Here are some highlights and lowlights about spending and budgeting in the past few days in the legislature. (JFAC is the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, where I am a voting member. It is the committee which determines all state budgets and sends them for full consideration to the House and Senate. There are 20 House and Senate members on the committee.)
$ There is $2,557,941 of taxpayer money going to Idaho's four public colleges and universities specifically to advance critical race theory and the “social justice” ideology. These programs include things like implicit bias and skewed anti-racism training for faculty members, bureaucracies that discriminate against students based on sex and race, and programs to encourage students to participate in exclusively left-wing activism. Overall, at least $20,456,534 has been identified to directly or indirectly support the massive social justice infrastructure built by these institutions.
On Wednesday, JFAC voted to spend nearly $632 million for our four Universities and Colleges without cutting spending on social justice, critical race theory, and Marxist training. The sponsor of the winning motion claims the budget cut $409,000 to BSU, but it really didn't. The base budget for the four universities all increased, the governor's 5% holdbacks were restored, and the $409,000 was transferred to LCSC instead. The spending for higher education for all four universities was significantly higher in the budget. This is disappointing. For too long, we have tolerated biased, activist agendas on our campuses. We should take the strong step to de-fund all such programming from our colleges. The House will no-doubt have a robust debate to do what is needed rather than merely rubber-stamping more indoctrination. We need to return to the mission of higher education excellence.
$ On Tuesday, the House voted down a bill to accept $5,980,500 in federal grant money going to one non-profit organization: the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (IDAEYC). The problem with the grant was pointed out by Rep. Priscilla Giddings in her floor debate. The IDAEYC is part of a national organization, NAEYC, which as part of its mission, seeks to advance social justice and critical race theory programming even in pre-K education initiatives. The picture below is just one example of the topics they try to implement. There were many other instances cited during the debate, including book lists with racism and LGBTQ themes for preschool instruction. Finally, the IDAEYC includes in its goals to eventually transition to a full state-funded pre-K education system. While pre-K is important, it will definitely be more effective, more responsive, and better quality if run as private programs, rather than a centralized, state-funded program that is subject to these kinds of questionable programming.
$ JFAC approved an extra $240,000 for the Soil and Water Conservation budget even though neither the agency nor the governor requested the extra money. When a Representative asked to add $30,000 to the military division to help support training of the Civil Air Patrol, that increase was rejected because “the governor did not request it.” Double standards seem to be everywhere in the legislature.
$ JFAC did not approve a motion to stop taxpayer money from supporting biased, partisan content on Idaho Public Television. The full budget request of will go to the House for a vote next week. We should be able to fund the important parts of public television, like emergency alert broadcasting and Idaho In-session coverage, while ensuring public money does not go to biased, agenda driven programming.
$ Building needed projects and infrastructure in Idaho is always better than increasing spending to grow government. At least projects will lead to economic growth and jobs which increase prosperity. Growing government is a drain on the economy. JFAC will be voting on Friday to fund many highway infrastructure improvements across the state, such as road and bridge improvements, and highway maintenance. It will come to over $660 million. The committee already approved $50 million for important water projects in Mountain Home, southeastern Idaho, and the Egin lakes area of Madison and Fremont counties.
Hot Issues: Please give me your feedback
Below are some of the hot topics being discussed at the capitol. I want to represent what the people of rural Idaho think, not the special interests of Boise or Ada County, so please take a minute and email me your thoughts on these issues. (Click on links to see the bills).
H238 Wolves: This legislation changes the designation of wolves in some big game management units to "predator," and allows them to be hunted to reduce their populations. The minimum population would be 50 packs consisting of at least 500 wolves. The federally approved Idaho plan only mandated 15 packs and 150 wolves. Although collaring the wolves is required by law, Fish & Game has not done so, and there is no way to document the actual total wolf population. This legislation would ultimately create wolf sanctuary areas by restricting population control measures to 5 big game management areas, which would further exacerbate the devastation of livestock and wildlife in other areas. While this may seem like a good start to reducing wolf population, are the new restrictions worth the change?
H175 Mandating In-Person Instruction in Schools: Idaho State School Superintendent, Sherri Ybarra proposed this legislation; she claims it will help ensure that students are provided with access to in-person instruction (where safety requirements can be developed at the local level). The legislation mandates that school districts should attempt to the greatest extent as is practical to provide in-person instruction to any students who need it. While this sounds like a good bill, the vote was very close in committee because the superintendent added language expanding the mission of our public schools. The legislation states that a thorough system of public schools includes ensuring "Students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for meeting challenging academic achievement standards and succeeding in the workforce and in life". Do you think this is a quantifiable responsibility for the Deptartment of Education?
H215 Education Savings Accounts: This legislation creates a $35 million grant and scholarship program that allows up to 70,000 students to use a $500 grant for educational expenses at the school of their choosing. Students from families earning less than $75,000 would be eligible. The scholarship program allows parents to apply for scholarships amounting to 90% of average student funding in the state. Legislators have received hundreds of emails from concerned home school families who do not support this legislation because they think it gives too much control to the State Board of Education. The bill’s sponsor explains the bill will not interfere with or change any of the rights of Idaho parents to homeschool. The sponsor also says that the bill will not allow any regulation of homeschooling or give the state permission to monitor home school education. For those of you who have not emailed me on this issue yet, do you think this would be a good program?
