Less Regulation, More Innovation —Rep. Rod Furniss
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Businesses are the backbone of our communities.
In Idaho, we're cutting red tape and crafting a blueprint for businesses to prosper. Streamlining regulations means less paperwork and more innovation, allowing businesses to focus on what they do best.
Representative Rod Furniss is a first generation graduate from a four-year college (Idaho State University). After graduating, he started working in the banking industry, and from there he moved to the insurance industry where he was successful working with large companies with their life and health insurance. It was during this time that Rep. Furniss noticed there were many laws that were inequitable in the health insurance field.
As the motto goes, “see a problem, fix a problem” which is what led Rod into pursuing a spot in the legislature. Rep. Furniss was elected, and since then, he has led the charge on many pro-business policies to reduce regulations on businesses and improve the state's economy.
• Supporting candidates who comprehend both sides of a paycheck ensures legislation that aligns with the practicalities of entrepreneurship.
• Our state's economy is intricately tied to the Idaho National Lab, with its advancements resonating in everything from car dealerships to housing markets.
• The Idaho Launch program is an investment in Idaho's future workforce, steering students toward trades essential for our economic prosperity.
• Idaho's ascent to the top in teacher spending showcases our dedication to education and workforce development.
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Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to I Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Hello and welcome. It is Main Street Podcast and we're here with Representative Rod Furniss. Rod, how are you?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (00:18):
I'm doing great, thanks.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (00:19):
And can I call you Rod? I feel like we're
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (00:20):
Friends. Yeah. Rod,
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (00:21):
You look like a representative, but to me you'll always be Just Rod? No,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (00:25):
Just Rod. Rod
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (00:26):
District 31. Why don't you walk the listeners through what portion of the state you are responsible for? Yeah,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (00:35):
It was 35, which included Butte County. We swapped Butte County for Lemhi County, and I represent Jefferson Fremont and Clark Counties. And I got to tell you, it's been a wonderful drive to Salmon. I bet we've probably gone there, I don't know, 15 times since the session's been out and we've gotten to know the people at Salmon. The leaders there are incredible and the community has some real needs there that we need to address, so we're thankful to be able to go there.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (01:06):
Yeah, that's fantastic. I want to start today with a topic that I know you'll be interested in sports.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (01:11):
Okay.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (01:13):
We were talking before about most people may not know, not only did you play football at Rick's, you had an offer to play basketball, so a star out of high school, but you've also spent a lot of years, 15 years coaching boys and girls basketball. You're currently competing in the Senior Olympics and medaled there. What was it at a young age that got your heart so set on sports?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (01:37):
I don't know. That's a good question. I had great friends that were athletic and I beat them in a race a couple of times. I thought I can compete and we had a great basketball team. I played quarterback on the football team, but our basketball team, we took state two years in a row when I was a junior and senior, and it gave you enough confidence and fortitude to think you could get through some hard times, and those were difficult championships, but we got through 'em and then played football at Rick's. Enjoyed it a lot. Just played one year. And the second year I came back, I decided I thought I'd get married to a wonderful woman and we now have five children, 11 grandchildren. We love that. The sports have been a big part of my life. I've been able to coach my children in eighth grade, ninth grade freshmen or I mean sophomore year and varsity. I've coached some varsity basketball, coached some football. So just a wonderful time. Great time to spend with children when you can do that.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (02:38):
Sure. Well, and it's good that sports has helped you get through tough times because as an Avid BYU fan, which we won't hold against, you've needed that. Yeah,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (02:45):
Yeah. Have especially this year. Right.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (02:48):
So why don't you tell us how playing or coaching sports is similar to serving an elected office?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (02:58):
That's a great comparison because you have to convince boys and girls that they're better than they are and that they can go out and they can do what you expect them to do and you have to persuade them to do that. And so the fact that I'm also an insurance salesman and I persuade people every day to look at their risks in life, it is helped me in the legislature be able to speak and compromise with legislators to get bills passed. And that's been a great help for me in the legislature to be able to do that. I'm sure sports had a big background. I'm competitive that way, but to be able to teach and to persuade is a great asset in the legislature.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (03:39):
Let's jump to your business. So you are a businessman, you've operated an insurance organization, you've got a lot of training, a lot of education in that you didn't have a whole lot of spare time raising a family, got grandkids. What was it that prompted you to enter the political arena?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (03:57):
