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.

Finney: The legislative session may be over, but debates about government spending are still going strong across the state and the nation.

We look at Idaho leaders priorities moving forward.

Filling in for Melissa Davlin, I'm Logan Finney.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, Governor Brad Little highlights efforts to improve security at Idaho's prisons after the conviction of 11 people in a Magic Valley drug trafficking ring.

Then House speaker Mike Moyle joins me to discuss spending and the session.

But first, let's get you caught up on the week.

Political activist Charlie Kirk visited the Boise State University campus Tuesday on the Turning Point American Comeback Tour.

Challenging students across the country to prove him wrong in debates about conservative priorities.

Finney: Charlie Kirk: Great to see you guys.

You know how it works?

I’m gonna end up right there for that.

If you disagree, go to the front of the line.

Are we at elevation or something?

My goodness.

Finney: That visit came a day after a crowd of more than 12,000 people filled the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa to attend the Fighting Oligarchy Tour featuring US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Speakers railed against the ongoing actions of the Trump administration, as well as the influence of concentrated wealth in politics.

Todd Achilles: 1 in 10 Idahoans is a veteran.

That's the sixth highest in the U.S.. And DOGE wants to layoff 83,000 employees at the VA, which would devastate care at the Boise VA.

These cuts are a slap in the face of Idahoans who served and sacrificed, and we demand better from our electeds.

Chandler Bursey: Unions ensure that the federal workers have a seat at the table and a collective voice loud enough to be heard.

But two weeks ago, this administration killed our collective bargaining agreement and no longer recognize us as a union.

Our voice is to ensure that the government works for all Americans, not just the 1%.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: You know, it's, It's funny, I was hearing that earlier, today on the television, there was someone saying, why?

Why, why is AOC, you know, why are AOC and Bernie going to Idaho?

And I'll give you one simple answer.

It's because you matter.

Bernie Sanders: Alexandria, they told us this was a conservative state.

They got it wrong.

We’re not gonna allow Musk and his friends to cut VA benefits.

And when we talk about oligarchy it's not just economic power, it is political power.

Right now in this last election, Musk spent $270 million to elect Donald Trump as president.

You get one vote, you get one vote.

Musk gets one vote plus 270 million to elect Trump.

And his reward is to become the most powerful person in government.

But it is not just Musk and the Republican Party.

The Democrats have their billionaires as well.

And if you want to know why the Democrats over the years have not been as strong as they should be in standing up for working class people, it has a lot to do with the power of those billionaires.

So I know that I speak not just for progressives or moderates or conservatives.

I think I speak for every American who understands that in our democracy, we cannot allow billionaires to buy elections.

Finney: Representative Todd Achilles also referenced the LGBTQ pride flag in his remarks, taking aim at a new law that took effect on April 3rd with the governor's signature.

The law allows local governments to fly only those flags on a list sanctioned by the state, largely official government and military flags.

Achilles: You know, folks, cities can fly any damn flag they want and being welcoming and inclusive are Idaho values!

Finney: Boise Mayor Lauren McLane has publicly stated several times the capital city will continue to fly the flags it has historically flown in front of City Hall.

The city is also not accepting requests from the public to fly any additional new flags.

Idaho's Attorney General, Raul Labrador, sent McClane an enforcement letter after outcry from conservative activists and state lawmakers, telling her, quote, government officials may hold personal beliefs that would be represented on flags with other messages, such as Make America Great Again or Don't Tread on Me.

But after passage of House Bill 96, flying such flags by government entities is against the law.

Although there is no express criminal or civil penalty provided for in this statute, you should comply with the law out of a sense of duty to your oath of office, end quote.

Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford sent his own letter about the flags to the Boise mayor.

He also issued a public statement about calls for enforcement saying, quote, these messages have come in through nearly every channel available to the public.

Ada County dispatch, patrol supervisors, our social media accounts, and our general public inbox.

Responding to these concerns has placed a strain on our staff and resources, pulling attention away from other essential duties end quote.