H256 Require Accepting Cash in Sales: This act guarantees consumers making purchases subject to Idaho's sales & use tax will have the option to pay in cash if that is their choice. With more and more transactions being done electronically, some are worried about financial privacy and protecting us from eventually seeing all transactions being taxed. They want to be able to conduct transactions in cash--our designated legal tender. Do you think it is a good idea to require businesses to accept cash in transactions?
House Bills:
H1 Governor's Powers in Emergency House State Affairs
H4 Parental Rights in Disasters House Judiciary and Rules
H7 Idaho Treasury Gold/Silver Holdings Senate State Affairs
H21 Lemonade Stand Freedom Senate Local Gov't
H53 Electronic Public Notice House Failed
H56 Abolish Abortion House Ways and Means
H63 Vaccination Freedom House Ways and Means
H66 Bond and Levy Ballot Disclosure Senate Amending Orders
H77 Responsible Childhood Independence House Judiciary and Rules
H133 Idaho Roads and Bridges House Transportation
H135 Emergency Declarations, Rights Senate State Affairs
H140 Vaccination Freedom Protections Senate Commerce
H175 Mandates In-Person Public Schools Senate Education
H195 Targeted Picketing House Judiciary & Rules - dead
H199 Sales / Income Tax Cuts House Revenue & Taxation - dead
H213 Income Tax Exemption, Relief House Revenue & Taxation - dead
H215 Education Expenses, School Choice House Education - to be replaced
H216 Medicaid, Supplemental Appropriation Senate 3rd Reading
H238 Wolves, Predator & Hunting House Resources
H246 Disasters, Parental Rights Senate State Affairs
H256 Sales in Cash, Requirement House Revenue & Taxation
H281 Prohibiting Mask Mandates House State Affairs
HCR1 Resolution to End Emergency House State Affairs
HCR5 Gatherings and Group Size Senate State Affairs
HJR1 Legislature Calling Sessions Senate 3rd Reading
Senate Bills:
S1001 Disaster, Governor Powers Senate State Affairs
S1002 Disaster, Governor Spending Powers Senate State Affairs
S1003 Governor Powers, Martial Law Senate State Affairs
S1027 Idaho Wrongful Conviction Act Passed, to Governor
S1028 Minimum Wage Increase Senate State Affairs
S1044 Eminent Domain Limitation House 3rd Reading
S1069 Elections, Absentee Ballots House State Affairs
S1085 Fetal Heartbeat - Pro-Life Senate State Affairs
S1087 Smoking Age to 21 House Health & Welfare
S1099 Red Light Fines - Triple Senate Transportation
SCR101 Terminating Disaster Emergency Senate State Affairs
SJR101 Psychoactive Drugs Amendment House State Affairs
SJR102 Legislative Sessions, Special Call House State Affairs
You can learn more about all the legislation being considered in the legislature.
Just check the House and Senate Reading Calendars found at the links below:
House Reading Calendar: https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/agenda/hcal/
Senate Reading Calendar: https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/agenda/scal/
Land in Idaho is mostly controlled by the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and other federal agencies/interests (63.2% total). Private ownership comes in at 30%. With the federal government controlling so much land in Idaho, we lack the ability to fully utilize Idaho's most precious resources for our prosperity, livelihood, recreation and conservation. We need to work on getting more direct control of our lands.
What Does the AG Know About Economics?
The Idaho Attorney General's Office sued three convenience stores for alleged price gouging (on fuel) last summer. Even though Idaho had the lowest wholesale-to-retail margins in the US, and they had not raised their prices during the COVID "emergency," the 3 Idaho companies agreed to a millions-of-dollars settlement. Not agreeing to the settlement would have allowed the AG’s office to go on an extended investigation into all of the companies’ business filings. Because of the AG's actions the senate introduced S1041, which will change the law to limit price gouging standards to investigate whether there were increasing prices during an emergency--and not how big the margins were. The AG’s investigation last year was based on the decrease of wholesale prices, but not retail prices, creating a wider margin. The bill passed unanimously in the senate and will be voted on in the house in the next week.
Even so, the entire section of code on price gouging is misguided for two reasons: 1. Neither the AG's office nor anyone else is equipped to understand the economics and to assimilate all the information about supply chains and consumer demand to determine what is a "fair" price and what is "price gouging"--nobody is that brilliant. 2. Prices for necessities absolutely need to go up in an emergency because supply is more difficult right when demand increases. The higher prices will incentivize suppliers to get more product while simultaneously incentivizing buyers to conserve on their purchases and consumption. High prices do exactly what is needed in a crisis: increase supply and temper demand. Price gouging laws are misguided because they replace good incentives with shortages -- how can that be good?
|