Well, that's a great question and back to my business. I'm a first generation graduate from a four-year college at ISU. Oh wow. And that got me into the banking industry, which moved into the insurance industry and I was able to be successful there working with large companies with their life insurance and health insurance. What moved me was that there are many laws that I thought were inequitable in my health insurance field. And so under trying to understand that, I moved into the PCO arena where moved up the ranks there real quick, and then they asked me to run for a seat that was an incumbent seat and that was a little scary and I really didn't know what I was getting into honestly. And I doubt anyone that runs for office really knows what they're getting into until they get there. But it's been a real life changer for me. I've always been a service oriented individual, and so when I'm asked to do something, I do it. And when they asked me to run, I was happy to try. I didn't know if I'd win, but I did. And I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in the Idaho legislature. It is a privilege to be there. And every day when I walk into the capitol and I see the lights on the capitol, it's a surreal moment for me to know that I'm there helping Idahoans.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (05:16):
Yeah. What do you enjoy about serving?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (05:20):
I really like to see things fair and equitable. I like to see people succeed and in my business, the more people succeed, the better I do in my business. And so if I can encourage them or help them succeed, that's a great motivator for me. And then to see laws that assist people succeed, that's incredible too. And then frankly in the last four years, well six years really that I've been in the legislature, we reduced regulations on business. I've been the vice chair of the business committee and we have reduced more regulations over those years than any other state. And we're the regulated state of the nation right now because of that, and I love being a part of that.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (06:02):
And so let's talk a little bit about that committee as vice chair on that committee. What are the big issues? You mentioned regulation and shout out to governor little for what he's done to cut the red tape.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (06:15):
Every agency that we heard from in the business committee, I'm no longer on the business committee, but when I was there, every agency said that the governor has prompted them to reduce pages and pages of red tape. And they came in and thousands of pages were deleted in regulations in the statutes in the state of Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (06:37):
So translate that to the average person that owns a business in Jefferson County. What does that mean to them when you guys are cutting these regulations? Well,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (06:46):
What it means is really we can cut red tape. There's already a tremendous amount of red tape when you start a business. You have FICA insurance, you have workers' comp, you have all the regulations that are there and for us to streamline those regulations or make it easier, more user friendly in those regulations, and by cutting some of those regulations, those businesses can thrive and be more successful and spend less time doing those things that are non-productive and do things more productive. And that's the goal of the business committee.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (07:17):
I think we've all been in a situation where we've had to say, this is stupid. Why are we doing this? And somebody says, well, we have to. And so it's nice to get rid of some of those. We have toss when we don't really have to,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (07:30):
And those are some of the deep dives we do and we did in the business committee, do we really need this regulation? Do we really have to have 'em do that? I know that hairdressers were going through a hard time. We reduced regulations there. I know that electricians were having a hard time. We reduced regulations there. And so in order to make more blue collar workers more productive, and that's frankly what we'd even need in Idaho currently is we need more tradesmen. And so we've really concentrated on making those individuals more productive in the state of Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (08:00):
Let's talk about policies that help foster business in Idaho. What are some of the things that you see and that you can do that will enhance the ability of Idaho to be competitive?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (08:11):
Well, Idaho's pretty competitive now. We've gone from being, we're 41st, if you will, in property tax where we've gone to money that we spend on teachers from being the bottom of the nations of the top of the nation. We're doing a lot of things right for individuals in Idaho. Businesses are seeing thriving in Idaho currently suffering because we can't find enough workers and especially in the trades. And so the launch program that the governor's put forth has really changed the momentum there and will in the future, change that momentum. The launch program only passed by one vote, but it's going to change the nature of Idaho. It's going to those students that maybe didn't think they could go on to college be able to do that, or those that were going to college are going to be able to finish quicker. And I think it will direct more people into the trades, the plumbers, the electricians, nurses, the things we really need in Idaho, HVAC welders. We're just so short on those that this launch program's really going to move that forward. You'll see businesses thrive in the next few years because of those programs if
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (09:24):
It's going to be such a win. And we do hear so much about the good that it's going to do. What happened in the capital that made it such a close nail biting one vote victory?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (09:36):
Yeah, I think it was really, there's some real influences in the capitol that people really watch scores if you will or whatnot. But I really think that they thought that this was a giveaway. And at the end of the day, when you look at the money we spend on four-year colleges and four-year degrees, we subsidized those degrees by tens of thousands of dollars. So to spend $8,000 on a trade was a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend on a four-year college. And I don't think that message got out that well. And so a lot of the individuals were confused. But at the end of the day, it did pass and it went through the Senate, the governor signed it, and we're seeing huge changes right now. I was able to teach the Hispanic Affairs course at ISU. We had, I think they had 400 Spanish kids come to ISU.
