Ever Onward Podcast

Inside Idaho Politics with Matt Todd - Policy, Pressure, And Perspective | Ever Onward - Ep. 110

• Ahlquist. • Season 1 • Episode 110

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This month on the Ever Onward Podcast, Tommy Ahlquist is joined by Matt Todd — host of the Ranch Podcast — for an in-depth, long-form conversation on Idaho government, the legislative session, and the real forces shaping policy across the state. This episode kicks off a special series focused on Idaho leadership and lawmaking, setting the stage for upcoming interviews with top state officials and legislative leaders.

Matt shares front-line insights from producing multiple Idaho policy and civic interviews each week, covering topics that range from city and county government to statewide legislation. Together, they unpack how laws actually get proposed, debated, influenced, and passed — and why the process is far more complex than most headlines suggest.

The discussion explores major Idaho issues including water supply and aquifer risk, infrastructure and transportation, rapid population growth, rural vs. urban policy impacts, public education and school choice, healthcare system pressures, corrections and incarceration costs, state budgeting, regulation, and the role of subject-matter experts and lobbyists in educating lawmakers. They also examine election-year legislative behavior, how political incentives shape bill proposals, and why experience and institutional knowledge matter inside state government.

A core theme throughout the episode is the power of long-format conversation to cut through talking points and reveal authenticity, depth of knowledge, and real intent. Tommy and Matt discuss why podcasts and extended interviews are becoming one of the most effective ways for citizens to understand complex public policy and evaluate leadership.

If you care about Idaho’s future, civic engagement, public policy, and responsible governance — this episode delivers context, clarity, and perspective you won’t get from short clips or surface-level coverage.

Key topics include:

  • Idaho legislative session overview and priorities
  • How Idaho state, county, and city governments interact
  • Water policy, aquifers, and long-term planning challenges
  • Infrastructure, roads, utilities, and growth pressure
  • Education funding, school choice, and rural district impacts
  • Healthcare policy and system strain
  • Corrections budgets and out-of-state inmate housing
  • Lobbyists, expert testimony, and policymaker education
  • Election-year legislation dynamics
  • Why long-form media improves civic understanding

Ever Onward is a podcast focused on leadership, growth, service, and the ideas shaping our communities and our future.

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Meet Matt Todd And The Plan

SPEAKER_00

Today on the Ever On Word Podcast, we have Matt Todd. He is the owner and uh podcaster that runs the Ranch Podcast. If any of you have not heard Matt, you should go to any of your podcast outlets and follow the Ranch Podcast. I am a regular listener of Matt's podcast. He is a transplant actually to Idaho just a few years ago, but you wouldn't guess that. Uh since arriving here, he puts out multiple podcasts a week on all the subjects that I love following. Uh Idaho, Idaho life, um, everything you can you can go all the way from politics, local politics with your local city government to county politics to state politics. He hits it all. He has guests on from both sides. I love his energy. I love the way he listens to people and really teases out the issues of our day. Um, in a in a population in a state that's growing so much, it's just great to have someone like Matt doing the service. I love it, and I'm very excited to have him on this month as my co-host. Uh, this month, we were gonna have one podcast where we kind of talk about the session and do an intro. Uh, it'll be followed by uh having Scott Bedke on and then Mike Moyle and then and then finally Kelly Anthon. A lot of our state leadership. Can't wait to to explore these interviews with Matt this month, and and thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_01

Tommy Alquist, God bless you, sir. You're back.

Why Hear All Sides Matters

SPEAKER_00

Buddy, I just need a little more of that energy, that that Matt energy, sprinkle it all over. Just pixie dust. I love it. Well, you've been cranking out so much right now. I listen, I'm I told you I'm fanboy. I listened to all of it. I think it's great. Yeah, it's great. But you're working hard. It's I asked I asked you last week. I said, because we were talking about government efficiency, and I said, if the government were running the ranch podcast, how many employees would you have? And you said like five. Five.

SPEAKER_01

I was like, it's uh yeah, you're working your butt off, man. Oh, yeah. But it's worth it. It's worth it. Like, first off, who's in my six? Like, if I stop, who's picking up the slack? I love it. Like, who's spanning the distance from all the way right, all the way left, everyone in between, like root now?

