Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Melissa Davlin: Local elections have the lowest voter turnouts, but some of the biggest impacts on your property taxes and services you receive or in some cases, don't.

We take a look at results from Tuesday's elections.

I'm Melissa Davlin, Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News.

And Doctors Stephanie Witt and Jaclyn Kettler of Boise State University's school of Public Service join me to discuss results and turnout from Tuesday's local elections.

But first, early Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed the so-called big beautiful bill by a margin of one vote.

Among many other things, the omnibus spending bill includes $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $300 billion in cuts to SNAP, while increasing tax cuts for seniors and tax credits for children.

Plus billions in spending for the Department of Defense and Border Security.

It raises the debt ceiling by $3.8 trillion.

Both of Idaho's House members voted yes on the bill.

After the vote, Congressman Russ Fulcher said, quote, There's more work to be done, but this legislation delivers major policy wins for the American people and sends a bold, transformative package to the Senate, one that advances President Trump's agenda and helps usher in a new era of American prosperity.

Congressman Mike Simpson said, quote, There is no greater time than right now to provide historic tax relief for hard working Americans, restore energy independence, and make President Trump's border security policies permanent.

Among other important provisions, I am pleased that this legislation addresses our nation's debt crisis by securing a historic reduction in spending, the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.

Idaho Democratic Party Chairwoman Lauren Necochea criticized the pair's vote, saying, quote, They voted for the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history, while also slashing Medicare.

They broke from 50 years of bipartisan support for the food assistance that ensures kids don't go hungry.

Last week, Governor Brad Little traveled to Washington, D.C. with other governors to discuss the state's priorities and concerns with the bill.

Before his trip, he met with reporters to share what was on his mind.

Brad Litte: I don't want to be in a position to where the Big Beautiful Bill passes, and myself and all my fellow governors are going to be back there whining and crying.

I've said this many times.

With what we've done in the past, where we are, almost anything that happens at the federal level is going to impact the other 49 states more than it is Idaho.

And I feel that about the Big Beautiful Bill, that because we’ve got 27% in a rainy day fund, because we've invested in our facilities, in our schools, in our roads, that anything that happens on the global economy, anything that happens to come from the administration, we're going to be in better shape.

But I just think it's my job and my obligation to find out from the people that are writing the bills, whether it's funding that's going away or a change in the tax code, how that affects Idaho.

It’s just my job as the CEO of the state.

Davlin: Since Governor Little mentioned the state of Idaho's investment in public schools as a reason Idahoans shouldn't worry as much about what's happening on the national level, we should note that 24 school districts asked their voters for a combined $75 million in supplemental levies during Tuesday's local elections, and three districts asked for a combined $150 million in bonds.

We'll have much more on that with Kevin Richert later in the show.

Back to Medicaid and SNAP, that Big Beautiful Bill includes Medicaid work requirements for able bodied adults nationwide, something that Idaho is already seeking to implement.

That said, Governor Little told reporters last week that he hoped Idaho wouldn't see the same cuts to programs as states that haven't been as efficient in their administration of those programs.

Little: I just actually just, a couple days ago, got a report on how Idaho administers SNAP, we're one of the most efficient states.

And that's one of the things I'm worried about, is they categorically tell all the states we're going to cut your program by such and such, and I says, we're doing a good job.

We've got the highest compliance rate.

The least amount of fraud.

Why would you penalize us?

Because some other states, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's unemployment, whether it's LIHEAP, whether it's SNAP, because our SNAP compliance is one of the best there is.

And that's not state money.

That's all federal money.

We're just doing a good job protecting the federal taxpayer from fraud in the SNAP program.

I don't think it's fair.

And I'll make the case that the states that have been efficient with the federal taxpayer's dollars get treated the same as the states that are not.

Davlin: As we mentioned, that bill passed the House on Thursday, but now it's the Senate's turn.

And the Senate Republican majority has already indicated that they're going to make some changes.

In other words, we're still waiting for the final word on exactly what impacts will be for Idaho and its Medicaid and SNAP programs.

But Governor Little doesn't seem to have any concerns, at least publicly.

He signed on to a letter from the Republican Governors Association that says, quote, We stand united in strong support of your one big, beautiful bill.

