that, you know, called a bunch of different things that, that are probably not polite enough for this particular podcast. But, you know, you people saying, well, compromise is a dirty word, right? I'd love to know what relationships these people have where they think they get to have a hundred percent of what they want all the time. And why, when it comes to politics is compromise the dirty word. You compromise with your spouse, you compromise with your kids, you compromise with your coworkers to get through the day because they're humans too. And they have the right to their opinions and their perspectives, and everybody's just doing their best to try to get along. But when it comes to politics, we're told that if we dare say, you know what? The person who disagrees with me might have a point, even if I don't agree with everything, somehow that's a bad thing.
(21:20):
Right? Instead, that's the reality of every other aspect of life. But we've made it into something that I don't think it is when it comes to politics. And frankly, I think it works against us. It works against making some of these long-term investments we've been talking about. Because again, I didn't get a hundred percent of everything I wanted during the last session. I got quite a bit of it. And I will take those wins and I will go home and be happy about it. And then I will suit up and I'll come back out and I'll do it all over again, and I'll try to get a little bit more than I did the last time to improve that process for the next go around. That's what it should be, not all or nothing. Yeah. And,
Brendan Summers (21:52):
And I think this makes you, this is very different than politics on the national stage, and it's becoming more and more rare in Idaho. As you talk about, as people kind of gravitate towards the confrontational and this tribalistic mentality of me versus you, you're known by the voters of Madison County as being very data-driven, results focused. You've kind of avoided the, like salacious headlines of trying to entice conflict, and you're more focused of, I'm gonna go to Boise and I'm gonna work on issues that are important to my constituents. Why is that the better way to do it? And how are you finding others are joining your cause? Or are we finding less people are able, like legislators?
Representative Britt Raybould (22:34):
I think maybe the better way to think about it is in terms of where can I accomplish the most good? Right? And if you start dealing with issues that are out on the fringes of things, then your ability to be effective I think gets limited. You know, if, if I'm focusing on issues from a, from a data perspective or frankly just even from a pragmatic what can actually get done in this window that we have with the resources that we have, that's my opportunity to have the greatest impact on the largest number of people within my district. And that's my obligation, right? Is, is to ensure that what I'm doing has results. And I'll grant you that, you know, I've had one or two individuals who had specific problems. You know, for instance there was someone who had difficulty getting access to someone at c p s to help them work through a particular issue related to the, the services they were receiving.
(23:18):
So, you know, there's those opportunities to have those one-off interactions to help people get resolution to their problems. But ultimately, I need to have my eye focused on that bigger goal of how do I solve, you know, how how do I serve the, the larger population within my district and going out and cherry picking these one-off issues isn't gonna get the job done, right? It's, it's my responsibility to make sure that my time is used to the best of my ability. And that does require that you filter through some of the noise to, on the things that actually are gonna lead to measurable results that will matter in people's day-to-day lives, in terms of where everybody else is at. You know what, the only person I get to control is me at the end of the day. That's it. Mm-hmm. And so everybody, when they're representing their district, they've gotta make that choice for themselves.
(24:01):
And when it comes time to go into the ballot box and to make that decision as to who to vote for, I hope people are looking at how individual legislators are representing them and are not necessarily looking to third parties or others to give them the, the, the wink and the nod as to, as to who the candidate should be. Take the time to get to know who your legislator is, ask the questions. They should be able to give you answers. And if they can't give you answers, that would be cause for concern. Because people should be able to explain why they voted the way that they did, why they took the positions that they did. And at the end of the day, you may not necessarily disagree with them, but you should hopefully understand why your legislator did what they did.
Brendan Summers (24:36):
Yeah, I like that a lot. And I'm gonna put you on the spot. I won't ask who the legislators you think are doing it completely wrong, but I'm gonna ask you, who are the ones you could shout out as saying this is a legislator, this is a policymaker that their constituents should be proud of, or somebody that you enjoy collaborating with?
Representative Britt Raybould (24:53):
Well, I'm gonna do a little bit of a, an easy one here and I'll give you a couple others from the other side of the state. So my seatmate, John Weber mm-hmm. <affirmative> he worked with a wide group of people in a collaborative effort to redo how we handle public defense in the state of Idaho. And when I say redo, it was a literal, from the ground up rebuilding of what that process looks like. It removed the burden from counties and placed it back in the state's lap in terms of responsibility for ensuring that there is an adequate public defense that is provided. And he did that by working with a bunch of other people around the state. He did it quietly. He wasn't out there, you know, beating his chest over it. And he did a really great job. And as a result, the last when the bill actually came through, it passed with an overwhelming majority of support in both the House and the Senate.
(25:39):
And that's just reflective of how good he was at helping work through that process with all of the other collaborators. in terms of other representatives around the state, I think James Petsky who came into it was his first session this last time and he is a really thoughtful legislator from over in the Treasure Valley area who came onto Jfa. It was his first time on Jfa, and it's one of those committees where you sink or swim, he swam really, really well and did a good job. you know, if, if I'm looking around in, in others areas of the state, you know, Chanel Dixon, she serves one of her main committees is the health and Welfare committee, and she's doing really great work there in terms of looking at things like how do we deal with the fentanyl issue? Mm-hmm. How do we deal with other, you know, issues about healthcare access?