SPEAKER_00

You know what? I I I was gonna we did I just we I rushed in here, been you know running late, so I haven't been able to tell you something. But what I want to tell you is like I love listening to it. And for those of you out there that don't listen faithfully, you will hear all sides of everything. Half the time I'm working out in the morning because that's when I usually listen to you, and I want to jump through the through my earphones and like I I disagree, like I'm like, that is so stupid. But that's what it's about. It's about hearing all sides of an issue and learning things you don't know. And I think it's so good. You're you're you're you're filling a void that no one else could do, no one has the energy you have. Thank you. Thanks, thanks for what you do, man.

SPEAKER_01

Of course, but uh what you really have to realize is uh some of the times I want to jump out of the headphones. Like, I don't think people realize it's not like I but I have a guest on, I may not agree. What do you do? Do you tell them to shut up? No, you say stop talking, it's like what do you do?

SPEAKER_00

But what part of life and yeah, you know, I think of uh, you know, some of the best experiences I've had, whether I'm on a board or with companies I've run, is you want to hear all the different opinions. Sure. You want to be challenged, you want to say, hey, there's a different way to look at this, right? Whether it be infrastructure or healthcare or growth. Right. I listened to Carrie this morning and I actually like her, but my gosh, I'm like, what the hell? I mean, like there's just so many different things and the way people see things. So I don't I don't know. I think it's good. I think it's so good to hear all sides of an issue, and we do have a lot of challenges, we have a lot of opportunity, but that's life and experiencing it in a way where you're where you're hearing all these things. I think it's wonderful. So thanks, thanks for what you do. I I know you're working, especially now with the session starting, you're working so hard. Dude, I got nine lined up on Monday. Oh my goodness. Well, I know we're doing something, yeah. So it's gonna be great. So so part of what we're doing is uh Matt has been kind enough for my little podcast that we've been doing for several years, but we we're gonna do themes this year. And this year we're gonna we're gonna release one that we do, and then we're gonna interview. I think Monday we have Bed Key, Moyle, and Anthony lined up. Yes. Uh back to back to back. Yes. After you, it sounds like you have six before that.

SPEAKER_01

So it's gonna be we're gonna end on the best.

SPEAKER_00

I'll I'm buying the coffee for you, man. God bless it. We'll we'll get you pumped up. But I I think it's just really, really nice for me and for our listeners to hear what's going on because these sessions matter, Brian. They matter. And and you have people that come to town, um, they come in with some really good ideas, and then depending on what the pressures are, and I and I I I did uh did one with uh Governor Little, but you think about we have we have this beautiful state in the middle of this country, and then but you have global pressures, you have pressures in the United States, and we have our own pressures, budgetary changes, and then you have all the other stuff that comes up, right? Sure. So for the average listener out there, having a source to go to to listen to to what's going on and having these guests on and trying to follow it in the media and and knowing what's true and what's not, um man, it's a crazy time.

Water, Power, And Growth Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_01

It's a while. And and again, thank you for the invitation to to do this with you. It I love every second of it. And I love I love it because it actually, when you when you get into the depth of what these people are doing, what the legislators doing as as a as a private citizen outside of politics, and I've never been engaged in politics, but now I'm like I'm I'm like legislative adjacent. Right. I I didn't know what the government did, and I would be upset about things or like I'd hear things on the news, I'd get taken by the narratives. I won't know. Now it's like, oh my God, how do you guys do all of this? Like the the the detail that they have to go into, the the actual functional programs. Here's one. Somebody hit me up just on the way here. They're like, would you be would you be interested in the Elmore County Commissioner? I'm like, I mean, sure, like why? Like what's going on? Like, well, the aquifer, Mountain Home, all these things, 20 years from now, it's gonna be dry, like this whole population, plus we have ag, we have all these other things like full send, man. Now, this is a problem of recharging an aquifer under this growing area of our our our state, plus Boise's moving east, right? They're pushing out that way. It's like, if you don't have water out there, this is gonna be a gigantic problem. And then in uh, if you pull into relief of last year, the argument over the$30 million for water research ongoing, you're like, oh, yeah. So they're trying to figure out how to keep this community alive because the aquifer that you will never see with your own two eyes that exists under the under the earth, that thing's drying up. And someone has to figure that out. And guess what? The people of Mountain Home, God bless them, but like they're likely not hydrologists by trade, and like they can't reroute water or build infrastructure like that.

