My friends,
Branden Durst and I worked on a bill to end state funding for abortion providers last year and we were successful in having it become law. This year we drafted legislation to protect parents’ rights regarding their children’s school. The first hearing was Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee. Senator Den Hartog advocated for this bill in committee showing her commitment to parent’s sacred right to oversee every aspect of their children’s lives. The bill failed to get a print (the first step in becoming law) due to a tied vote. Republicans Carl Crabtree and Jim Woodward voted with the Democrats on the committee to not give the bill a hearing.
When I ran for office 6 years ago, I promised to listen to the people in my district and to represent that voice in the Idaho House of Representatives. Six years later serving as your Senator, I am still listening to you and representing your voice.
What has changed, is that over the years I have learned that not everyone listens to us. From the beginning, two issues have always been a consistent concern. The tax on food and property tax.
The tax on food is criminal at best. The notion of a direct tax on a necessity has hit our families hard. When inflation is figured into that mix, the government has a windfall. Families lose.
Indirect tax by way of sales tax was I believe the intent of the honest lawmakers that looked to this system to collect funds to provide the very few and defined services that maintain order in a republic.
The right to own property is God-given natural law, the pursuit of happiness is protected constitutionally. Property tax is theft of a most basic right. How do we justify, hospitals, who claim to be not for profit, purchasing the most expensive properties in the state, not paying property tax, and then grandma having to sell her home to pay the taxes and her hospital bills? Perhaps the hospitals have more influence over some lawmakers than grandma.
I have traveled my district and many parts of the state, I have answered hundreds of emails and taken hundreds of phone calls, those two issues have not changed. I believe the atrocities that have been thrust upon the good people of this state by the governor, his executive branch bureaucratic agencies, and the federal government, over the last two years, have made the need for these two taxes to be done away with more urgent than ever.
The House Revenue and Tax committee printed H436, an income tax recalculation bill.
https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2022/legislation/H0436.pdf
I am counting on this being the beginning of some very real tax relief. So that grandma will not lose her home on her fixed income, paying her hospital and property tax bills.
This past year gun owners have seen some good and some bad. The highlight of the year so far must be the Rittenhouse court decision. Though we cheer that he was found not guilty of murder, just the fact that a prosecuting attorney would seek charges with the massive amount of evidence proving beyond a doubt he defended his own life, is unbelievable and simply a miscarriage of all that is just.
We can celebrate this win; however, it is important that in celebrating we look at the real issue this situation presented. There should never have been a trial. Had Mr. Rittenhouse, been a man with a family, property, or career, his life would have been devastated to a greater extent than it is. Had good people not stepped up and offered financial support, how would he have defended his position or even been bonded out of prison?
You have the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to keep and bear arms that shall not be infringed. Yet we see this basic right attacked daily. This year Representative Priscilla Giddings, and I will sponsor criminal immunity to go with Idaho’s stand your ground law. This will provide for restitution from the government if you are tried and found not guilty by way of self-defense. The rationale is that over-eager woke prosecutors will want to think twice before pursuing charges against you for legally defending what is yours.
No amount of money will make you whole after enduring such an event. The fact that a life was taken for any reason is a horrific event. Follow that with the family stress, financial stress, and the public objectivity that occurs. I hope to see a higher bar of accountability that any honest public official should welcome.
We will be asking for your support and ask you to contact your legislators when the bill is ready for a hearing.
30 of Idaho’s conservative legislators signed on to the Idaho Conservative Agenda. We held a press conference on the first day of the session to share the agenda and to show our support and readiness to hit the ground ready to make a difference for Idahoans. Ask your legislators if they signed on, if they did ask them to send you copies of the agenda, if not ask them why they didn’t. Copies of the agenda are available for you to share with your family and friends.
Another very important issue that must be addressed is that of bodily autonomy and medical freedom. Though I have addressed the concept that employers have the right to set workplace standards, it is against everything good and natural to require something from an employee that they cannot leave at the door at the end of the day. Workplace safety requirements end at the door.
If the government will not interfere with business, then all tax breaks, licensure, and regulation should end. What gives those in the legislature the right to pick and choose how they are involved in government?
This past year it was such an honor to represent you as a Club for Growth 2021 Fellow along with 3 other Idahoans, Rep Ron Nate, Rep Priscilla Giddings, State Treasurer Julie Ellsworth.
I received a 100% American Conservative Union voting score, with a lifetime of 97%. I share this not to boast, only to share with you what together we have accomplished. I am just a reflection of your support.
https://clubforgrowthfoundation.org/fellowship/fellows-2021/
This past summer my heart was filled with hope, being a Hazlitt member I attended Revolution 2021, with thousands of Young Americans for Liberty. Guest speakers included Ron Paul, to see the next generation of Americans fired up, taking action, being engaged, and really understanding what freedom, and liberty is, was beyond words.
I have learned serving you in the legislature, is that what I vote against is as important as what bills I may carry or what I vote for. When you review legislation, and you see a problem let me know what you find. It is hard to see all the unintended consequences. This is how the Red Flag gun law happens. We can’t ever stop watching everything that happens in this building.
In closing know that there are some very real and tough challenges ahead of us. We are being divided in every way possible. Don’t stand for this, I think of my dad every day, he was wise beyond his years, which on this earth were very short. He would often say, “We all bleed red.” Though we battle the evil that does seek to take our freedom, our ability to choose our own destiny, we must always remember who we are.
Live every day to the fullest, prepare every needful thing. Pray to God to watch over your family, community, state, and country.
God bless and thank you for your prayers and support.
One reply on “A Legislative Update from Senator Christy Zito”
Too many Republicans’ place process ahead of principle. The lobbyists are more influential than constituents. The property tax is here to stay but, it is a tax on wealth and investment and as such it is a tax on money that has already been taxed. With rising home values and rising taxes based on those assessments the property tax becomes a tax on an unrealized capital gain.