(10:29):
They attended a three hour class with me. I probably taught a hundred kids about the launch program. I went through and I asked those kids, every one of 'em, I said, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? And we would look up on the launch list and see if that was there. And it was most of those trades or that they wanted to do, some of 'em wanted to be orthopedic surgeons, right? But the basic two year program was there for them to start that, and they didn't know that it was there for them. And to see their eyes glitter and their faces warm up and their smiles come across their face, they gave them hope to be able to enter into those trades. That was impressive.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (11:05):
So yeah, it's opening up opportunities that these kids wouldn't have had.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (11:10):
I don't know that for sure, but I could tell on their faces that it eased their burden.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (11:14):
Sure. Okay. Now when voters go to the polls, why is it so important that they look to vote for candidates that are pro-business? We can talk about why it's important to vote for those that are conservative, that are pro-life. Why is pro-business something that should also be on their checklist?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (11:32):
Well, we have ranchers and farmers and they know business, and we have almost everyone in the legislature understands business. And so I think we have a pretty good cross section there already. But it's really important that they've signed the front of the check and the back of the check and so that they've seen both sides of the issue. And when they've seen that, they're able to look at those laws differently. When you've signed the front of the check, you look at all the problems and things that come through on a business nature. And it's important to understand that and to have that experience, to have to meet payroll, to have to borrow money to make money. We wrestle with those things in the legislature every day, should we have more FTPs in order to get a better service and a better outcome? And sometimes even the government has to invest to get a better outcome or to get a return on investment. And it's important that people understand that. So
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (12:31):
Speaking of government investment, you also serve on energy technology, energy environment technology committee that deals a lot with issues related to Idaho National Lab, which it's been a big investment by the federal government to put that research facility out on the desert. You've got to spend quite a bit of time out there. What has impressed you about that facility?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (12:52):
It's amazing. I serve as the vice chair currently of the Energy and Technology Committee. And with that title, I'm able to go out there quite a bit and to see the production that happens and the quality of people that live there and work there is impressive to me. I think they have more degrees than anywhere in the nation that work there. And so the quality of the people are tremendous. What they do there for our national security for innovation is the best in the nation. And to have those in Idaho and to be able to see that growth there is impressive. But it's such a boon to Eastern Idaho and we look at the growth there and the money that they bring to eastern Idaho, to the car dealerships, to the housing market, it just trickles down. And so the economy just does better with the site and the leadership there has been tremendous. They've been warm and friendly and they've opened up and they want us to understand their business so that we can work together. And we have, it's been a tremendous thing. Even though they're in Idaho, they're federally funded, Idaho regulates the site, and so we look at their oversight. They come in and present to us. They tell us what they're doing, what their goals are and their aspirations, and we work with them on that.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (14:13):
A lot of Idahoans that don't necessarily live in Eastern Idaho or many who do but are more my generation, struggle to see the value there of, well, number one, what is it that they're doing? And number two, why should I care? So to those that don't see the importance of that investment, what would you say to them?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (14:30):
Well, just look at the small nuclear reactors that they're building someday will fit on the back of a semi and supply power to a Salt Lake city. Just that type of technology, the battery technology that's coming, our future is so much brighter with what they do at the site than without them. And even though we don't know what they do, we ask them what they do, they can't tell us or they have to kill us. So we really don't understand what they do a lot of times. But I've toured those facilities, I've seen their work. Good things are going to come out of there and it's going to enhance the young lives when you grow up because of the site, your life will be better.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (15:13):
You're assuming I'm going to grow up, but I refuse. You know me, you've known me longer.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (15:17):
I said, when you grow up, if I grow up,
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (15:20):
Rod, let's talk about some of the things you've been able to accomplish because you rocked up to the State House your very first term and got to work and actually where a lot of freshmen may not be immediately running legislation you did. So from that until now, what are some of the metaphorical legislative trophies that you have in your case where you can say, I'm proud of that I was able to help accomplish