At a press conference Wednesday addressing the seizure of more than 48,000 fentanyl pills and 4 pounds of methamphetamine, which involved an 11 person conspiracy in the Magic Valley, governor Brad Little spoke this week about some of the recent investments at the Idaho Department of Correction.

Investigators found some of the Mexico based drug suppliers had recruited recent parolees from the state prison system.

Brad Little: This issue, when I go to the governor's meetings, this issue is rampant all all across the nation.

And so that's why it's important that we're all up here.

Because we tend to aggregate bad people in prison.

I know it's hard to believe, but it's, but what we're doing now with, intervention with, what what I call a drone dome over the top is to address this very issue.

Finney: Those enhancements Little referred to were part of the correction budget passed earlier this legislative session.

Galloway: They've been piloting this kind of taking a free trial on some software, and they've caught three already that had drugs, all in the drones that were being delivered to the prison.

So these are kind of some new technologies that probably we didn't think about ten years ago.

Wendy Horman: Did you know that you can, put fentanyl in ink now?

So when inmates get mail, sometimes it's laced with fentanyl so they can get a high.

It poses a significant risk to our staff.

So again this covers known security gaps.

Whether that's for body armor, body cameras, mail scanning, equipment so that all the mail can be digitized safely in a central location Finney: On Friday, I asked speaker of the House Mike Moyle about those budgets and how recent changes to the budget writing process are working.

Mike Moyle: It's working the right way, you know, is a little bit tough at the start.

And there was a lot of concerns the first year.

We did a little bit in the second year we did a little bit, and this year we did a little bit more.

It needs more refined refining, but it's moving in the right direction.

It's having the desired outcomes.

We've seen the last two years with single digit growth in budgets.

We're getting the budgets under control.

The next step is to delve into those bases and find some stuff there.

But no, it's working, it's working.

It's working well but there's still some hiccups we need to smooth out.

Finney: There are, some disagreements.

We'll say between the, Moyle: Disagreements, imagine that.

Finney: Between the House side of the committee and the Senate side of that joint committee.

The House you guys didn't approve one of the joint rules about chairmanships of committees as part of this kind of back and forth.

The existing joint rules say if you have a joint committee, it defaults to the Senate chairmanship.

I can understand why the House isn't super excited about that, but JFAC has traditionally switched that gavel back and forth.

Talk to me about the the rule disagreements between the two chambers and how that impacts budget setting.

Moyle: Yeah, the joint rules are kind of what runs the legislature.

Right.

And and the joint rules with the House and Senate, and it's how we operate.

There's joint rule 11 that says when there's joint committees that the Senate controls the chair.

Well, when you control the chair, you control important stuff.

You control the agenda.

You control what's being heard by the committee.

You control what happens in the committee.

For years, JFAC has operated with this unwritten agreement that they would share the chairs, that it would go back and forth.

And you've seen that happen the last two years.

Remember, it's a joint committee.

If we don't come to a resolution where we share the chair, the House doesn't have to meet with the Finance Committee.

The Appropriations Committee can meet separate, and I'm not beyond going down that road if we can't figure out a way to work together.

And we've worked together and things are working well, but we need to figure out how to address that joint rule 11 that says that the chair is controlled by the Senate.

I don't know how that got in there.

To fix it takes two thirds of both bodies to pass something.

The Senate's not inclined to change that rule because they have total control of the chairman.

The House wants it fixed where we share the chair.

We still have the nuclear option, though.

If we don't share the chair, if the Senate gets to a point where they say, we won't share the chair, then we'll just meet separately.

We've done that in the past.

It takes a little more time.

I would prefer that the committees work together, but if we get to the position where we can't work together, we can always separate the committee.

Finney: We have also separated the budgets like we reference.

We've got the base maintenance budget and then the enhancements for the new year.

You seem you said that's that's been going well.

We still saw several budgets though that made it out of committee that were then voted down on the floor and sent back to committee.

Talk to me about that.

You don't seem concerned about that being an issue.

Moyle: No, because the base budgets got through, right.

The base budget has what it takes to keep the lights on.

The base budget has the essentials, right?

