If Idaho Gov. Brad Little wants to keep promises, let’s start with Idaho’s retirees | Opinion

PERSI

Gov. Brad Little’s recent State of the State address highlighted the importance of leadership grounded in keeping promises — to our citizens, our communities, and those who dedicate their lives to public service. Yet, one critical promise continues to be broken: the commitment to Idaho’s retired public servants.

The Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho board has failed to grant cost-of-living that preserve the true value of pensions for retirees. Teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees dedicated decades to serving our state, trusting their retirement would be secure. Rising costs have eroded their pensions, resulting in a 14.7% loss of purchasing power over five years.

This broken promise isn’t just an affront to those who built Idaho — it’s a barrier to recruiting and retaining the next generation of public servants. How can we expect talented individuals to commit to these roles when we fail to honor the commitments made to their predecessors?

As we celebrate progress in other areas, we must demand our leaders prioritize this issue. Ensuring all public servants can retire with dignity is not just about fairness — it reflects the values we hold dear as a state.

Keeping promises should be more than just a theme for speeches.

Timothy Rosandick, Caldwell

Gaslighting

No amount of gaslighting will change the facts that:

• the president-elect is a convicted felon and a person found liable for sex assault who has promised to nullify the convictions of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
• domestic terrorists such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers threaten our safety and the rule of law

There are current and planned human rights violations proposed by the Idaho legislature and the governor:

• denying women emergency health care
• mass deportations of people without due process
• enacting anti-trans legislation

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise has a timeline with past human rights violations that occurred in Idaho. Will we be able to prevent more human rights violations from being added to the timeline?

Eileen Schoenfelder, Boise

Legislature

Really, Idaho Legislature? This is where you want to plant your first flag of this legislative session? Trying to strip the rights of people to love who they love in a legal and committed relationship? Well done (note my sarcasm please).

Donna M Carlson, Boise

Legal notices

I recently read that Ada County Commissioner Ryan Davidson wants to do away with the law requiring legal notices.

Who is paying you to pursue this? I mean you are just a county commissioner yet you want to dictate to all of Idaho?

I read. Plain and simple. Finding local information is not just on the front pages.

If notices are not posted, information remains in the dark.

Perhaps that is the end game here. The great unwashed have no need to know, they just need to do as they are told.

You propose a “centralized county database”. Oh goody, another office, another layer, another expense, another black hole.

I have had clerks past and present, not respond to my questions nor requests for information. I have no recourse. Currently, financials are not published, posted or provided. Millions of dollars are being poured into this city. My recourse? File a criminal charge against the clerk. This is what happens in real life in Idaho.

For those who choose not to live on the west coast of Idaho, we like our way of life and the way we try to run it. Butt out.

Rosanne Smith, Moyie Springs

The real issues

The legislature is back and from the recent article in the Statesman on the super majority’s priorities the focus seems to be a repeat of last year: culture wars.

So countless hearings and hours will be on DEI and targeting vulnerable populations, vouchers sending taxpayer dollars to private or home school children, repealing Medicaid expansion (which was voted in by over 60% of Idahoans), prayer in public schools and immigration. These are some of the hot button issues that will be prioritized.

And once again, there seems to be no priority for what many Idahoans want; affordable housing (the Housing Trust Fund has not been funded in 30 years), inflation, living wage jobs , the environment, fixing Idaho’s extreme abortion law so women can have reproductive health care when needed, safeguarding our public lands, climate change, education and the poor physical state of many of the schools.

I hope the supermajority can take time from fighting the culture wars that they seem to care so deeply about and look at the real issues that affect the daily lives of Idahoans.

Linda Beebe, Boise

The 1% are laughing at us

A political pundit of his day once coined the phrase - “It’s the economy stupid.” It stood as a slogan which carried the election of its origin. But as politico climates evolve, so too perhaps should the expressions defining them. A reasonable revision may read: “It’s the concentration of wealth stupid.” Bernie Sanders has long warned against the harm of so much wealth clenched in the hands of so few. But his premonitions of what’s to come seem to have been cast aside. If this laissez-faire manner to the problem continues, then oligarchy shall be the legacy since these one-percenters know no bounds. These money grubbers will not rest, until they have vanquished the coffers of the entire national treasury.

But maybe there’s an alternative path forward? Perhaps a one-percent wall should not be allowed to stand? Might this present an idea upon which the other 99% of us may agree? Shall we drop the woke v non-woke/liberal v conservative discourse as haggard and stale and collectively tackle the existential threat to democracy? The one-percenters love us frittering over tiresome concepts, treating us like puppets dangling on a string. Let us show a one-percent wall cannot stand. What say you?

Sam Johnson, Boise