With the enormous influx of new residents in the great state of Idaho, I thought it would a good idea to welcome all of the newbies to our state but also to inform them of how Idaho has been changing over the past two decades. I myself was a transplant to this wonderful state from the east coast in 1993 a year where Idaho had the biggest influx of new residents since they started counting in 1958. Times are not much different now in terms of the inflow of newbies except for the fact that we have had 2 decades of government run by crony political elitists and developers. Having come from the New York, New Jersey area I must tell you that the past 29 years here in the Gem State have been the best years of my life. We were accustomed to living in one of the most populated areas of the country and resettled in one of the least populated states which I’m convinced has added years to my life. We came here seeking peace, quiet, low taxes, less congestion along with a simpler more conservative way of life. I’m not going to lie and say we didn’t encounter a certain amount of culture shock moving to the town of New Meadows population of 600 from one of the highest populated states and cities in the country because the change was not only shocking but life changing.
Getting Comfortable in our new home: At first, we were considered outsiders like many of the new transplants are now but as the locals saw that we were not just buying a vacation home and didn’t bring any baggage with us we acquired many new friends and become very involved in our Homeowners association the local Chamber of Commerce and eventually in many community activities. Living in Rural Idaho was quite a change for us as you had limited access to shopping for just about anything unless you wanted to take the four-hour round trip journey to the Treasure Valley. The good parts were not having to lock up your car and house every time you left them alone as crime was not a factor. Idaho was a real paradise for my wife and I and to this day I’m glad we made the decision to settle here. By 2004 most of our close friends had moved to the Treasure Valley to be near large medical facilities as everyone was getting older and had more psychical ailments so we followed them and wound up building a home in Meridian on a golf course. This too was a pleasant area to live in with many conveniences within walking distance.
Corruption begins to rear its ugly head: All was well in paradise until the election of Butch Otter in 2006. Butch was the consummate glad-handing back-slapping politician pretending to be a cowboy except for the fact that he kept falling off of his horse. Butch was a member of the good old boys club and married J.R. Simplot’s only daughter and became chief executive of the Simplot Corp. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Simplot’s they made Idaho famous for its potatoes and became one of if not the wealthiest family in the State… This was certainly the first stepping stone to Otters 12 yearlong rule of Idaho. Otter was one of Idaho’s elite in-crowd that helped turn our state into what I believe is one of the most politically corrupt entities in America with the help of the former chairman of IACI and our current governor Brad Little. You might say together these two were involved in more scandals than in all of Idaho’s history. Between the broken contracts for Wi-Fi in our schools, the Correction Corp of America scandal and the 61 million wasted on a program run by Pearson Management called “School Net”, they cost Idaho’s taxpayers well over $100 million dollars. These were just a few of the scandals under Otter and Littles 16 year rule.
What is the cost of population growth: Otter and Little are also responsible for bringing Obamacare to our state with the Idaho Health Care Exchange which was backed by IACI “The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry”, causing tens of thousands of Idahoans to have their health care insurance canceled. They also were responsible for opening up the bottomless pit of Medicaid Expansion in our state where now Medicare plus Medicaid expansion are expected to consume between 3 and 4 billion dollars of Idaho’s budget in 2022 while Education will come in 2nd with 2 billion and Pensions 3rd with 1 plus billion. On the surface this looks reasonable until you pull back the curtain and find that Idaho ranks 36th in education in the country and that we have the 4th highest number 39.9% of ineligible recipients on our Medicaid rolls. Idaho’s education and Healthcare budgets have doubled since 2015 while our standing in education is at the bottom third of the country. You would also think with such a huge Medicaid budget Idaho would have a strong mental health program but alas that is virtually nonexistent. While Idaho was the second fastest growing state in the last decade the cost of adding 242,000 additional residents since just 2015 has doubled our education budget to 2 billion and our healthcare budget to almost 4 billion. Does anyone see anything wrong with these numbers?
Idaho’s once conservative government: has turned into a limitless spending albatross around the necks of the taxpayers under the Otter/ Little administrations. Our infrastructure has been neglected for years while property taxes have soared unabated along with the cost of housing. We are still one of only seven states that taxes groceries. Governor Little talks about the wonderful surplus that Idaho has and how the legislature is going to cut income taxes by .5% which is great if you are a corporation or a high-end earner but the average family will continue to struggle with little or no relief. Idahoans need to ask the question why do we have such a large surplus of $1.9 billion? The more important question is why isn’t all of this surplus being redistributed back to the taxpayers who bore the brunt of paying the taxes that created this surplus?
New Comers to Idaho “LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP”: If you’re looking for a conservative government you will no longer find it in Idaho as the crony Republican elitists have taken over control and don’t expect them to let go without a serious fight. You may still find some comfort by living in one of the conservative counties of the state as I have but if you are expecting to find “The Nirvana of Conservatism” in any of the larger more populated counties you will find most of them in the process of turning a bright shade of BLUE. Taxes continue to climb and fixing infrastructure will be more expensive and challenging in our more populated communities. The only thing for certain anymore in Idaho is since the Crony Republicans like Otter and Little took over is “Death & Taxes. By the way, Idaho is still under a State of Emergency thanks to Governor Little. Welcome one and all too soon to be Blue Idaho.
“We Get the Government We Deserve”