It's the base budget if you have it.

Everything else is an add on.

The problem are now that those add on stand by themselves.

I think it's not a problem, but others think it's a problem.

Is it?

Now that they stand on their selves, sometimes there's not a majority support for some of the items they want to add on to those budgets.

And when there's not a majority support, they fail.

But it's also makes it more transparent.

You know what those items are and it's worked, it's work to help keep the budgets in check.

It's worked also to help keep the public informed on what's out there.

There's more transparency now.

It's not hidden in a big, huge maintenance budget.

So it's worked to the advantage of the taxpayer.

And it's also helped us as we've tried to control and bring those budgets back in check.

For years they were out of control.

Now you're seeing more control.

You're seeing more input.

You're seeing more collaboration between the Senate and the House on those budgets.

And you're seeing those budgets come down, which is ultimately the goal.

We want to take care of government.

We want to do what needs to be done.

But those add ons really need to be necessary for them to pass.

And that's why some of them didn't pass this year.

Finney: It's been a big focus this year from a lot of the freshmen in this legislature, as well as the leadership, making sure we're not growing government.

How do you personally, as Representative Moyle, not as speaker, how do you draw that line between making sure we're not growing government, but we're still paying for the things that we do need to pay for?

Moyle: Well, you saw that this year with the maintenance budgets, right, with this super high inflation, everything else, they only increased 5%.

Most of it was for salaries as we tried to take care of our state employees.

But it had other add ons in there.

But we're trying to make that balance right.

And so I think that this budget being separate the way they are helps us accomplish that.

But there's there's always those that will say no to everything.

And it's easy to say no.

But as legislators, you have to find solutions and you have to listen to people's concerns.

You know, we had an issue with water in eastern Idaho this year, for example.

That was a necessary add on to those budgets, in my humble opinion, to fix that problem.

And they help not only eastern Idaho but the whole state.

And so while I get those that think we should do nothing and they all voted no, fine, whatever.

Ultimately we have to take care of the problems in the state too.

And that's why the process I think, is working.

And you saw that, for example, with the water issue and others where there was something that was necessary, it meets that standard, and we and we add that to those budgets because it is necessary.

Finney: On the other side of the ledger, the other side of the ledger, legislature also cut taxes by a pretty great Moyle: Heck yeah.

Finney: A real sizable amount this year.

Talk to me about those tax cuts.

Moyle: Hey, we did a good job.

We cut back over 400 million in taxes, income, property sales.

We hit all the spectrums, which is good.

That and if Idaho wants to be competitive, we're going to need to keep doing it.

Interesting enough, we had the largest income tax reduction this year in Idaho history.

Yet four other states, you know, five other states, I believe, cut their taxes even more than Idaho.

So when you look at all the states nationally, we went down and not up, even though we cut so much in taxes.

So we've got to do more on that line to keep the tax burden on Idaho in check with surrounding states that we compete for, with jobs and with employees and, and with citizens.

And so we're we're making progress there.

We had a great year.

But there's still more to do, in my opinion.

Finney: Do we really need to try that hard to be so competitive?

We're one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and that has its own problems.

Moyle: Yeah, but I still, you know, in taxes, if you think it's a good idea to tax so high to keep them out of here, they're still going to come because of what we have in Idaho with the resources.

And I mean, where else can you go and have the safe communities we have here?

The beautiful background.

You can head to the hills from Boise, for example, in five minutes in about every other state it’s, Every other city in this state, we're just so blessed they're going to keep coming.

Finney: You are the longest serving, lawmaker in the state House currently.

Mayle: Shh, don't tell anybody.

Finney: Well, there's a reason you're in that speaker's chair these days.

Taxes, lowering taxes, cutting taxes has been pretty much your mission your entire time in office.

You frequently say it's the whole reason you ran in the first place.

Moyle: It is.

It's the only reason I ran, and it's the only reason I stay here.

Finney: And you're still here.

At what point, do you say mission accomplished, we've done it.

Taxes are low enough.

moyle: Well, I used to always say it’s when we got income taxes below 5%, but I may need to make that 4%, I don't know, I, I there's always more to do.

