BOISE, Idaho —
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Gov. Brad Little, in his annual on-the-record "Headliner" Q-and-A with the Idaho Press Club this morning, was asked about emergency changes to state election laws that lawmakers are considering right before the upcoming May primary election. “It does concern me that you change the rules and a whole bunch of the electorate would not be aware of the change,” Little said.
“We should make it easier for people to vote and harder for there to be fraud there,” he said.
But the governor also said, “I am concerned about changing the rules. There’s a whole lot of people of Idaho that are not going to be aware of it if they make a significant change.”
He also addressed an array of other issues, from affordable housing to full-day kindergarten. This year's event was held via Zoom. Here are some highlights of the governor's comments:
MCGEACHIN AND AFPAC
The governor was asked about a tweet he sent out on Tuesday, which said, “It is extremely unfortunate anyone in elected office in Idaho must make statements like these but let me be clear — I fully reject racism in all forms. There is no place for racism and hate in the great State of Idaho. As Governor, I will continue to stand up for Idahoans' values and work to make our state a place where our children and grandchildren choose to stay."
Asked why he sent that, Little said, “For the most part because we were getting a lot of inquiries. I find it a little ironic that I have to tweet out we need to condemn that, after I’ve done two proclamations, I think, in the last month, one of them on the anniversary of the order to intern the Japanese in the United States and the other one where we always commemorate the Holocaust. So I did it basically in response to a lot of inquiries.”
Asked if those inquiries were about Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s taped address to the AFPAC white nationalist gathering in Florida, Little said, “There might’ve been some.” Asked to expand on that, he demurred, saying, “I’m here talking about our Leading Idaho Initiative and what’s taking place in the Legislature.”
PROGRESS OF LEGISLATIVE SESSION
“I talk about my trifecta, which is significant investments and improvements in education; obviously roads, unmet maintenance need in our roads, and the largest-ever tax cut,” he said. “And all three of those, the tax cut’s law already. And the other two, we’ve already got the teacher insurance authorizing language. Yesterday I signed the authorizing bill for the Strong Students program. … I talked to several members of the Education Committee last night, and those are all progressing. So my three real big agenda items are all doing well, and it’s only the 2nd of March, so that’s not bad.”
RELATIONSHIP WITH LEGISLATURE
Asked about his relationship with lawmakers compared to last year’s contentious session, Little said, “Our system’s built where there’s always a healthy friction between the legislative branch and the executive branch.” He noted, “There was lot of turmoil with people’s concerns about COVID last year, and with our numbers, and the concern about it, the fact that people are vaccinated, the fact that we’re the second-fastest state in the nation recovering from the detrimental effects of COVID in the economy, I think that that’s obviously part of the reason” that relations are better this year. “I was at the pre-game for the basketball game last night and talked to a lot of legislators,” he said. “I think my relationship’s pretty good with ‘em.”
‘CLOSE TO CONSENSUS’ ON FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN
“There was a meeting in here that I was part of yesterday afternoon,” the governor said, “and again I spoke to some of the legislators last night, we’re getting awful close to a pretty good consensus. … Its not quite finalized, but we’re really down to some details.”
“My big issue is I want these kids reading proficiently and I know that kindergarten’s a big part of it,” he said. “I want to make sure there’s resources there … because it’s still optional kindergarten. These kids that don’t go to kindergarten, that the schools have adequate resources to help those kids get caught back up. And we are having fruitful discussions with the Legislature about that very issue.”
Schools have the option of offering full-day kindergarten now, he noted, but don’t have the funding. “The fact that I proposed $47 million for literacy on top of the other literacy money, that gets us there,” he said.
GROCERY TAX
Asked about sales taxes on groceries and possible increases to the grocery tax credit, Little said, “That’s kind of slowed down. We haven’t talked about it in leadership meetings for a few weeks.”
WORKFORCE HOUSING
Little has proposed a workforce housing initiative to tap federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help with gap financing for affordable housing projects in Idaho, but the bill hasn’t moved yet; a new version was just introduced this week. “I would advise the legislators, to when they go home on the weekend and talk to people about what their biggest problem is, talk to employers, talk to schools, talk to hospitals,” he said. “We’re victims of our own success. The economy in Idaho is white-hot. That would be a pretty good description of it. And one of the symptoms of a white-hot economy is you’ve got more jobs than you’ve got houses and people.”
“Almost every major employer I talk to talks about the critical need,” he said, “and that includes schools, hospitals, fill in the blank. And so hope springs eternal. I assume that something’s going to happen.” He noted that rising mortgage interest rates will only increase costs going forward.
“Back again to my goal, I want our kids to stay here,” Little said. “Well, they might have to rent for their first few years. They’ve got to have rentals and they’ve got to have houses.”
TENT ENCAMPMENT PROTEST
Asked about the weeks-long tent encampment protest across the street from the Capitol that’s aimed at drawing attention to issues surrounding homelessness, the governor said, “We are a country and a state under the rule of law. We have a federal court, 9th Circuit Court ruling that people have the right to use tents as a freedom of speech to make their point about homelessness … but they can’t camp. And there’s some other things they can’t do there.”
“It will not be there forever,” he said. “In April, sprinklers come on and that’s going to make it a little complicated for ‘em. But we’re going to honor their right. I’m not excited about it. It makes me grumpy sometimes when I see it. But it is their right to make that protest.”
He noted that Idaho State Police issued some more citations there yesterday. “I don’t know how long it’s going to last,” Little said. “I would advocate to those activists over there that they may not be helping their case on some of the things that they want to get done.”
EXECUTION SECRECY
The governor spoke out in favor of legislation now moving through the Legislature to keep sources of execution drugs secret, though he said it almost certainly will generate lawsuits. “There will be litigation. There always is on a capital case,” he said. “Those are very significant and somber laws, and the court system will weigh in, I’m certain. But this law is modeled after a lot of states. … The need for this kind of legislation has arrived.”
He said, “You won’t be able to take a person’s life if you don’t have the means to do it. So you either have capital punishment or you don’t have capital punishment. The shield law is just one of the necessary pieces of legislation to have capital punishment.”
STATE VS. LOCAL CONTROL
With an array of legislation this year aimed at shifting control from the local to the state level, Little was asked about the trend. “One of the biggest problems we have in Idaho right now is growth, coping with growth,” he said. “And it is awful hard. ... The solution’s not here in Boise, the solution’s your county commission, your Planning & Zoning, your city council, your local school board, how you cope with growth. And we need to be very careful ... that we don’t hamstring those communities in how they handle it.”
Asked if he’d veto bills on that basis, Little said, “Each one of ‘em will have to stand on its own, but that’s my overarching message is if we, Idaho collectively, are concerned about growth, who better to handle it than somebody at the local level?”
“It's different in almost every taxing district in every community,” he said. “And that’s why a resolution to a problem in one area sometimes starts a bigger problem.”
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press. Read more at IdahoPress.com
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