{"id":17301,"date":"2022-01-26T01:48:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T01:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=17301"},"modified":"2022-01-25T20:54:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T20:54:29","slug":"bidenflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/26\/bidenflation\/","title":{"rendered":"Bidenflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Little makes a big deal about budget balancing differences. Does it matter?<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Hey @Idahoans \u2026 Check out your governor\u2019s Insta. He\u2019s totally dissing the president. #Bidenflation.<\/p>\n

Politicians\u2014especially ones whose seats are being challenged within their own party\u2014are supposed to play to their base whenever they have the opportunity. And given a Democratic stronghold on the Oval Office for at least a few more years, plus midterm elections fast approaching, plus the painful impact of current inflation, Idaho Governor Brad Little should be using social media and more to showcase his proposed balanced budget. But with a Friday, Feb. 18, budget setting session for FY2023 only a few weeks away, some fiscal policy conversations may sound freaky. That is, Republicans and Democrats may be switching up slogans or even finding a few things they actually agree\u2014or can compromise\u2014on.<\/p>\n

Case in point: In a January \u201cNewsweek\u201d article, Republican and Idaho\u2019s Senate President Chuck Winder was quoted as saying, \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that some of the public is saying, \u2018No, I don\u2019t really want tax relief. I\u2019d rather see you put the money into roads and schools and do the deferred maintenance things that need to be done to keep our state and our universities and colleges running properly.\u2019 So that\u2019s going to be the debate\u2014how best to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a state that is firmly implanted in the political red, Winder\u2019s use of the phrase \u201csome of the public\u201d means Republicans\u2014or the people who are going to vote for Winder\u2014are OK with no tax relief on their personal IRS checks if it means the road they drive on or the teacher who educates their kid is a little better off.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And as much as Idaho has going for it, there are a lot of improvements to be made. Research and surveys rate Idaho with less than stellar national comparison rankings. For instance, regarding Idaho, recent \u201cU.S. News & World Report\u201d rankings say Idaho is:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 26 in healthcare<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 28 in transportation<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 29 in infrastructure<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 33 in education<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 35 in opportunity<\/p>\n

\u2022 Number 41 in access to the internet<\/p>\n

And most eyebrow raising of all, the Gem State ranks below New Jersey in the category of natural environment. The number 15 ranking is negatively influenced by Idaho\u2019s poor showing when it comes to drinking water violations (more on that later), but still, the following is not something you\u2019re going to see bragged about by the Visitors Bureau any time soon: Idaho Water Quality\u2014Hey, at least we\u2019re not in Flint, Michigan!<\/p>\n

Government\u2014A Socialist Enterprise<\/b><\/p>\n

In a country whose roots are tied to capitalism perhaps even more so than the other c-word (Christianity), it\u2019s become customary and expected to be hawkish about things like deficits and debts (yes, there is a difference between the two), fiduciary responsibility, tax breaks for the working class (well, for billionaires and corporations and any so-called job creator, too). And it\u2019s fair to say the national narrative\u2014historically, at least\u2014is that Democrats are the tax-and-spend party and Republicans are the adult-in-the-room party.<\/p>\n

In more local jurisdictions, where often someone\u2019s D or R political affiliation is not or is at least less publicly known, leaders there are starting to focus more on \u201cinvestment\u201d versus \u201cspending.\u201d Case in point: Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw\u2019s take on his city\u2019s yearly budget aims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law requires us to keep a reserve fund and when there\u2019s something left over we want to put that money to work, because that\u2019s what government should be doing,\u201d Bradshaw said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe the taxpayers want us to be a bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

And therein lies the debate Bradshaw hopes governments (and voters) at any jurisdictional level start clearly having: a fiscal analysis of what is and what is not an investment or which investment should be priority any given year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want to be is frivolous. If we\u2019re putting taxpayer money into a slip and slide on Mt. Baldy in the middle of a housing crisis, that\u2019s frivolous,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: To follow the Idaho State Legislature\u2019s budget-setting process, download or link to the schedule at legislature.idaho.gov\/lso\/bpa\/process<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Little makes a big deal about budget balancing differences. Does it matter? By Eric Valentine Hey @Idahoans \u2026 Check out your governor\u2019s Insta. He\u2019s totally dissing the president. #Bidenflation. Politicians\u2014especially ones whose seats are being challenged within their own party\u2014are supposed to play to their base whenever they have the opportunity. And given a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,83,18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-elections","8":"category-idaho","9":"category-news","10":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17307,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions\/17307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}