We'll have much more on Medicaid and health care in Idaho in next week's show, including a discussion with a Twin Falls mother, who works full time and still struggles to pay for insurance.

Here's a preview.

Randi La Salle: I make $20 an hour at my one job, and if I relied just on that after taxes and insurance and 401K, you know, all of that special stuff that comes out of a check, I'm lucky to bring home about $1,200 to $1,400 a month.

And that's based with overtime and things like that.

And I average about 10 to 15 hours of overtime a paycheck.

Before Covid and during Covid, we had Medicaid for everybody in my household.

We were fine.

We had everything.

You know, we didn't have any issues.

And then when Covid was over and the extra coverage ended, they dropped all of us.

My kids ended up going without insurance for eight months.

Because they dropped us in the worst time period of the year, right there.

And I think it was the end of February beginning of March, where you cannot renew or add anybody to your insurances.

It has to be a life changing event.

Losing your insurance is not a life changing event.

And then you don't start to reenroll until October, and then it doesn't go into effect until December 1st.

So my kids ended up without insurance for that long.

I looked through the limits.

You know how much I made and at the time, how much my ex-husband made.

And we for a six person household, we made $400 under the limit.

But they told me that I made $75 over the limit and that I couldn't we couldn't recertify.

Once I was able to get my kids onto my work insurance, it was $450 a paycheck, give or take a little bit here and there.

So I was paying about $900 a month for insurance.

There have been days where we choose between gas and food.

Since I got a little bit of a raise at work, it's getting a little bit better.

I have a little bit to save, but it's still a little bit.

You know, what am I going to do when I need new tires?

Insurance for cars don't pay for new tires.

They don't pay for oil changes.

What am I going to do when the kids need braces?

And Olivia needs braces.

You know those aren't cheap and my insurance that I have her on doesn't cover braces.

You know, glasses.

We went and had eye appointments.

It was $60 a person.

I had to save for that.

And then we had to pay for glasses for me and Olivia.

I went ten years without getting new glasses, just to make sure that everybody had what they needed, you know?

And it seems like it's not a big thing, but it is when you're driving down the interstate at 80 miles an hour trying to get somewhere in a snowstorm.

I think they need to go back to the drawing board.

And I think they need to consider that just because we make over a certain amount doesn't mean that we don't need it.

Find another structure.

Create a tier system.

Okay, so I make $75 over the limit.

I'll pay $10 a month per kid.

$300 over the limit?

I'll pay $25 a month per kid.

It's still cheaper than private insurance.

And it covers absolutely everything.

They need to understand what it's like to be poor.

And I'm not talking, you know, shackle house falling apart poor.

I'm talking paycheck to paycheck, barely making ends meet, shopping at the dollar store for three pieces of baloney poor.

They need to understand that.

Because if they can understand that, they'll understand that their Medicaid bill should have been thrown out.

While they had good intentions, they need to try harder.

Davlin: On Tuesday, voters in 39 of Idaho's 44 counties had local elections on the ballot.

Everything from library boards to auditorium districts to school bonds and levees.

On Thursday, I sat down with Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News and Doctors Stephanie Witt and Jaclyn Kettler from Boise State University's School of Public Service to discuss the results and the importance of these often overlooked races.

Davlin: Thank you all for joining us this week Kevin I want to start with you.

School bonds and levies lots of them across the state.

What are the highlights of Tuesday's results?

Kevin Richert: Kind of a tale of two different elections here because on the supplemental levies, which are short term and 1 or 2 years in duration, almost all of those passed 22 out of 24.

Davlin: And with a 50% plus one majority, much lower bar.

Richert: And a lot of them passed fairly handily.

I mean, of the 22 that passed, 16 got more than 60% of the vote.

So not terribly suspenseful races in a lot of cases.

Bond issues, whole different story.

Needing that two thirds supermajority to pass, the three bond issues that were on the ballot on Tuesday failed, and they weren't even close.

The closest of the three was Middleton, at 53%.

I mean, you were talking about Shelly is 38%, Filer at 22%.

Those are super minorities.

So those weren't terribly close races at all.

Davlin: And I know a little bit what Filer was asking for, they were asking for a new building, improvements to track and their football field, a few other things.

What are the implications for Shelly and Middleton for not passing these bonds?

Well, I think for Middleton, it'll be interesting to see if they come back.

