BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little spent time Friday diving into a variety of topics in an extended interview with KTVB. Little touched on his volatile relationship with Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, the longest legislative session in history, and lessons learned through the pandemic during a conversation with KTVB reporter Joe Parris. The conversation began with questions on the recent executive order battle between Little and McGeachin.
Joe Parris: “It's been compared to when parents go out of town and kids throw a party, you go to Nashville for a conference, lots of action happens while you're away. Is this something that was a concern while you were boarding the flight here in Idaho that, okay, we know that when I leave lieutenant governor becomes governor, they could act?
Governor Little: “Not really, I’m aware of that because obviously that was a job I used to have for quite some time. But I wasn't losing sleep over it.
Parris: Certainly, a unique relationship between you and the lieutenant governor and it's not anything new, it's been well documented that there are times where it doesn't appear the offices are on the same page but you've still got plenty of time before any elections to govern the state with the second highest elected official. Are there concerns about coordination between the offices or do you feel you can push through, professionally and there won't be any issues?
Little: People of Idaho expect us to get things done and to work together and that's going to be my goal.
Parris: I know when you put out your release a week ago, people noted that it was very strongly worded, something that some didn't expect. What to you was the focus and having such a strongly worded and direct statement in terms of your executive order to undo an executive order?
Little: If we would have had a heads up, would have been able to have a dialogue about it prior to the issue, it would have been different but the fact that it was something that we weren't aware of until the secretary of state called me. And I just wanted everyone to know that, I don't think that's what people in Idaho expect.
Parris: Did the events of last week, change the course of your plan of action or any arrangements you had for the next year, or is it to you just maybe, just a bump in a road?
Little: It was, it was a bump in the road but we'll, we will get by.
Parris: Very notable legislative session, of course everyone in the media, we like to talk about how it was the longest but when you think back to your State of the State address, the ideas that you had outlined, did everything that you wanted to get accomplished get accomplished, or do you feel there's a lot left on the table?
Little: We gave them the ideas and they implemented them, it took plenty of time but I was pleased to check off the items. Tax relief, getting these kids caught back up, more investments in schools, the career ladder to pay teachers. And then of course transportation which I've talked about for 11 years when I chaired the transportation task force for Governor Otter - we finally got a big, bold, sustainable transportation plan implemented.
Parris: On the property tax bill, you sent mixed signals to Idahoans. It's signed into law but in your transmittal letter you wrote, essentially you had some concerns about it, some grave concerns about it. I talked with the majority leader, Representative Mike Moyle, he said well this is the first stab at it, of course, pick this up again. Do you think the lawmakers could have accomplished more on property tax?
Little: Yeah, perhaps, a lot of my objection was the fact that it was kind of the last day in a lot of people didn't have a chance to have the input. The counties were kind of okay with it. The cities had problems with it but a lot of it is, we're not sure how it's going to be interpreted. And we've been working on that, I've been working on with tax commission, with the cities, with the sponsors of the bill. I’ve already shifted some personnel at the tax commission over to help the cities, to ensure that they can implement this and it's not going to be too onerous.
Parris: It's almost like a compliment of the problem that since you've been governor, Idaho is such a place that people want to live in, people flooding in from around the country. A lot of people talk about the conservative values in the state, others just talking about it being a family-friendly area, and you can welcome all these people in the state, but how do you balance, welcoming newcomers and making sure that longtime Idahoans aren't priced out of their neighborhoods and they're forced to go live somewhere else?
Little: Well, when I was in Nashville last week, I turned on the news in the morning I thought I was watching Channel 7. They were talking about the problem with housing affordability and growth in Nashville, but frankly I don't think there's any states that have the rate of growth that we have here in Idaho. As I say, we're victims of our own success, but a lot of those issues are best addressed at the city and county level. We want to help all we can to help the cities and counties cope and plan for growth.
Parris: The critical race theory bill that you signed, there seem to be two camps that supported it. One said, this happening in Idaho and we have to stop it from happening, and then the other camp was, it's not happening in Idaho, but we want to make sure that it never happens. Do you see yourself in either of those two camps?
Little: I'm definitely in the second camp - it's not happening in Idaho and my signing statement of that bill which, I wasn’t very excited about, what I really didn't like was the indication that it was a problem in Idaho. Even the sponsors of that legislation said it wasn't a problem in Idaho. It was kind of a blocking maneuver to keep it out of here. I frankly don't want to talk about it that much because it isn’t existing, and it's derogatory to the professionalism that’s taken place in the class here and I know there's just great work being done, particularly this year, with all the sacrifices that teachers had to make.
Parris: Clearly the news cycle has been very cluttered, over the last year with an election, a pandemic, a lot of things have gone under the radar. I know I've talked to lawmakers and this happened, no one knows about it, this happened, no one knows about it for you. What's something that we're not talking about, Idahoans aren't talking about, that you're very proud of you wish people saw something that happened?
Little: Well, transportation was a big one that's what I've been working on for a long, long time. And of course, the first, impact of it is, there's going to be those orange cones out there and they'll probably name a few of them ‘Brad’ and people might even run them over them while they're out there, but you know it's the right thing to do to plan for prudent investment in the future. For both safety and for congestion, because one of the things that when it gets all said and done, is it saves people time their most precious commodity.
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