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (15:42):
This? Yeah, that's a great question. I probably passed 60 bills since I've been in the legislature, which is if you know how to pass a bill to be able to take a bill into committee to take it to the floor of the house, to take it to the committee in the Senate, to get a senator to resent it, to get the governor to sign it, it's a tremendous lift just on one bill. So it's important to have that history behind us. But some of the things that I'm most proud of are we got a lot of uninsured motorists off the road my very first year they'd been working on that bill for 10 years. I was able to get that through and get that done. So
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (16:19):
Walk us through that a little bit. What does that look like?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (16:22):
What that look like was is that we had no way of tracking uninsured motorists until they got a ticket. And so a lot of people were going uninsured. We had many people contact us and say, I just got hit by an uninsured motorist, and they just drove off and there was no penalty, nothing could be done. So we tightened that up a little bit and now we do what's called a VIN matching, where if an uninsured motorist, if a guy buys a car and that VIN shows up in ITD, we also have insurance companies telling us what VIN numbers they've insured. We match those up and we can see any uninsured motorists that's out there. So we send 'em a letter and we say, we know you're uninsured, and if you don't get insurance within 90 days, you may lose your registration and it will cost you about 350 bucks to get that back,
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (17:10):
Which is so much nicer than getting rear-ended and being in a situation where they simply say, I don't have insurance. I can't pay for that. What do you do?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (17:18):
So it's a state law that you must have insurance. So this was just an enforcement piece that we put together. And we've seen tickets go from 11,000 tickets a month to 500 tickets a month. So we know that people are getting insurance. That's
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (17:31):
Great.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (17:32):
Probably the other biggest one, and I've done tons of 'em, affordable housing, but the other one was the teacher insurance bill that we put together that allowed teachers to be able to go on or allowed school districts to be able to go on the state employee plan, but also we allowed school districts, we gave them more money that if they didn't want to go on the plan, they could buy individual insurance. We left that autonomy there and they were able to supply, are able to supplement those teachers' insurance policies enough that many teachers called me and said, this is the first time in 10 years my children are on Medicaid or my husband's not on Medicaid. And each teacher probably saved that, had a family saved almost five to $900 a month in premium. So we were able to give a teacher a raise that's the best money spent on teacher raises because that's, and so to be able to do that on a pre-tax basis was important.
(18:30):
That's what the governor hooked onto. Without his help and support that bill wouldn't have gone through and we put all the numbers together for him. That's what I do in my private life as I do health insurance for large companies, the state plan is the best run plan I've ever seen. I've reviewed hundreds of plans and that's the cheapest plan that I've seen. So they run that plan really well. We'll see more and more schools jump on, and this year we were able to extend the deadline out a couple more years so the schools had more time to make that decision.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (19:01):
And you got to wonder how many teachers and the type of teachers that are coming to Idaho because of that or staying in Idaho, good teachers that we didn't lose to other states because they had an offer. Some of the school district, particularly ones in your district, they don't have a plethora of teachers that they can choose from. Sometimes it's tight to employ.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (19:19):
It's interesting though. I've called the school districts that have gone onto the state employee plan and they tell me they're fully staffed. It's working well. Other districts are not fully staffed. Over the last three years though, we were able to give teachers about a $500 a month raise every year. So teachers from four years ago are making about $1,500 more a month than they were previously. We've gone from 40th in the nation to 10th in the nation, and it just came out and said that Idaho has the best rate of return on the money we spend for the grades we get.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (19:52):
Wow. When I was in high school, the teachers were really sour about what they were getting paid. And of course when they were giving me my poor marks, I thought they were overpaid. But looking back, it was crazy that we were able to hire teachers at that salary,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (20:06):
Those teachers, and it is true today too, but teachers teach because they love children. They'll do it with money or without money, but when you do it with money, they stay. It costs about, we did an analysis, ISU actually did it for me. Excuse me. We spend about 13,000 to train a new teacher, and we were having almost 30% turnover in our teacher pool before we raised the wages. Now we're seeing less teachers leave, we're spending less on retention, and we're able to put that money back into health insurance and wage.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (20:45):
Perfect.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (20:46):
That's a business concept that we have to go through. Right?