This is their seventh bid at a bond issue just in the past few years.

They are dealing with crowding issues.

I mean, Middleton is one of those bedroom communities in the Treasure Valley.

They're getting a lot of growth.

They're expecting more growth.

They don't think that's going to go away.

So I don’t think the need is going to go away.

Probably a little bit of the same situation in Shelly, which isn't that far from Idaho Falls, expecting some of that kind of spillover growth that probably isn't going to go away anytime soon either.

Davlin: We talk a lot about growth and how it impacts places like Boise and Coeur d'Alene, the major metro areas, and even the communities immediately by those cities.

But Dr. Witt, there are a lot of these smaller communities like Middleton that are facing these same issues.

Stephanie Witt: Well, paying for infrastructure, is always a tough thing, right?

And when you have to go to the voters to ask for a bond, a general obligation bond that requires that 66% and two thirds threshold, you're going to have a tough sell, right?

Look at Canyon County trying to get a jail approved multiple times.

These communities that have been to the well asking for school bond approval.

So, when you're doing the kind of infrastructure that requires that 66% and two thirds, it's very hard to get that approved.

Utilities, however, can ask for the 50% kind of bond, a revenue bond, rather.

And so it's a little easier, I guess, to get those approved.

And I think what we saw on Tuesday was that more of those kinds of bonds were successful.

Davlin: And Kevin, you did some analysis.

On schools alone, since 2022, only eight bond issues have passed statewide of the 38 on the ballot.

Richert: Right, barely a fifth.

And, I had an interesting conversation for this piece with, Rich Bauscher, he had been the superintendent in Middleton for 15 years.

He had managed to get a couple of bond issues passed in his time.

One right after a fire gutted the high school there.

He made a really interesting point as we talked about what's going on here.

And we talked about House Bill 521.

This is the mammoth school facilities law that was passed in 2024.

His opinion is that it's actually doing more harm than good for school districts that are going out for a bond issue, because most schools are not getting enough money to pay for a school.

Middleton, I think, got $18 million off of House bill 521.

The other districts we talked about, Shelly, Filer got even less.

In no case is that going to be enough money to build a school.

But it's enough money to give opponents of a bond issue the sense that, well, the state has taken care of this issue, why is the district coming to us for money?

Well, the reason is the money from 521 is not enough in and of itself.

Davlin: The flip side of this too, is the legislature has done a lot of work to chip away at high property taxes, has done a lot of work to reduce income tax as well.

And so you have lawmakers trying to reduce that tax burden.

And presumably that might make some residents more likely to say, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and vote for this because my tax burden has lessened because of lawmakers.

That's not necessarily happening, though.

Jaclyn Kettler: Right, I think there's a few.

I mean, there may be some competing messages or information here, right, that people are using to try to figure out, well, what is how is this going to affect my bills?

What is it going toward?

Do I think I'm going to benefit from it, my family going to benefit from it?

And in some of these high growth areas, it's always interesting questions too, about, you know, for people who have either lived there for a long time or new, you know, new residents, how are they thinking about the investment in some of this infrastructure?

And are they likely to support, you know, paying for new investments?

Davlin: I love talking about infrastructure and the funding for infrastructure.

It's one of these incredibly unexciting on the surface things, but it is so critical when we're talking about the health of a community, you know, quite literally, in a lot of cases, the health of a community.

And I don't want to pick favorite races.

But in southern Idaho, we had a competitive sewer district race in Eagle, including a pair of candidates running on the message, Make Eagle Sewers Great Again.

The website had that URL.

Other candidates had campaign signs in this race.

I mean, they raised enough money to And I don't I you know, I don't want to seem like I'm making fun of anybody who would step up and run for one of these offices.

But there is something to be said here for the MAGA-fication and the national issues coming in to these hyper local nonpartisan elections.

What's going on here?

Witt: Well, I think just what you described.

That the fights were having at the national level over the Make America Great kind of perspective on government, is being fought in these nonpartisan, really technical places like sewer districts, right?

I mean, it's not where you would expect to find.

I mean, they didn't just have campaign posters.

They had full color pictures of themselves on the campaign signs, right?

So they're spending some money on the campaign stuff.

And I think it begins to blur that line between partisan and nonpartisan races.

