The good, the bad and the ugly of Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address

Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address Monday and proposed budget contained a smorgasbord of tax cuts, rebates, new initiatives, paying down debt, increasing savings and increasing funding for a whole host of programs. With a projected $1.9 billion budget surplus, Little’s budget seemed to have a little bit of something to make everyone happy.

Here’s our breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly in Little’s speech.

The good

Little proposes increasing literacy funding by $47 million, which includes — finally — money for all-day kindergarten. It’s a good move, particularly given learning losses caused by the pandemic.

Little proposes paying off state building debt — saving in interest costs — and putting $1 billion into rainy day funds, both wise, fiscally conservative moves.

He also proposes increasing funds to the Idaho State Police and Idaho State Veterans Homes, and spending $50 million to improve behavioral health care.

Adding $200 million in ongoing funding to transportation maintenance and another $200 million in one-time funding to clear out one-third of the backlog of deficient bridges are also smart investments.

Little is proposing an 11% increase in public education funding, or $300 million in the coming year, including increasing teacher pay and providing $1,000 bonuses. This is, indeed, a sizable increase and a more serious commitment to education than in past years.

The bad

Unfortunately, that increased funding for public education still doesn’t go far enough.

Adding $300 million is a good start, but Idaho already is so far behind in education funding, ranking 51st in the nation in per pupil funding. Plus, part of that $300 million increase includes funding for all-day kindergarten, which Idaho should have been doing years ago, and $50 million for grants to parents teaching at home.

Little did not mention education until nearly halfway through his speech, a major divergence from his past speeches, where education was typically the first order of business.

He announced investing $1.1 billion in education over the next five years. That sounds like a big number, but over five years, that’s adding just $220 million per year on average. A couple dozen school districts around Idaho are running on nearly $220 million in supplemental levies right now. Adding $220 million just covers that level of underfunding that voters have decided the state has been short-changing in their districts.

That’s not investing — that’s barely catching up. And it doesn’t account for the inflation that Little tried to blame on President Joe Biden throughout his speech.

Little’s proposed increase of $300 million in public education should also be put in context of another priority: $600 million in tax cuts.

Little is proposing $350 million in immediate rebates and $250 million in ongoing income tax cuts.

Little promised to “give the people back their hard-earned dollars through tax relief.”

As we have pointed out before, how about giving the people back their hard-earned tax dollars in the form of basic government services?

“To date, in my first term, we have cut nearly $1 billion in taxes,” Little said. “Let me repeat that. Together, we have given back nearly $1 billion to Idahoans through income tax relief, property tax relief, and relief from unemployment taxes on Idaho businesses.”

Imagine how much better our public education system could have been if we had instead invested $1 billion in education. Or for that matter, even half of $1 billion.

Idaho is underfunding public education to a level that is unconstitutional, no longer providing “a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

The ugly

Much of Little’s address sounded more like a campaign speech — for president.

Little spent nearly the first third of his speech Monday bashing Biden and the federal government.

“While D.C. is digging the country into a $29 trillion hole, Idaho has a record surplus of $1.9 billion and counting,” Little said, conveniently ignoring the fact that much of Idaho’s $1.9 billion record surplus can be attributed to federal stimulus spending in Idaho — a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic he barely mentioned.

Idaho received $1.25 billion directly from the federal government in the first round of CARES Act funding. That represented 16% of Idaho’s total budget, and that didn’t count indirect federal funding that flowed into Idaho in the form of federal unemployment benefits and payroll protection program payments to businesses, or additional billions of federal dollars flowing into Idaho from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Throughout the speech, Little took several swipes at “Bidenflation,” a simplistic and inaccurate characterization of rising costs that have hit the U.S. and other nations, and are caused by global supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and strong consumer demand.

Little criticized the Biden vaccine-or-test rules and touted his own record of suing over mandates, not issuing a mask or vaccine mandate in Idaho and keeping Idaho open.

Little tried to blame Biden for illegal immigration and even blamed him for Mexican drug cartels at the border.

In years past, Little has seen fit to start his speeches with education, naming it as his No. 1 priority. On Monday, he seemed to make it his No. 1 priority to bash President Biden.

We are surprised Little didn’t finish his speech with, “Let’s go, Brandon.”

Little’s speech also failed to acknowledge the tough year we had due to COVID-19, the crisis standards of care we entered into and the 2,726 Idahoans lost due to the disease in the past year — in a state that remains one of the worst vaccinated, putting unnecessary pressure on our health care workers.

Given that this is an election year in which Little faces primary challenges from several people running to his far right, it could be expected that the incumbent governor would deliver such a speech, full of chest thumping and campaign stumping, and on that point, Little didn’t disappoint.

Let’s hope Little can deliver on these policies — especially education funding — sufficient to excuse his petty political rhetoric.