SPEAKER_00

And I that's why I love you hit so many different things, right? And and if you think of you just brought up water, but you talk about all the things you could do on water, power, your your series on nuclear, like where are we headed with power, uh, roads infrastructure, you think about growth, and then and then you go over to the social issues, then you go to education and healthcare. There's just so many things. And here's my take on the session. I I've I'm helping this year. I've got a couple passion projects, so I've been lucky enough to be very involved with for a few years. And then um now I'm now I'm very involved because we're trying to get some legislation through this session. I'm usually not that involved, but when it's an issue that I really love, so I've been calling legislators. I called like 40 of them last week. But um just to talk to them about it. But I I think by and large, we have really, really good people. Most most of these, and I have this, you know, how people have like these first of all, I was an ER doc for a long time, so I have 48,000 patients. So when you go in a room, you kind of can like pretty quickly you have to get pretty good at like saying, okay, what's going on with this person? What's going on with this person? And you and you and you you have to make some really quick kind of triage assessments. Then I think in today's politician, um, for me, I I kind of get a pretty good feel. Are they authentic? Are they genuine? Are they here for the right reason? Are they a listener? Are they a learner? Are they, you know, how are they studying the issues? Because there's all these issues facing them. And I kind of make my own assessment. And then then I think you've got these over here that may be a little bit more, you may call it politically savvy, you may call it, you know, they're operators. They're operators. And they're here for different reasons. And I think you kind of you cut a little of both. And listen, we're all we all see the world that way, right? I think the hypocrisy that the the hypocrisy of all hypocrisies is not to say we're all self-interested in something, right? We kind of are. We have the things we care about, naturally. And over time we change our minds. But I really love being around people that are intelligent, study the issue, try to grab the data on whatever the issue is, and then they're willing to listen to all sides and get through. And I think we've got a lot of those in the legislature, people that really want to be here and do the right thing. Then the question is, how do they get their information? How are they influenced by politics and what the issues are of the time? And then at the end of this, you know, in medicine, we with the have the Hippocratic oath, which is first do no harm.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that's my thought going into these sessions. It's like, hey, I know there's this compulsion to like do another 300 bills every session, but first do no harm. Do we need this, right? Do we need more legislation? Because the nature of government is always to grow. Um, that's why I enjoy I I think if you look at a little what he's done on some of the regulations that he cut in his first term was fantastic. You know, sometimes you have to do take this roll back and say, hey, do we really need all this? But anyway, I'm rambling. No, no, no.

Citizens, Lobbyists, And Expertise

SPEAKER_01

I I actually really appreciate is especially the last point. Like we we could say, we could be very charitable and say the personality types in the legislature is reflective of the general population. Now, we would want it to be the best. Some people say it's the worst, but let's just say, hey, man, they're average people. The problem that you run into, these are two-year terms, and these are not full-time politicians. So these people have jobs in construction, in teaching, engineering, farming, all of these different things. So they're here for three months. And I can tell you, as somebody who has tried to learn as much as humanly possible about Idaho every single day for years, I do not know how, in a two-year time frame, these people, when they have other jobs, could come and learn about forestry, learn about water, learn about all of these different nuances and keep it all straight and then even look at the bills that come presented to them. They're like, okay, I'm supposed to assess this. Like, I think a lot of people have a criticism of we need to get rid of lobbyists, get money out of politics. And yeah, hey, look, I don't like the idea that you could buy someone to come in and like advocate for your thing and it may not be best ride-ho. But dude, if you don't have Sam Parrott, the sugar beet queen, coming in to explain to you how Canada was super saturating their molasses product, shipping it into the United States, refining out the extra sugar and then selling that to avoid taxes. If you don't have that person helping you understand how that's affecting the Idaho sugar beet farmers, how are you gonna figure that out? Like it's too much information.