Interesting thing is about being in the legislature is the longer you’re here, you get a knowledge of the other things that goes on, go on like we talked about with the budgets and with schools and with transportation and with taxes, you start getting a bigger knowledge and you start understanding where the things are that need to be fixed.

And you saw that this year in the legislature, we fix a lot of things that needed a fix for a long time.

And that's because the longer you’re here, the more you understand what needs fixed and how to get it done.

So I've been very blessed.

Don't know how long the voters will let me stay, but I've been very blessed to cut more taxes than anybody I know in history.

Had more impact on roads and schools and other things.

You're seeing that, for example, with some of the tax cuts as we're trying to delve into paying, having the state build the buildings instead of the property tax payers.

So so we're making progress in all those pieces.

And that's all part of being here and having that institutional knowledge and finding paths to solve those problems.

Finney: On that topic of fixes, not an ongoing issue, but kind of a newer issue that's emerged.

Last year the legislature passed what's called the Parental Rights Act.

For folks who aren't familiar, it requires parental knowledge and consent for any sort of medical treatment for children.

Stakeholders, especially, sexual assault nurses, have been concerned about the effects of that bill, that law now The Senate passed a bill that would have made some tweaks and some changes.

It made its way over to the house pretty close to the end of session.

Moyle: I think it was the second to the last day.

Finney: So it didn't get taken up over on the House side.

But talk to me about the the House's perspective on that issue.

You guys really weren't part of that discussion until the end of session and it didn't make it through.

Moyle: Yeah, the Senate had the advantage to having started with that bill and working it through.

And that bill originally came from the pro tem.

And last year after it was implemented, there were some issues that arose that need fixed.

And there's some examples like, with children that maybe are raped and whether or not they get, need parental consent to get a kit.

There's some things that need fixed.

The problem with it was we didn't get it till the second to the last day of the legislature and the House didn't have time to engage.

There were a lot of people that wanted additional amendments.

I think the Senate amended that bill, if I remember correctly.

So they had had some time to work on it.

Sometimes when you have a big issue like that, it takes a couple of years to resolve it.

And sometimes you have a big issue like that that comes so late in the year and there are so many pieces, and there's a lot of pieces in that bill.

It gets hard to get it fixed, especially at the end like that.

I do know that at the last day before we left, there were some possible amendments on my desk that came up from people that were concerned.

I do know the issue is not going to go away.

There's some things there that we absolutely need to fix, and I agree with the pro tem it needs addressed, but I think that we need to get the house a little more engaged so they understand why it's important and what the issues are.

And it just came so late that didn't happen.

Finney: Another piece of legislation that you all passed that took effect has to do with, the flags that are able to be flown at city and county and local governments, schools as well.

Moyle: I hear a lot about that lately.

Finney: There's been a bit of a controversy recently about specifically, the pride flag that flies in front of City Hall.

Are we going to see a special session to add some penalties to that law?

Moyle: The special session would either have to come from the governor requesting us to come back for a specific subject.

He could call us back to fix that issue.

The legislature now has the ability to call themselves back, but it takes 60%.

I don't know if there's a 60% that want to come back.

I know there is at least 50%.

I don't know if you get to the threshold to come back.

I do know there are some issues out, some ideas out there to fix it.

I've got a draft that I put together, for example, that that, a lot of people in the state of Idaho don't realize that all the sales tax dollars, when you spend money in sales tax, 20% of that, roughly 20% goes back to the cities, counties, the highway districts.

I mean, the, the fire districts, library.

It goes back to those taxing districts.

And so I've got a draft up there that just says, hey, when you break the law, we're going to hold your monthly or quarterly, excuse me, quarterly distribution from those revenue sharing from those sales tax dollars.

And to give you an example, last year in the city of Boise, I think they received from the state in sales tax revenue, revenue sharing about 26.

I think it was about $26 million.

So we would each quarter that they broke the law by flying the flag.

We would take their 5 or $6 million and put it in the tax relief fund and give it back to the taxpayers for tax relief.

