Idaho is growing faster than most of us can keep up with. New subdivisions appear almost overnight. Cities expand their boundaries. State lawmakers celebrate population increases as a mark of success. Growth has become the headline.
But in the middle of this boom, something deeper is being forgotten: the difference between growth politics and governance.
Governance is the quiet, steady work of keeping a community safe and functional. It’s the sheriff who answers a call, the fire crew that reaches a burning home, the road grader that clears a pass in winter, and the clerk who records a deed so property rights are clear. Governance isn’t flashy, but it’s what makes life possible.
Growth politics is louder. It thrives on headlines and social media posts. It rewards annexations, tax caps, and ribbon cuttings. It celebrates what’s new, but often ignores the cost of keeping it safe, maintained, and sustainable.
Idaho politics today lean heavily toward growth politics. And no level of government feels that imbalance more acutely than the counties.
Counties are the backbone of governance in Idaho. They fund sheriffs and jails, fire districts, road departments, public health, courts, animal services, and records. Yet while their responsibilities are essential, their ability to fund them is increasingly restricted.
The clearest example is House Bill 389, passed in 2021. Marketed as “property tax relief,” it capped local property tax revenue growth at 8% and discounted the amount of new construction counties can count toward their budgets. The result: counties gain less from growth, even as the costs of growth skyrocket.
The Strain on County Budgets The effects of this imbalance are visible across Idaho:
- Public Safety: Sheriffs’ offices face rising call volumes as populations grow, but funding for new jails has stalled. Two of Idaho’s largest counties have failed multiple times to secure voter approval for new facilities. With the expiration of the local option tax, counties no longer have a workable funding tool.
- Emergency Services: In Boise County, fire and ambulance service is largely volunteer-based. Last winter, a house burned within sight of a station, but the truck couldn’t climb the hill. This is not a failure of will; it is a failure of resources.
- Humane Services: In Canyon County, the West Ada animal shelter continues to run at a shortfall. The humane treatment of lost or abandoned animals is a basic expectation in modern communities, yet even that is proving hard to fund under current budget rules.
- Infrastructure: County road crews are tasked with maintaining roads and bridges that see heavier traffic each year. Growth adds vehicles, but HB 389 limits the revenue available to keep infrastructure safe.
- Courts and Records: More people mean more cases, marriages, deeds, and administrative work. These quiet but essential functions are stretched as thin as deputies or fire crews.
Each of these examples shows the same pattern: counties are tasked with governance but constrained by growth politics.
State and City Drive Growth, Counties Pay the Bill: The imbalance grows worse when viewed alongside the roles of other governments.
- The state passes laws like HB 389 that look good politically but strip counties of revenue. At the same time, legislators often chase national talking points and social media followings, more meme-makers than policymakers.
- Cities expand boundaries and approve new subdivisions, gaining sales tax and prestige. But the burden of public safety, infrastructure, and records for those new residents often falls on counties.
- Counties, meanwhile, are left with governance responsibilities that don’t shrink and can’t be deferred: law enforcement, roads, fire, records, animal control, and courts.
Growth Without Governance Is Hollow: Idahoans take pride in being practical people. But practical governance is being starved while growth politics is rewarded. The counties reveal this tension most clearly because they are where the daily responsibilities of government meet the consequences of rapid growth.
Unless Idaho rebalances, communities will face longer response times for emergencies, overcrowded jails, unsafe roads, and even basic humane services left unfunded.
Growth may make headlines, but governance makes Idaho livable. Without it, growth is hollow.