Especially, you know, you look and you see the Ada County Republican Party is hosting pages for those candidates as if they were running for a partisan office.

But they're not.

They're running.

And, you know, so, sometimes I joke with Jaci that, you know, folks get on these boards and they think they're going to be fighting, you know, critical race theory or something.

And they spend three hours talking about replacing a boiler somewhere or something.

You know, that the actual governing of these kinds of districts is probably rather technical and not super exciting.

With the exception of the fact that a sewer expansion is also a key to future growth in a community, right?

So one reason that sewer districts become politicized is often that that is a way to pump the brakes.

If you need to put a new sewer trunk line in in order to accommodate a lot of extra growth, saying no to that is a way to say no to growth.

Kettler: I do think it's a great thing to see candidates running for these offices.

Political competition can be really important for having discussions about how these things work.

You know, what the governing body is doing.

Do we do voters approve of that?

However, whether or not voters, how much attention they pay is still, you know, it's still a question.

Richert: It would be fun to make jokes about a sewer district election.

It would be easy to make jokes about a sewer district election.

But what I think is happening here, to some degree, feels like an extension of what we've seen in the past few years with a lot of these nonpartisan races that as Dr Witt suggests rightly, are largely functionary roles.

It wasn't that long ago that school board elections were really, really dull and were really nondescript.

And in a lot of cases, a lot of school districts were begging for people to serve on school boards.

And what we've seen in the past five years is that school board elections have become a lot more, more strident, definitely with some partisan overtones.

A lot of that, of course, growing out of the pandemic and the school's response to the pandemic, a lot of it has grown out of the concerns and the hype about indoctrination in schools.

So I think what's happened there, I think we're starting to see happen maybe in some of these other, you know, nonpartisan and kind of functionary elections.

Davlin: Nonpartisan, but very political in some cases, as you mentioned.

You know, the not just residential growth, but economic growth really relies on sewer capacity.

We saw that in Twin Falls nearly 14 years ago now, with the addition of Chobani, and how that really impacted the community, they would not have been able to do that if they didn't have the ability to add to the sewer capacity.

And it's a boring thing to talk about until it's not until you start talking about that economic impact.

You know, there were sewer, and water bonds on the ballots in some places in the state.

McCall overwhelmingly approved their $7 million to replace old infrastructure, including fixing a leaking wastewater liner.

And Pay, or, sorry, Fruitland voted down their water and sewer bonds, at the same time.

But this comes as cuts to some federal funding that sometimes help with this infrastructure, some of that's up in the air.

Witt: Well, I think it's hard to know.

First of all, did we get all of the infrastructure money that was promised during the Biden administration?

Has that hit the ground and is construction happening?

That's an interesting thing.

But, you know, the federal government, through grant programs, paid for a ton of the infrastructure that we benefit from, whether it's the electricity, you know, hydroelectric projects, whether it's water treatment, sewer treatment, storm drain that were funded through federal grants in the middle of the 20th century.

And now those facilities are reaching a point where they need to be repaired or expanded.

And, this time, I would not expect the feds to come forward with a lot of funding.

At least in this current political environment.

Which means that burden is going to fall on the state and local governments and local taxpayers.

Davlin: And some of these races, you know, whether we're talking about running for sewer district or the library district, another, another position that people used to have to be recruited for to run.

Some of these were decided by very small margins, 20 votes in the West Boise Sewer District, 2 in the Eagle Sewer District, less than 100 for Ada County Free Library.

That's just in Ada County.

There were other very, very close races across the state.

And it's not just about those close margins.

It's about the votes.

Jaci, can you walk us through what that is?

Kettler: Yeah.

So some of these races for some of these positions, you vote for two.

That's the way they're set up.

And so the top two vote getters then win the seats.

That's very different than in our November elections generally right, where we're voting for one candidate per race.

And so what we see in some of these races is a number, a larger number of under votes, meaning people only vote for one instead of actually voting for both candidates they can.

Maybe they choose to only vote for one.

Maybe they don't realize they can vote for two.

For whatever reason, we saw a number of under votes.

For example, in the Ada County Free Library District.

You know, a super close vote, 50 something votes, over a thousand under votes.

So people who decided not to cast both of their votes, they could have impacted the outcome of those races.

Davlin: Or skipped over that race entirely.