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (20:49):
Yeah. You're running the government a little bit at the speed of business as they'd say. Let's talk about things that you haven't quite been able to go over the finish line yet. Last session, the period project came up. This is a novel idea and one that you've been kind of the face of. Walk us through what this looks like in Idaho.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (21:11):
Well, I appreciate the question because this concept originated in Jefferson County really by a lady. It's a wonderful individual. Her heart's in the right place. She saw girls having what she called period poverty where they would go to school, not have enough money to buy their supplies. The family didn't have enough money to buy the supplies, so they were having issues. So she put together a volunteer group that made packets for schools and would deliver those packets to all the schools. I think there's currently 29 schools that she's trying to get packets to currently. But because of volunteerism that comes and goes, it's not stable. We had people testify in committee in the house of girls that would raise their hand. Teacher would let 'em out of class because they didn't understand that they were having their period. We had girls that would have to go ask the male teacher for period products because they didn't have 'em that day or they forgot 'em where they couldn't afford 'em. They would have to go to the principal's office and ask for period products. We have toilet paper, our, well, if you had to go ask for toilet paper every time you had to go ask, you'd have a problem. Well, girls have one more need. And so we hope to be able to bring that back. It sounds like it's a common thing. It passed unanimously in the Utah legislature. There was a one no vote in Utah on this exact same bill. So I was surprised that that happened. I really thought that it would pass.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (22:53):
What's the opposition?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (22:55):
It was a $400,000 span for dispensers, a 300,000 ongoing for period supplies, which is a 0.00, nothing in the education budget, but the spend was thought of spending money needlessly, I guess.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (23:12):
So it was initially a $700,000 and then 300,000 after that in perpetuity to take care of these.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (23:19):
And so the girls don't have an embarrassing moment, and every girl you talk to has had an embarrassing moment in their life with this, but a lot of the girls really, truly are being able to afford it even today.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (23:33):
Well, I think about how uncomfortable it's for you and I to talk about menstruation and female hygiene and as uncomfortable as this conversation might be, as we talk about periods that we're not used to compare that to what it might like as a young girl, a teenage girl, to go and try to have that conversation to a teacher. So it's coming back. You're going to take another swipe at it. What do you think will change this next go around?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (23:57):
That's really the question. Will it come back? We haven't decided that yet. We've got to find one more vote, and so when we get one more vote, it'll come back.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (24:09):
Well, we'll start putting the screws on the no votes. Then there you go around. You're very active in terms of, you mentioned traveling to salmon over a dozen times. I would put a plugin for anyone that wants to know what you're doing. You're Facebook is very active, all the meetings you're going to and everywhere you're running around. As you go out and talk to so many voters and stakeholders, whether it's state or federal agencies, business owners, what are they telling you some of their biggest concerns right now?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (24:37):
Well, it depends on the area. Salmon's biggest concern is opening up the forest and the mines so those people can go back to work and that town can flourish. That used to be a flourishing mining town, a flourishing forest town. We currently have a mill and salmon that's getting their trees from Montana and they look in their backyard and there's a whole forest right behind them. So some of those issues like that are very cumbersome and more federal, but important. And I'm working with our federal partners to try to help them with that. Clark County, on the other hand, so few people there and they're dwindling and their school's dwindling. We're going to have to come up with some kind of a formula for schools that has a minimum so that Clark County can continue to have a school there and continue to have a county there.