Election Cycles And Performative Bills

SPEAKER_00

Matt, what a great point. I mean, it's it just and and then you know the sugar pee, sugar beet lobbyist is going to be advocating for them, but that's where the education is gonna come. But then do our legislators or whoever's listening to the argument have the counter. What's the counter? What's the truth? Right. Whether it be the hospital association on Medicaid expansion, or whether it be, you know, the General Contractors Association on construction, or I'm a developer, right? I'm I've kind of both. I've been in healthcare, I've been all over. And and I have my own self-interest. So I want to see both sides of an issue, but I also want to win and I want my thing. And there's all of this balance that's going on. I don't know how they do it. You know, uh I've been I have a lot of sympathy for them after that. I've been all over on in everything is two years. So if you think about it, we're on an on-year uh cycle this year for election. They're always in election mode. So especially on an on-year, how many of these bills you're gonna see in the next few weeks are just to increase their Republican bona fides going into election? I heard a horror story. I've been to a couple of receptions this week. Someone told me a story this week about some nutty legislation, just crazy stuff. And behind, come on, what was it? You gotta tell me. I can't even say it because it was so crazy. And and but behind closed doors, that this legislator said, Hey, I I just need to get it to here, so I know it's gonna get killed, but I want to be able to go back to my constituents. I fought for this. I fought for this. I fought for you. Yeah. So how much of it is that and how much of it is real? Um, but but I where I was going with it is, you know, I'm I'm I've always been like a term limit guy, but sometimes it's nice to have the adults in the room that have been there for a while that have been educated, whether it be water or healthcare or whatever, that are kind of able to become that senior statesman to say, no, I've been here long enough that I saw when Medicaid was expanded. And I know what they were telling me when Medicaid expanded. And I've seen what's happened. You know, some of that history is important as you're making new laws and adjusting because the the things change, right? Right. And instead you have this, you know, I listened to some of these arguments and I'm like, well, that's not true. What you're best at is rewriting history, because that's not what happened when it came through. But that only comes with some time and wisdom and experience. So anyway, I think it's going to be fascinating to do our interviews. I can't wait to, I can't wait. I think I think Bedke is one of those guys that's been around a long time. And I and I remember meeting with him when he's speaker over several issues over the years, and now as Lieutenant Governor going into, you know, he'll he'll be he'll be running again, but but he's got a great perspective on a lot of things. That'll be fun. I think Mike Moyle, the guy, the guy is the guy is the guy who's running stuff down there now, and he is savvy and he knows what he wants. And he is he is uh I like Mike. I think Mike Mike does a great job. Uh there's a lot of people who don't like Mike, and that's because Mike is really good at what he does, and I think he goes into these things having an agenda of what he wants done. And then Kelly, Anthony, I think, is one of the greatest guys out there. I every conversation I've had with him on any issue, it it goes a mile deep, a mile wide. The guy's got a depth of knowledge, he studies the heck out of things. So that'll be fun. Uh I think I listen, I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_01

The other thing, I I appreciate the the willingness that you have to take of your free time to do to do your show. And I've I've been thinking about this a lot. We need more of you and me because what we really need, I think, to get our get ourselves out of the hole we find ourselves in America is expert citizens that have a capacity to communicate, right? And I'm not saying I'm expert in anything. You obviously have expertise in medicine and and development and things like this, but it's like we need those people who are trying to communicate effectively at scale to help people understand and have background so the general populace can assess, okay, okay, I actually have a little information about this now. And with this information, what do I think about this law? Because if you don't have that, you can't rely on the news stations, you can't rely on newspapers. Like it's it's some of these issues are hypercomplex. And in the medium that we both play in, it's like if you if you have a 45-minute podcast or a half-hour podcast, tell me how else you could get all that information packaged and consumed.

SPEAKER_00

And and and you will, you're an expert at this because you are, because if you've been doing this long enough, long format cuts through BS. It does.

SPEAKER_01

You maybe got five, 10 minutes, and then it's it does.

SPEAKER_00

Gloves are off. It will really does. Because you can you can you can have your talking points and do an interview or whatever, but when you get into a you get into a 45-minute, an hour-long discussion, um, it cuts through BS on who you are, I think. It cuts through BS on your authenticity, and it also cuts through BS on kind of how depth deep you may know an issue. Uh there's no hiding from longer format. And I think that's why people are eating it up. I don't, you know, I go back even, and I'm getting old now, Matt. I'm really old, but I think of how I consumed my information before and how I consume it now, it's totally different. Totally different. I mean, I have my list of and and it's so convenient now because it's just up next, up next, up next, right? I just have my daily thing and it keeps me educated and going. And long format is the wave of the future because it's authentic. When I listen to someone on your show, I really feel like I understand that person, or at least where they're coming from, right? Um in a really unique way.