That's the idea that Mike the speaker has.

There's other ideas out there.

I'm sure that will come up, but I think that there are a lot of people concerned that when the legislature passes laws that local government entities think that they don't have to obey them.

Remember the legislature is here and the city is down here.

And so when you have situations where people think it's okay to break the law, like the city of Boise, I think it's incumbent upon the legislature to make sure that there is, a I don't know about a price, but that there's consequences for your actions of not obeying the law.

And so I think you'll see some bills I've told you, the one that I have, I've heard of some others that are probably a little more draconian.

But I think that there are some individuals that are upset and take take the flag issue away.

It's not about the flag anymore.

It's about the fact that you have a law and you have a sitting, elected official breaking her constitutional responsibilities when she upheld her arm to uphold the constitution of the state of Idaho.

She's now breaking that because she says the legislature doesn't matter and the laws don't matter.

When you get a situation like that.

That concerns me, because when you have anarchy, this whole thing could fall.

And we don't need anarchy.

We don't need people breaking the law.

We need to work within the realm.

If the good mayor doesn't like the law, she can bring in a law to change that.

That's her prerogative.

But to go out and say there's a law on the books and I don't care, I'm not going to enforce it concerns me.

Finney: Because that's the issue we've run into.

AG Labrador or the local sheriff have said there's no mechanism for us to follow up on this.

Moyle: It's still the law though.

All that aside, it's still the law.

And and I'll bet that when we delve into this, we're going to find other situations where there's laws that some government agencies or, or districts aren't obeying.

I'm sure there's more out there.

And as we talk about the Doge thing that that could tie into that, we're going to have that task force on Doge this summer, and that might give us some angles, because we're going to go look at how we can consolidate state agencies.

We're going to go look at how we can adjust and look at the number of employees we have and some things we can do there.

We're going to look at travel, we're looking at the statutes, and we're currently looking at the rules, all the stuff that we're talking about here on the DOGE sub, you know, task force this summer, it kind of ties into situations like that.

I think we're going to find other laws that agencies and not just the cities.

I'm sure there are other people and state agencies probably even that aren't obeying the law.

And we need to get to where we have that fixed that, that they understand.

If you don't obey the law, there's going to be consequences.

Finney: And for anybody who's not familiar, that DOGE task force referencing the federal Department of Government Efficiency, legislature has appointed a task force to review at the sate level.

Moyle: Yep.

We’ve appointed, we passed a bill earlier this session, the pro tem and myself that says we're going to look, we give the agencies until September 1st to bring us all their their statutes that they think are outdated, don't aren't necessary or could be replaced.

So they'll bring those to us the 1st of September so we can get stuff drafted on that.

You've seen what we've been doing on the rules for years.

We'll continue that.

And then the next step is to look at our state employees and our state agencies, and finding a way to combine those to save and get rid of inefficiencies.

Finney: And doing so in a way that's reoccurring so we don't have to do this again in 50 years.

Moyle: Exactly.

We want to make it happen.

And there's a way to do this where we'll all benefit, and hopefully that'll help us get some more money for tax relief.

Finney: Speaking of tax relief to bring us back around to taxes, the parental choice tax credit, $50 million tax credit to help parents pay for private school expenses.

You were a pretty big pusher of that policy.

Why was school choice the issue coming into this session?

Moyle: I think that there's for years it's one of those pent up issues.

You saw it every year for many years, and each year the ball moved closer and closer to the finish line.

And I think that after this last election, there was more support to take and resolve that issue.

And we got that done.

I think there will be some more adjustments to that bill in the future as we see how it works, because it's new to Idaho.

I think we're the first state that has a tax credit.

I think it's smarter.

We'll know they're Idaho citizens.

But there's going to be some waters to negotiate, to navigate here as we go forward to make sure that it does what we want it to do and that it doesn't hurt our public school.

That wasn't the intention, and that we're successful in making a program that is successful not only for our parents, but for our children, and making Idaho a better place and improving our education system.

That's what we're all about.