(25:25):
We're going to need to help them with that. Fremont County has lots of issues up in Island Park we're working on right now. I'm working on bills to try to help them put an auditorium district in if they want, or a local option tax. Right now, the bill says on an auditorium district that you have to have 3000 votes to terminate it. Well, island Park doesn't have 3000 votes in their district, so I'm going to help lower that down. So if they ever want to change their mind, they can look at it that again, if they want and they have other issues, we're looking at ITD issues that some people want a super two highway there. Some people want a four lane highway. As legislators, we've decided to help with the process. We want to make sure the ITD process is pristine and that the NEPA process goes through even though I hate it, and everything is done according to book. And then when they make their decision, that'll be their decision. The legislators don't make that decision, but we certainly want to make sure the process is correct. And then in Jefferson County where they're growing like crazy, we have speed limit changes. We have road changes that we need to do, and we're helping the commissioners with
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (26:32):
Those. Oh, fantastic. So there's some questions that we love to ask all our guests that come on, and hopefully you're teed up for some of these because they're the tough ones of the day. So the first question I asked when we talked to Representative Raymond about this one recently, as somebody who loves the country studies history keeps up on current events and ask, when you look back on history, who are some political leaders that you really look up to and think, these are the type of people I would like to emulate?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (27:00):
Well, Ronald Reagan had a big influence in my life and his Reaganomics was what we studied. When I took economics in college. I have a degree in finance and I have an advanced degree in insurance, but economics was so important. And supply side economics were where we cut taxes and we allow businesses to thrive. That's what needs to happen. And we've done that in Idaho. We've cut taxes three years in a row in Idaho. We've gone from a higher percentage to a lower percentage. We've done 192 million in property tax relief this year. We have cut taxes and balanced the budget. I'm a member of JFAC. We do all the budgets. There's 118 budgets that we look at every single year. And I just admire the crafters of the Idaho constitution that allow us to have a balanced budget. And we keep that promise in Idaho. We balance the budget.
(27:58):
This year we projected to have 250 million in cash at the end of the year. We had 460 million I think in cash. We balanced the budget, we added cash to our reserves. We have all of our cash reserves as high as they can be in the state of I Idaho, we're still refunding money. And you may see another refund this year. And if you're a member of the Idaho, someone that lives in Idaho, you received a check from the Idaho legislature for $300 or $600 depending on or more depending on what your income was. But we've done that, and that's a concept of Reagan to lower taxes, lower regulation, let businesses do business, and we'll make more money if we lower tax, they'll make more money and pay more tax. So that's the concept we love.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (28:48):
Yeah, novel idea and comparing that to what happens with fiscal policy in Washington. DC's just such a stark difference in what we're doing in the GEM State. And you
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (28:54):
Would know that you've been there. But here, when I go to national conventions, I'm a member of the National Association of Insurance Legislators, and we go there and we talk about all the national legislations coming through, but everyone comes up to me and says, we just don't understand how you do budgets in Idaho. How do you get people together and balance those budgets on every single agency? And we say we have a joint finance committee where we look at those, we dive deep into those budgets. We ask the hard questions, do you really need that car? Do you really need that extra employee? Do you need that snowplow? We ask those tough questions and we keep our budgets where they should be and we keep our cash reserves where they should be and we make sure we don't go over that. So
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (29:40):
Speaking of jac, are you finding that some of the most challenging but also fulfilling the work you're doing?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (29:48):
Just this past session, they've allocated budgets out. I'm on the Medicaid side. I understand that insurance and Medicaid portion. I used to sell Medicare insurance supplements, but that's going to be a tough budget. They've had some audit issues this year, and yet even though they've messed up on their audit, people still need the services. And so we're going to have to look at that and make that budget balance, and we're going to have to make sure the services continue and we have more people coming on. However, this year, because of the Biden administration, they would not let us take anyone off of the Medicaid roles. So our Medicaid roles ballooned and we had like 130,000 people on Medicaid. But once the epidemic was over, pandemic was over and we were able to take those people off. We're now seeing people convert to individual policies. In fact, Idaho leaves the nation in converting people from Medicaid to individual policies, almost a 30% conversion. And we're giving talks all over the nation now on how we're doing that and how we coordinated that. And so we're doing a good job of getting people off of the Medicaid roles, which will reduce our costs. And then we're seeing the ARPA money that came from the government during the pandemic. It was like a pig and a python. It was going through the budget system. We're seeing that finder come out and we'll be able to manage that better and see true up our budgets
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (31:22):
Better. Yeah. See where we're at. Yeah. Next question. A book that you've read in your life that you think you'd recommend people read?