Experience, Term Limits, And Memory

SPEAKER_01

And and it's uh it's an interesting problem because you anybody could carry on a conversation 45 minutes. One of one of the first, like, I when I started getting into podcasting like five, six years ago, I was really trying to understand, like, okay, what like trust your gut a little bit, but also like try to understand why things don't resonate. It's one thing to say, like, hey, I don't enjoy listening to this, but it's like, why? For instance, I had a I had Miguel from um the Associated Tax Breakers of Idaho yesterday. It was like 45 minutes. We're laughing the whole time, having this, and we're talking about tax code in Idaho conformity only, and we're having a great time. It's like, okay, why though? Right. And one of I learned this lesson, a friend of mine, Ralph, was on a podcast and he sent it to me this uh 2019. He sends it to me, and it's Ralph, who's this big uh enterprise sales uh pipeline trainer, and first off, three hosts, three, four hosts. And it was, I was like, three, four hosts? Like, why do you have three, four hosts? Everybody wants the attention. It's on Zoom. I'm like, okay, I don't like this. And they had these questions. One one was, hey Ralph, how do you you have a wife and kids? Like, how do you work so much, right? Can question, totally fine. And Ralph says, Well, you know, I lean into my faith a lot, and my wife, Kay They, she's great. And uh, yeah, you know, I love my boys and you know, just try to work hard. Okay, Ralph, what about I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. A lot of people work hard, a lot of people implode working hard. Ralph happens to be Catholic. The actual next question should have been, hey man, when you say your faith, like, what does being Catholic have to do with you working like 80 hours a week? Like, how do you lean on that? What what what insights do you glean? What do you mean? Right. And a lot of times when people are working a lot, they say their wife is an imposition to that because she's mad. How is it that your wife has seen, like, what is that? And it really made me realize look, long form, it's when we say long form, we just talk about a time frame. But in reality, what you actually want is someone that's listening to the answers. Yes. And and if they say, wait, that doesn't make sense. That's the exchange you need to have. Don't just be like, well, I got to get to this next question, so we got to get there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And yeah, I I I know how you do it. I because I do similarly, I used to prep and I don't anymore. I just don't. Let it go. Because I stopped using it. Because I started, you start going and you're like, that's interesting. And if it's interesting to me, it's probably gonna be interesting to a listener. And if it's not interesting to me, then you know, sometimes I fuddle through them.

SPEAKER_01

But uh if I'm not stopping, yeah, but if it's not interesting to you, how could you possibly ask the listener? Like that needs to be the number one, and ultimately, that's what makes your show your show. Because if it's your interest, then at least it has that flavor.

Long-Form Media And Authenticity

SPEAKER_00

Every year I go through this thing because I, you know, I and everyone's busy. I know everyone's busy. But but by the time you put it into everything else you're doing, so I always go through this thing, okay, am I gonna do it next year? And this year I'm like, uh, I'm gonna do it this year, but we're we're gonna try something different. We're gonna do uh a monthly, every month we'll have a topic and a co-host. Yeah. So my first month I had Andy Scoggin. Have you had Andy on your show? Scoggin? Oh yeah. I've had Bruce Scogg. So who's Andy Scoggin? Andy Scoggin is like Idaho's Renaissance man. This dude is he was on the State Board of Education, he was a uh original Albertson's LLC guy. Oh. He owns, I think he owns like 10 booming businesses right now in town. He's on every nonprofit board you can think of. He uh he uh anyway, he's got me going right now because every morning he wakes up and studies three languages as part of his morning routine.

SPEAKER_01

I can't. I can't with people. I can't talk to them.

SPEAKER_00

Don't don't give them my number.

SPEAKER_01

I can't talk to them. It's gonna make my it's gonna make me itch.

SPEAKER_00

But it's all true, but I but I want you know, I had him on with my first one, and then you'll you'll be my co-host for the second month, and each month I'll have a co-host. And it's kind of fun too to have someone else because it's fun to have someone else in the room asking questions, and I you learn from them. It's great. I I've I've really again, I I'm your fan guy, so uh I'll tell you, uh, it's been fun getting to know you. I I I think it's a you're a unique character, man. You've got an energy that just doesn't stop. And I love because I listen to almost all your shows, I love I love the energy you bring and the the topics that are getting out there that otherwise would not get see the light of day that are important to us.

