COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho — On Saturday, November 23, eight of Kootenai County’s twelve legislators participated in a pre-session town hall at the Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene. The lawmakers discussed an ambitious agenda spanning tax code, regulatory oversight, education, and cultural issues.
District 3 Senator Doug Okuniewicz, who is running for the senate’s top leadership position, told constituents that “the floodgates for more conservative things” will occur if he is elected as the Pro Tempore by fellow Republican senators. He said he would appoint conservative committee chairs who are known as “gatekeepers for all legislation.” Commonly referred to as “Doug O,” Okuniewicz said he is on board with repealing the sales tax on groceries.
Unless Governor Brad Little has changed his mind since 2019 when he stated his support to “eliminate the grocery tax once and for all” in his State of the State address, it looks like this conservative objective has its best chance of becoming law since former Governor Butch Otter vetoed a grocery tax repeal bill in 2017.
There are some policy and advocacy groups like Mountain State Policy Center that have been opposed to repealing the grocery tax, preferring tax rebates to the elimination of sales tax.
Sales taxes are more stable and pro-growth than other forms of taxation – especially income taxes. Policymakers can better serve citizens by adopting higher yearly grocery tax rebates and focusing additional tax relief on reducing income taxes.
Chris Cargill, Mountain State Policy Center 2022
Both Rep. Dale Hawkins and Rep. Heather Scott hold house seats in District 2, which spans all of Benewah, Clearwater, and Shoshone counties, as well as parts of Kootenai and Bonner counties. Scott has 48 bills she hopes to manage this session in addition to her work as the co-chair of the Idaho Freedom Caucus. According to Scott, the conservative caucus has become “better organized” and the vision for its legislative agenda has three priorities:
- Reclaim sovereignty and liberty; focusing on individual rights over collective rights and limiting federal intrusion.
- Empower the local economy and education; removing global objectives.
- Uphold traditional values and virtuous leaders; focusing on Americanism in culture, the mother/father family structure, and eliminating woke agendas.
Rep. Vito Barbieri, who is starting his eighth term in the house, said the education budget is out of control. In 2011, it was $1 billion and has now ballooned to $5.2 billion, a 420% increase in 13 years.
All of the attending legislators agreed that education is fully-funded and that districts who pass supplement levies do so because they want to do more than what is required to educate children and because the administrative positions are consuming too much of the district’s budget. They said no matter how much is given, the education lobby is never satisfied. “It is never enough.”
To put it into context, last year the education budget was increased by 16 percent and special funding was passed specifically to give teachers a pay raise. According to Rep. Elaine Price, local school districts used those funds to increase administrator’s pay too. Additionally, Barbieri reminded the audience that $2 billion was appropriated specifically for school building maintenance. “Where is all the money going?”
Hawkins summed it up by stating we are “taxed to death to keep alive a dying system” and believes that 40% proficiency averages in reading and math show that districts are failing students. All legislators echoed Hawkins’ support for an opt-in school choice bill which is expected to hit the floors of both chambers in the upcoming session. Whether the governor will veto the school choice legislation remains an area of concern. The most likely form would be a tax credit that allows education dollars to follow the student.
When asked what each legislator would like to eliminate should Idaho attempt a Trump-style Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Okuniewicz was the only one to go for a whole department. “Eliminate the Department of Commerce since it basically only tries to bring people here and has a $200 million budget.”
Price and Hawkins would advocate for an end to all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in public schools. Sen. Carl Bjerke and Rep. Tony Wisniewski would reform Medicaid, which would include repealing Medicaid expansion, drug testing, and investigations of fraud and abuse. Scott and Alfieri would end the governor’s LAUNCH program, calling it a “socialist” and “crony capitalist” program that essentially forces taxpayers to train workers for specific industries. Barbieri would stop all funding for public television and Scott pointed out that the Idaho Constitution only requires the state to fund uniform common schools, not colleges and universities. “Stop funding woke indoctrination centers.”
According to Barbieri, the key to advancing conservative policies is to control the NGOs (non government organizations) and administrative rules. He was able to pass legislation that requires both chambers to pass a rule before it goes into effect, but said there is more work to be done, including a Sunset Clause to return oversight to the legislature and committees that would meet out-of-session throughout the year to review agency rules. “It would be a lot of work.”
There was an air of excitement amongst the lawmakers who believe the time is right to get things done in the 2025 session. “We have more conservatives in the legislature now than ever before,” stated Scott who just finished her fifth term.
