Kumbaya

(The contents of this article are the opinion of the author and not necessarily of the Gem State Patriot.)

Repeal the Grocery Tax—ASAP

Property tax relief with a “mark to sale” property tax vs a “mark to market” tax—this session—please and thank you.

Accountability of government agencies (DHW) and (DE) that are conduits for over $100 million of transfer payments and to those entities that receive over $100 million of transfer payments—large hospital systems and public schools, this session please. Outside independent signed partner audits—not internal audits by government cronies are imperative. The cost of the audits would pay for themselves, by the waste that they would uncover.

These were the issues that concerned me the most going into this legislative session. I believe most Idahoans are very concerned about the first two, and if they understood the issues surrounding the third, they would be livid about the fungible monies that find their way into the pockets of senior administrators in our schools and hospital systems and not into the hands of students—and their families, and patients.

Why are our legislators standing with glazed eyes looking into the sights of special interest lobbyists and their corporate underwriters (IEA, IMA, IHA, IACI)? Follow the money. Go to The Governor’s Cup and see who picks up the tab for lunch, golf or skeet and trap. Follow campaign dollars. Idaho is a small state, and we have a citizen’s legislature, but the process of governance in our state has been tainted by the monied class of corporations, non-profits (inside and outside the state), and a system of legacy ascendancy to leadership positions in all branches of government. Look where many of the managers in our state agencies come from—the industries that they are now charged with regulating. Can we all sing “Kumbaya” —Queue Joan Biaz.

When you watch this, You Tube Video it looks like a legislative committee looking fawningly at lobbyist or a representative from the Governor’s office testifying. And they all join for the second and third verses—”It was a tuff session, but we did the people’s business, “Kumbaya”. Alex LeBeau sings tenor— or is it soprano?

There is one legislator who is not singing along. Judy Boyle. God Bless Judy Boyle, R- Midvale who had the political courage to stand up and walk out and resign her committee position on the House Education Committee after colleagues voted down a bill to ban school and public libraries from distributing “harmful materials” to minors. I wish such courage was contagious, but there appears to be “herd immunity” in the Boise capital against placing principle above process.

Process should be informed by principles. Principles should be the predicate for government and process should be the tool used to leverage principle. Those rising to ascendancy and the voices of those who control the process of government understand that power comes with a price, but they fail to understand that there is a cost—a cost to the people whose voice is being muffled on many issues. Thank you, Representative Boyle, for rising above process and standing by your principles.

We need leadership in our State that will stand up to the corporate lobbyists and teachers unions—think Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. The status quo in Idaho—kicking the “legislative can” down the road (Medicaid is about to explode or implode), woke indoctrination and LGBTQ pedagogy are ubiquitous in our educational system from kindergarten to WAMI (Washington—Alaska—Montana—Idaho) medical school sensitivity training and having to agree in writing to participate in abortions during medical school rotations.

I respectfully ask of our leaders in government: “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

Thank you, Judy Boyle, for showing us how to answer those questions.