SPEAKER_01

What what specifically are you talking about? Because what I wanted to ask you next is you know, there's a lot of criticism of government and government with capital G, the state, capital S. Yeah. But what that does is that actually portrays the functioning aspects of our state. Most people just look national. The people that look local, they're gonna be concerned with school choice, tax credit, and they're gonna be concerned with Medicaid expansion. It's like, okay, those are just two issues. We have billions and billions of dollars in our budget. What are the things that you feel like people don't understand that the Idaho government is getting after successfully or could do more successfully, either way?

City, County, State: Different Gears

SPEAKER_00

Well, what I like that you've kind of teased. Well, if you if you talk to people who know, like like the the first of all, running a state is very different than running a city. Yes. It's very different than running a county. And what I love about your show is you're getting guests on from all three of those things. Because I do think, perspective-wise, when you spend time, when I ran for governor, I went around and I interviewed almost every mayor I could. It was up over 100. I can't remember the exact number. It's like 113 different mayors. I went to their city hall, I sat down with them, and I had the same questions. You know, what's going well? What are your biggest challenges? How could state government ever help you in the city? Right. And I got, I had wonderful experience doing that. But I got it, I gained an incredible respect for this, for the for the mayors around our state right now. And then you would go to the mayor of, you know, a little teeny town that's got that's own property. And you'd be interviewing Mayor Simmonson or someone with very varies varies in uh in problems. But that was good. Then you go to counties. Well, we've got you think of growth right now, and Ada County with their commissioners and Canyon County and how they're running. Elmore County, you brought up already. Yeah, the cities in the middle, and that inherent conflict that's going on at all times for utilities and growth and boundaries and borders and how all this thing is gonna go. Water, utility. I mean, it's it's a constant thing. Well, where else? What other what other avenue are you gonna, as a listener, are you gonna get educated on how cities interact with counties and how counties, then you got ACHD here. You're talking to all of them. Then you go to the state, right? In a big state, and we're really three states, until you really start traveling it. I mean, you got eastern Idaho that is very different. You you kind of got this transition zone through the Magic Valley, and then you go to North Idaho, and they're very distinct populations. They have different economies, they do things differently. And you've got Governor Little and his team, and then you've got the legislature trying to trying to pass legislation that fits kind of this very uh unique population centers we have. That's complicated, Matt. All and then you've got all the other organizations that are self-interested trying to do business in a state like ours, in in in in and so there's so many people to talk to. So I guess your question is um, what are the issues people want to listen to? I think all of that, you need to know what are the pressures on your city you live, what are the pressures on your counties and the valleys around you, what are the state things, education? How are we doing on public education? What's the implications of vouchers and privatizing some of this? What's K-12 and higher education? What's going on with, you know, there's just so much with education. And then healthcare is the issue of the day, right? It really is. Healthcare, I mean, I could, I could talk about this forever. And and I do, but but what went wrong and how do we get out of it? And what are we going to do? And you got these families, and that, I mean, that was my life living in the I mean, I as an ER doc, you see you are on the front lines of humanity. You are, and I did night shifts for 10 years. You're you're that's the front line, it's the it's the trench. And so you see the problems and you see the solutions and you see good people trying to do it, and then you see the self-interests, which are all over, especially in healthcare. Like who's gonna grab the dollars and how they're gonna go? And now you get, you know, you get 20 years down the road now from where we were when when there was probably a solution. Now you're like, okay, now what are we gonna do? So that's healthcare. Then you take where does our budget go? Look at look at look at corrections. Look at just the Department of Corrections, how many people we put away, recidivism, how are we doing our county gels? How are we doing?

SPEAKER_01

How many people we ship out of the state we because we and that costs us more because we can house them to serve their time here cheaper than we can in Utah, but we don't have enough beds here, so we're paying a premium to ship our inmates out of the state.

