The state of Idaho will undergo two significant leadership changes next year when Butch Otter and Raul Labrador leave their current offices. Otter is retiring after three terms as governor; Labrador hopes to replace him. He is leaving his seat after four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On May 15 the state’s primary election will whittle the slate of candidates for state and federal office. That’s when Labrador will find out whether he’ll spend most of the next six months continuing his bid for governor.
This week, we’ll hear a bit from the five major party candidates for governor who were invited to participate in Idaho Public Television debates this week.
We’ll begin with the Republicans. Lieutenant Governor Brad Little is the number two state elected official in Idaho and the strongest proponent for the status quo.
“Today, Idaho is the envy of all the states. We lead the nation in job growth. We lead the nation in income growth. We’re one of the most solvent states of all the states as far as debt," Little said.
He says the challenge is to create the right conditions so that the state’s young people will want to stay in the state. One area where Little wants to push the status quo is in finding ways around the Affordable Care Act.
“I want to go back to where we were before when we had the most affordable health care of all the 50 states," Little said. "We had a functioning high-risk pool where we had great incentives to be personally responsible for their own health care and have health savings accounts. I want to continue to increase the supply of medical professionals so that helps out in that area.”
Little says the state continues to negotiate with the federal government to find ways to offer lower-cost health insurance plans. He likes the relationship the state has with the Trump Administration, for example, in finding ways to allow Idaho to have some influence in how federal lands within its borders are managed.
“I couldn’t be happier about the response of this administration to Idaho raising their hand and saying, ‘We can do that better.’ And I believe they’re going to continue to do that," he said.
While Little believes the state is going in the right direction, two of the other Republicans are pushing for change. One, Dr. Tommy Ahlquist, is an emergency room physician, property developer and entrepreneur.
“Our children, your children, deserve more than the status quo in Idaho. Education in Idaho is going to be a priority for us. We must and we will modernize education and connect Idaho kids to Idaho jobs,” Ahlquist said.
He believes the state needs to make changes in how it raises and spends money.
“I think we need to be more competitive on our income tax. I think we need to spend our money better. There’s nothing wrong with taxing our people and then investing that money properly. But we’re not doing it right now," Ahlquist said. "We need to change this tax code and make sure that we’re making it as competitive and flat and as fair for families and small businesses in Idaho. And if we make every decision based on that, what’s best for the small businesses and families, we will go far in our tax policy.”
Ahlquist also advocates making changes to the health care system.
“We have a system that used to be primary care centric and now it’s hospital centric. We have a system now that has absolutely no transparency, none,” he said.
He says doctors and consumers alike are unsure about how much people will pay for specific health care procedures.
Ahlquist and Raul Labrador have clashed over political ads from an organization that questions, among other things, Labrador’s effectiveness in Congress. Labrador has countered by saying he’s the true consistent conservative in the race. He claims Ahlquist changes his positions on issues based on his political reasons.
But in some cases, they agree where changes should be made. Labrador also wants to reform the state tax system.
“My plan, just to make clear, is to bring all tax rates to five-five-five. I want to bring the tax rates to five percent corporate, five percent individual and five percent sales tax. That will cost approximately $1 billion to bring down the tax rates in the state of Idaho. But I want to look at the loopholes,” Labrador said.
He says the state offers approximately $3 billion a year in tax loopholes. As governor, he says he would work with the legislature to determine which of those to eliminate in order to pay for the money lost due to tax rate changes.
Labrador touted his work with House Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When the Senate refused to go along, he said he worked to give states extra authority.
“We attached an amendment, my friends in the Freedom Caucus and I, attached an amendment to the Obamacare repeal that would have allowed the states to repeal Obamacare and get rid of some of the regulations that are required by Obamacare," he said.
"The reason that they have not been successful is that Obamacare does not allow them to do that. My amendment would have allowed that and we spent a lot of time with President Trump, working with the administration to make sure that if Congress wasn’t going to do that, we could do it. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to follow through on the things that we wanted to do," Labrador said.
Not surprisingly, the two Democrats chosen for the debate have different views from the Republican candidates on taxes and health care.
A.J. Balukoff is a Boise businessman who has been running TV and web ads around the state for a few months. Balukoff lost to Butch Otter in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
“When I travel the state, I haven’t heard anybody for tax cuts. And in fact, studies show that most Idahoans feel our tax burden is about right. And the people that push the tax cuts point to the income tax rates that are higher than our neighboring states. But that’s looking at just a piece of the puzzle," Balukoff said. "If you look at the entire tax burden of not only income taxes, but sales tax, property tax, different fees that we pay, Idaho has one of the lowest tax burdens in the entire United States.”
Balukoff says Idaho spent $29 million last year to cover health care costs for uninsured people. He supports a proposed initiative that would require the state to expand Medicaid. That would ensure subsidized care is available to thousands more Idahoans, with the federal government picking up a vast majority of the cost.
Balukoff has been a member of the Boise School Board for 21 years and touts that as his qualification for improving the state’s education system.
“I’m proud to have helped set the policies that put in motion things that have made the Boise School District the best in the state," he said. "Our four traditional high schools, for 10 years in a row, have been listed by the Washington Post as top high schools in America.”
Balukoff’s opponent in the primary is former state Rep. Paulette Jordan. She’s a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe who gave up her seat in the state House to run for governor.
Jordan is the youngest person among the major candidates in the race and she’s calling for a new generation to take charge.
“Idaho officials have been playing to special interests for far too long, for decades, in fact. And unfortunately, Idaho’s Democrats have been running scared," Jordan said. "But it’s about time that we change that because we have a new era, a bold new leadership, a chance to elect a leader with fresh new ideas and, in myself, representing our next generation of Idahoans who are fighting for a better way of life, to be more prosperous, more successful in our economy, have access to quality health care, and the best world-class education that we can provide.”
Like Balukoff, Jordan supports an expansion of Medicaid for low-income people. And she too disagreed with the state’s new tax cuts.
“Much of that money, the $200 million that we gave away, that could have been reinvested back into our educational system," she said. "So while I voted no, I would have presented opportunities to promote those dollars being reinvested back into Idaho’s homegrown communities.”
Like Raul Labrador, Jordan says she would support a review of the state’s tax exemptions as a way to relieve the tax burden on individual taxpayers.
You can hear the full debates involving these candidates at the Idaho Public Television website: Idaho PTV dot org.
Next week on Inland Journal, we’ll hear from some of the candidates in the race for Idaho’s First Congressional District seat, the position now held by Raul Labrador.