Finney: The critics of this policy are very concerned that that 50 million will grow.

What's your I know it's still early and we haven't actually run through running the tax credit yet, but what's your impression of that so far?

Moyle: I think you've got to give it time to see.

Right.

It's easy to be critical.

But what are they being critics of?

It's not been in place.

It's kind of disingenuous to complain till you see how it's going to operate.

And that's why I said what I said a minute ago.

Once it gets in operation if there's some issues we can resolve.

We'll resolve them if we have some problem.

But to complain about it before it's even been in, in place is kind of eh, you know, it's water under the bridge.

It doesn't matter yet because you don't know yet.

You got to let it work its course, see what the problems, if there are any really are.

And until it's it's been in place, you won't know.

Finney: As we're implementing it, the Tax Commission in the next year moving forward.

How are you confident that we'll have the transparency and the government efficiency when it comes to that pool of $50 million like we have with the other projects?

Moyle: I think you will for sure.

And I think that was one of the concerns on the front end.

And there's some stuff in that bill to help that.

And I know that if if we find some holes in that, I'm sure we'll fix it, because that was one of the concerns and one of the things that was brought up on the front end of that bill.

Finney: Another topic that the legislature addressed is immigration.

It's a big topic nationally with the Trump administration and everything going on there.

A bill to enable state and local law enforcement to help ICE with this immigration, enforcement has been held up in the courts.

Talk to me about that policy.

And why the legislature felt it was important for the state to be involved in this.

Moyle: Yeah, other states have started that.

I believe Texas is one of them.

And I think that the courts held it up for a short term and not all of it, just part of it.

And we'll see how that plays out.

There's a lot moving nationally on that issue as this, and immigration, concern about illegal immigration is one of the top stories when you go out in the hinterlands in Idaho.

People are concerned about it.

They want it fixed.

They want those who are here illegally gone.

They they're okay with the path forward on legal.

And I think if you look at that bill, that was one of the many bills that were introduced along, that's that issue of immigration.

There was a couple that were held up in committee for example, like E-Verify and some others that Chairman Crane held.

I think that there will be a path forward on those next year, too.

I think that this was just one step of many steps that the legislature is going to take in regards to trying to address that issue.

We do allow, and I think that a lot of our sheriffs are now helping ICE as they try to pick up some of those individuals that are that are criminals, you know, that have a background, maybe a DUI or they've beaten up a spouse or something else.

So I think, or a girlfriend, whatever.

I so I think you're seeing that the, that that issue is being resolved locally too, and that ICE is more involved now in collecting those individuals that are the criminal element of those who are here illegally and sending them back.

And I think you'll see more of that.

That bill we’ll see what the courts do with it.

If there's some concerns, I think we'll address them next year to make sure, because I think that we're pretty adamant that those who are here committing crimes need to go.

Finney: Another immigration bill that's not held up by the courts, house bill 135 got rid of eligibility for public benefits for people who are here without documentation.

Why was that a priority for the House members?

Moyle: Do you think it's really wise that we're using our taxpayer’s dollars to pay for benefits for somebody who's here illegally?

I mean, really?

Come on.

We want those guys out of here.

They're not they're not US citizens.

They're not, they're not here legally.

Why should we be subsidizing them?

I mean, that's just common sense.

We shouldn't be paying for that crap.

Finney: There are other arguments, though, too, when it comes to communicable diseases.

Even if that person doesn't have documentation, they can still spread it to American citizens.

Moyle: Well they shouldn’’t be here if they have that stuff.

Remember, we're talking about illegal aliens.

We're talking about people that are here illegally.

That's the problem.

And so I agree there's some concerns with that.

But they shouldn't be here and I shouldn't be paying for their stuff if they're here illegally.

Well, we'll let you head back out to the farm.

Moyle: I'm going to go plant some corn.

Finney: Speaker of the house, Mike Moyle.

Thanks for being so generous with your time.

Moyle: Hey, thanks for having me.

Finney: You can find an extended version of my conversation with Speaker Moyle online on The Idaho Report's YouTube channel.

Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you back here 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.