(26:23):
What does that look like for our state to ensure that people have got access to doctors and physicians, you know, in rural areas, for example. you know, there's a long list and I could give you many more, but just to give you a, a sense of there are good legislators who I believe are there attempting to do the work of representing their district and serving the state from all across, you know, from every, I could go and find somebody. And so it makes it a pleasure to go and serve when you know you've got like-minded people who are equally committed to serving that are gonna be in the building with you.
Brendan Summers (26:52):
Well, I think this exercise highlights the way you operate and that not only are you able to communicate your pet projects and the things that are important to you, but you're also able to point out these are people that I work with and these are the issues that are important to them and what they're working on, and we're working together to all make sure all of our priorities get taken care of. I think that's fantastic.
Representative Britt Raybould (27:10):
So I remember it's a, it's a simple, I don't think it's technically a pneumonic 'cause it involves numbers, but essentially it's, it's, there's three numbers that I keep in my head at all times. It's 36 18 in
Brendan Summers (27:20):
1 36, 18 in one.
Representative Britt Raybould (27:22):
Okay, I gotta have 36 votes in the house. I gotta have 18 votes in the Senate, and I gotta have the governor's signature. I have an obligation that if I actually wanna get something done to be able to work with others and to find those other votes in the house and to get those other votes in the Senate, and then to get the governor on board to support it. I don't have the luxury of staking out a position that's just about me and what I want. I have to figure out how to bring others along with me in order to actually accomplish the objectives that matter to my district.
Brendan Summers (27:50):
Yeah, that's, that's wonderful. And we're getting a little too optimistic here. If we're talking politics, we gotta bring it down a little. So you operate in a system. Let's talk about the political system, whether it's federal or, or statewide. What are some things that you feel like if you were made in charge for the day, you would want to fix? What are, what's not going well in the system as a whole?
Representative Britt Raybould (28:09):
Man, you know, if I could weave a wand, I think there's a disconnect about what the different roles are for each of the branches. Okay. Right. So if I'm looking at the legislature or Congress, as the case may be, we have a particular responsibility that we're supposed to be fulfilling. You know, the same goes for the executive branch and for the judicial branch. And I think in our current atmosphere, we sometimes forget what those roles are and where, you know, where we should be playing ball. And there is a reason why the legislature serves the role that it does. Same thing with our judicial branch, and the same thing with our executive branch. And I think when we start trying to assume that we can play better or no more than neither one of the other branches that we, you know, that happens to, happens to be at the table, we're again sort of missing that opportunity to figure out how to make things work better as a whole.
(28:57):
that doesn't remove the need for there to be, you know, oversight and checks and balances between the different branches. But I don't assume that I can run the state better than governor little can, and I would hope that governor Little wouldn't assume that he could do the job better than the legislature can. And the same thing goes with the courts. And I, I think that we get too caught up sometimes in, in hoping to prove that we're right, as opposed to figuring out how do we actually make this this work better and to actually get the job done. if I'm looking at some of the other things that are going on, I would say it, it's alarming to me that most people's default opening position is so negative. You know, that when it comes to politics, that their assumption is, is that it has to be a negative process in order to get anything done. I think that the more you start from a position of assuming that everything has to be about subtraction rather than addition you've set yourself up for a, an a process that had, that ends up being uglier than it needs to be.
Brendan Summers (29:54):
Well, representative Vrabel, we've taken a lot of time today to talk about everything. We started with potatoes, we finish with a great civic lesson on separation of powers. This has been fantastic. any last words you'd like to share, particularly to those in Madison County that see your name on the ballot to those on the other side of the state that may not know anything about you, but you're helping fund projects that matter, their community departing words for us?
Representative Britt Raybould (30:14):
You know, all in this matters, I get that everybody's got their obligations and their responsibilities, you know, from their jobs to their families, to everything else. And, and understand that given the, the less than congenial environment that politics currently is offering to people, that you're, you may feel like I can just stay away from that. I'll just avoid it. I can, I can step away from that. And I would tell you, that's the last thing you should do, right? You should make your voice heard. You know, if you care about what's going on in your community, if there's something that's happening that you know you're unhappy about, or if there's something you think is positive, you know, speak up. Make sure that your voice is heard. Because the only way all of this continues to work is if people continue to participate. So that would be my message, you know, whether you're in my district or somewhere else around the state, what matters is that you show up, show up on election day and show up through the rest of the year, call, email, text, do whatever you can to make sure that people know what you are thinking, because otherwise, how do you expect anything to change if you aren't actually telling people what you're thinking?
Brendan Summers (31:13):
Perfect, perfect message. And so, representative Britt Rabel, district 34, thank you for your service to Idaho and your time on the podcast today. Again, we're with Main Street Caucus today, and we appreciate your time and being with us.
Representative Britt Raybould (31:24):
Thanks, Brendan.
Brendan Summers (31:25):
Thank you.