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (31:30):
Well, about the only thing I read are Bills in the Book of Mormon right now. But
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (31:38):
We got to give you some more flu read. Yeah,
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (31:40):
I some more. I always read sales books. Really, the scriptures for me are where it's at.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (31:47):
That's changed it love that. A restaurant in your vast district that you think if anyone's driving through district 31, they definitely need to stop at to eat.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (31:59):
Oh man, I love 'em all. If you're an island park, you want to do the Mexican restaurant
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (32:06):
Cafes Cafe.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (32:07):
Yeah. If you're in Salmon, you want to stop at the Amish. I hear
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (32:14):
They got good fried pies. Oh
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (32:16):
My goodness. And they're vanilla peaches. Really good. And then of course, if you're an island park, you want to go to the trout hunter and have a hamburger.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (32:26):
Yeah. Yeah. Those are some great recommendations. So representative, we start today talking about sports, talked about what you've done and how you raised your kids through it and how it relates to the legislature. We got into a lot of the other things that you've done in your personal life with your business and how that's helped you as you went to the legislature and helped the governor cut regulation. What we've done to help businesses and the business community went through a lot of the different things that you've accomplished in your relatively short political career and getting uninsured drivers off the road to getting teachers, helping 'em be insured. Your role with the INL supporting that as we've gone through all these things today as we wrap up, I want you to think about what kind of legacy you want Representative Rod Furniss to leave what you hope when you're gone. When I'm gone, people remember you. Bye.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (33:20):
That's a hard question For me. I would rather see those policies and remember it rather than me. Legislators come and go, but the policies we leave behind are what's important and how they affect people's lives. We want to keep people off the road that aren't insured. We want teachers to continue to teach. I'm okay if they don't remember Rod Furniss, but I want 'em to know that Idaho had an interest in teachers. We have an interest in business, we have an interest in the site, and if I can change the trajectory from bad to good, I'm okay. If they don't remember me, I want 'em to remember the policy.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (33:58):
Fantastic. I think that's wonderful words to leave us with. If anyone out there is trying to get ahold of you to tell you they're happy or hating you, what's the best way for your voters and kind of Idahoans in general to share their opinions with you? They're
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (34:14):
Welcome to call me. I have my number at the capital is forwarded to my cell phone. My cell phone. If you pull up Rod Furniss, you'll see my number, my address. You can write me a letter, you can email me, you can call me, I'll call you back. So happy to serve that way. And it is important to be kind. It's not that we don't have to agree, but we don't have to be disagreeable. And I actually like to hear both sides of every story, so I'm happy to hear your problem. I'm probably working on 20 bills that people have called and said, this is an unfair thing, or this needs to be fixed. And they see me as someone that can get legislation water to the end of the row. We have legislators that have been there for four years that have never passed a bill. We have legislators that are serving committees that won't bring a budget, and that's their job. So I would encourage your listeners to vet those candidates that can get the water to the end of the row and can do common sense legislation. Common sense legislation to me is legislation that passed the house, pass the Senate and the governor signed it. If he goes through all those steps, it's probably pretty good for Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (35:32):
Fantastic. Rod Furnace, district 31 effective legislator, unfortunately. A BYU fan. Yeah.
Representative Rod Furniss, District 31 (35:37):
Unfortunate. All right.
Brennan Summers, Exec. Director Main Street Idaho (35:38):
Thanks for joining us today, rod. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