SPEAKER_00

We're like halfway down the list, but my point is all of these topics are things that I want to know. I want to know, I want to hear from the guests you're having on about all of these different things. And I want to understand what their what their constraints are. And and and and you say, well, why do you want to know? Well, I want to be a I want to be an involved citizen. Are there things that I can do to help? Because I love this place.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

My kids are here, my grandkids are here. I want it to be magical for them. I want them to live the American dream. I want them to have the same opportunities I had. And how do we protect it? Well, how do you how do you even have an opinion if you're not educated on it?

SPEAKER_01

I listen, you will get no disagreement from me. Here's here's a uh uh pressure that I've realized as of late is is really screwing up some things of our separation. So when you talk about counties, you talk about cities, you talk about state, we elect people uh based on districts, right, for this at the state level. So you got somebody, you know, in the yeah, a bunch of different districts in Canyon County, Ada County, all over the place. Those people get elected and they get shot up to the state government. And generally, the local municipalities are supposed to deal with their local issues, right? However, because we elect them locally, you have constituents who are like, I have this localized problem. You're my state rep. Go fix it. And then all of a sudden, there's this pressure on these people that are supposed to be considering statewide issues to start addressing localized issues. And you have this big conflict of like, wait, why the hell are the people at the state level telling this 10,000 population town what the town should be doing or writing laws that will only affect one or two towns in the state of Idaho? Like you have these pressures. And again, what are you supposed to not listen to your constituents? I got elected. Of course I'm gonna listen to this person, but then you're bringing like a sledgehammer when you're trying to tap in a little nail for a picture.

One-Size Laws In A Diverse State

SPEAKER_00

It's one of the, you know, I as I get older and probably gain some wisdom, it used to drive me nuts. Like, what is the what is behind that bill? Which both both ways? What who's like this benefit? Like, what is who's motivated? And what I've found as I've maybe getting a little older and I don't know, is I'm always like, okay, I'm gonna dig into the story behind the reason. And I found that there's actually some pretty legitimate stuff back at the local level, right? So you may have an issue in Burley, Idaho, where there's a local issue that they're their elected representative is saying, you go fix this for us. And and and so, and you then you get appreciation because at least you walk back to the table and go, Oh, I get it. I get how that's their issue. And conversely, you see some state legislation where we may not, we may say, okay, we're passing this legislation for the great state of Ada, but how is it going to affect Awaiche County? How is it gonna affect, you know, Franklin? You you start thinking about like the highway district bill from last year.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And now you have rural communities that can't upgrade the sidewalks in front of schools because the the upgrading of the sidewalk does not expressly benefit vehicles.

SPEAKER_00

And then you take one more well, and not to complicate it further. Um, you know, I think the what I heard when I was on the road a lot was then you you have national mandates from EPA or whatever that then drift down to the state, that then go to the local municipalities, and you had these EPA regulations on phosphate discharge from their local water sewer and treatment plant that had millions of dollars up. And so you think about how all these things play together, it's complicated. It's really complicated, which is why I think there needs to be uh the better data we get, I wish we studied things better. I wish we could, I wish we had a better way of when an issue came up and you said, okay, what are the financial implications? What are the downstream implications? And I wish that we could almost do a report to the legislature a little bit better to say, hey, here's what we think. And I think they do the best they can, but oftentimes we just don't know. We don't know what the what what the implications will be. And there's and because we're rural and we're urban, you think of even education, some of the changes. I mean, how are how are some of these bills going to gonna affect our little rural districts? I worry about that, but I get it on school choice. Um, that that was the hard one for me because when I went in running for governor, I thought, man, I I've got a strong opinion on choice, a really strong opinion. Well, what was your opinion? Uh I love competition. I thought, oh gosh, if we could have competition here and you could really go anywhere you wanted to go, and the dollars followed the students, it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna make everything better. And then I spend, you know, I visit 87 school districts and sit with all those superintendents, and you could you could absolutely argue. No one has the guts to just say we're gonna consolidate because they need to consolidate. Absolutely. But right now they're not consolidating. You'll talk about local control. But then you go out there and you go, okay, if they lose even a little bit of funding and they've got this, you know, it's not gonna work in rural districts. It's not. And so I worry about it just because of that. And I think you kind of pass a bill that's kind of one size fits all and how that trickles out to everybody really worries me. And I think that's a legitimate question that people are asking. How is this going to affect? And that's a very different question that is is is choice good? Is choice cause, you know, improvement in in uh competition, which improves how we do our things with our kids? So I it's a complicated one. And anyone that says it's easy is isn't is just blind to the realities of the diversity in a state like ours.