Not that there were many other questions on the ballot.

Richert: And a case in point in the school elections, the Valley School District in the Magic Valley had a renewal of their supplemental levee on the ballot.

It failed by seven votes.

Now, this is one that it would replace and extend a levy that expires in 2026, so that district could come back in November to take another run at this levee.

But, you know, there's no guarantee of what will happen in November.

Seven votes.

Davlin: So close.

And we received a statement from Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon.

She sent out a column about this, and she said, quote, We get the government we vote for.

If you don't participate, you're letting your neighbors decide what kind of government you get.

Local elections, whether for library or sewer board, school levies or fire and paramedic funding may not seem as thrilling as races for governor or president, but they matter just as much.

These ballot decisions directly affect your property taxes and the services your community receives.

And I thought that was a really great way to put it, because we're talking about millions of dollars in some cases, whether you are in favor of paying that or you don't want that on your property taxes.

Witt: Nobody wants to think about their sewer system, right?

I mean that if it's going well, you're not ever talking about it.

You're not ever thinking about it.

It should just happen.

Davlin: And it would.

Oh, go ahead.

Richert: Dorothy Moon is right about voter engagement and more people should get involved.

But let's remember too, that this Republican Party has been very active about trying to consolidate school elections to the point of limiting options for school districts to run elections under the pretense of the pretext that this would increase voter turnout.

It really didn't happen in a lot of these school elections or a lot of these local elections in May.

Davlin: And this came up in the same column too, that maybe if we did only even years, every two years, where the legislature or congressional candidates are on the ballot, that would drive turnout for these May and November elections even more.

Kettler: I mean, the turnout was very low in a lot of these races in a lot of precincts.

So you do hear those arguments, right?

Like maybe we need to hold these elections where voters would actually be at the ballot.

They'd come out.

Alternatively, some of these offices are like, but we need to talk about our issues.

And if we're on that November ballot with everyone else, we'll get, no one will pay attention to us and we won't be able to discuss what we need.

Davlin: And for those who lose the ballot question, the ability to come back again and again has been important for them in the past.

Richert: Yeah, I mean, again, we'll use the Valley School District as an example.

With the two election dates that are now available to schools, May and November, districts have to be pretty careful about when they schedule elections and how they schedule elections with the idea of well, we have maybe two shots at this before we have to make some really difficult decisions about staffing.

You know, options are limited enough as it is if we're talking about limiting it to only even number years, that becomes a really sticky situation for a lot of local governments.

Davlin: Especially again, bringing it full circle as we talk about the state funding that is, or in some cases it's not, going to the school districts.

Kevin, before we go, I do want to, ask you about Idaho's new anti-DEI law and how it affects summer courses at universities, the uncertainty there?

Richert: Yeah, I think we're seeing some of the confusion about this law coming to a head already.

Even though the law doesn't go into effect until July 1st, the State Board of Education has sent out a memo to colleges and universities saying here is the procedure to seek exemptions if you have a course or a major that you feel like you cannot replace in any other way, that has what could be construed to be a DEI component, here's how you go about seeking an exemption.

For classes that are going on right now, summer classes that are 1 or 2 weeks in, you can't really come up with a substitute on the fly for classes in place.

So the exemption deadline is coming up in a couple of weeks, I'll be curious to see how many exemptions the colleges and universities apply for.

I expect there will be some, maybe not that many, but it will be an early sense of the fallout from this law.

Davlin: And the new law goes into effect right in the middle of.

Richert: July 1st, right in the middle of summer semester in some cases.

Yeah.

Davlin: All right.

Kevin Richert, Idaho Education News.

Dr. Stephanie Witt and Jaclyn Kettler, of Boise State University, thank you so much for joining us.

Witt: Thanks.

Davlin: Before we go, it's the start of summer, which means more people hitting the road, and unfortunately, it also means more fatal accidents.

According to AAA Idaho, more traffic fatalities happen between Memorial Day and Labor Day every year than any other time.

Idaho Transportation Department preliminary data shows impaired driving was a factor in 41% of all fatal crashes between 2020 and 2024.

That's 502 deaths in Idaho alone.

Aggressive driving was also a factor in 46% of serious injury crashes in that time.

So in other words, slow down, drive sober, and be safe folks.

Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you next week.

Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.