Education Choice Versus Rural Reality

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but I I do think one of the big, and yes to everything you're saying, one of the big problems that I see is that when when people like me move here, right? And let's be clear, like people moving from, you know, the cow states, you know what's so funny? People freaked out when Governor Little said that recently. He said that in 24 on my show. I had a clip where he's like, the cow states, California, Oregon, Washington. And I interrupted, I was like, move. Like, I didn't put that clip out. But the point is, you have people that are moving in, but all they experience of Idaho is like Ada County, the great state of Ada. They're here and they don't that so then they get pulled into different bills or different political movements. Like, have you been to Burley? Have you ever been to Salmon? Like Riggins, Rigby, any of these ring ring a bell at all? And they're like, no, I don't even know what that is. Like, right. You're advocating for policies that will affect these people that and you you're not, you you haven't, you haven't gained the perspective. And that's a larger and larger portion of the voting block within, you know, Aiden Kenya County.

SPEAKER_00

It is. And it's going to continue, right? Because you're going to have you're going to have more concentration here, more diluting of the rural, and and we've got to protect both. Um, that's the challenge. And that's why I think I mean I'm I'm I'm I'm a huge fan and friend of of Brad Little and what what he's done. He has been around long enough. He knows this state, and his heart is good. When I talk about people that are there genuinely to do the best for Idaho families, or whether you're here for clicks or whatever else your thing is, he's there for families, right? So I like the wisdom that comes with that because I think uh I think that's always gonna be the balance. And and how do you study it out and what are the effects and and and as the best you can, and I know it's never perfect, but um funding formulas. I mean they're just you know great intentions, but how is that gonna work all the way through the system? Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um listen, I know it's working day. This is actually technically your show, so I don't want to like terminate it, but I know you got a lot going on. We got our interviews lined up on Monday. It we have the three individuals, uh Lieutenant Governor Bedke, Speaker Moyle, uh Pro Tem, Anthem, right? Yeah. Um is there one thing that you're hoping to ask each of them as we come into it?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yeah, I'm I'm I I'm pretty sure because I know them all that we're gonna get some authentic, I love them all because I think they're really authentic. And I I want to I want to let's see what's on their heart and their mind. I mean, that's that's for me. Uh I don't know about you. I was gonna ask you this. The other thing I love about you is I wish that, I mean, the education you get in a week on issues a lot. It's a lot. So you're gonna probably have some really good questions for them on specifics. I I I think um I think this budget deal is everyone's making a really big deal about it, but I think it's gonna be a big bargaining chip in a lot of ways. I think it's interesting because uh, you know, there's only two legislators that are still here that were part of the Great Recession, which wasn't that long ago. Is that speaker moylin who? It's uh so I guess you could probably qualify bed key. Oh but it's those are the two. But that's it. And then and then and then the rest of them all, you know, that was the last time Brad will say that they really had to say, okay, what are we gonna do? But this is nothing like that. But but I think they're used to like spending money in excess and saying, How are we gonna cut taxes or what are the new programs we're gonna do? So I don't think it'll be an interesting session from the budget. And then I think because it's an election year, what's coming out? You know, what's what are gonna be the what are gonna be the crazy things? Um, you know, I I think we're tracking a lot of things. I can't wait to hear what some of their answers there, but I think they're gonna be super authentic and real and tell us what they're thinking.

SPEAKER_01

I hope so. I hope so. It'll be great. Listen, man, I can't wait. Um I and again, I you're this theoretically your show, but is there anything you want to hit here at the end?

SPEAKER_00

No, thanks.

SPEAKER_01

I'm just gonna keep talking to you. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_00

I've I've appreciated your friendship. I appreciate what you do. Um, I would just for my for my audience, uh, man, if you're not listening to the Ranch podcast every make it part of your morning routine. And uh, Matt, um, uniquely it's energy and it is a lot of energy. It's great information if you're an Idahoan and you really care about this place. So God bless, man.

SPEAKER_01

Well, listen, I appreciate you and your support. Um, I can't wait for Monday. It'll be fun. Thanks, man.