Blame Idaho legislators like Skaug, Moyle for Boise Greenbelt killing | Opinion

Skaug, Moyle

While currently residing in Oregon, I was previously a resident of Boise and the Treasure Valley for over 45 years. Daily I track Idaho news articles. The comments from House Speaker Mike Moyle and Rep. Bruce Skaug regarding the tragic stabbing of Jordan Harbst on the Boise Greenbelt are disgusting and specious. I suggest House Speaker Moyle and Rep. Skaug take a long look in the mirror at who’s to blame and how this tragedy could have been prevented. The same goes for all Republican members of the Idaho Legislature. Blaming the city of Boise for not enforcing the clumsy, lazy legislation known as the “Galloway Law,” and suggesting legal action against the city, is malpractice. What have you two and the Idaho Legislature as a whole done to address homelessness and the mental health crisis in Idaho? Here’s what: 1) repeatedly slashing funding for the latter and 2) taking punitive actions against the former. If there’s any blame to go around, it’s on both of you and your Republican cronies in the Idaho Legislature. Your actions and words are reckless and shameful!

Scott Hauser, The Dalles

Idaho leadership

After the dust settles, and we reach the 2026 midterms, let’s remember who stood up — and who didn’t.

Idaho’s congressional delegation and the Governor’s Office should have been the first to publicly support Secretary of State Phil McGrane when the U.S. Justice Department warned he could face prosecution for refusing to provide unredacted voter rolls to the federal government.

A fellow Republican and elected official with Phil’s record and commitment to fair, secure and transparent elections should never be left to stand alone. Idaho’s top elected leaders should clearly defend him and the integrity of our elections.

From his years serving Ada County to his role as Secretary of State, Phil continues to protect every eligible Idahoan’s right to vote, prevent fraud, and help people understand elections with clarity and honesty—all while defending and supporting local election officials during a time of intense scrutiny and pressure.

Leadership is tested in difficult times like these. When a public servant with Phil McGrane’s record comes under attack, silence from those elected to represent Idaho is not leadership.

It’s a failure to defend both a dedicated public servant and the integrity of our state’s elections.

Idaho deserves better.

Georgia Smith, Boise

Greenbelt killing

The senseless murder of Jordan Harbst on the Greenbelt could have happened to anyone of us. Rep. Bruce Skaug of Nampa and Rep. Mike Moyle of Eagle are flat out wrong to state that it was caused by Boise not having anti-camping ordinances. The suspect in this murder was a mentally ill person, who, as the Statesman reporter Alex Brizee wrote, has a “generalized paranoia that people on scooters were after him…”

As long as this murder suspect was “free,” we were all at risk, including Reps. Skaug and Moyle and anyone they care about. Many others in the legislature, especially the leaders of the budget committee, constantly vote against mental health care for individuals who are dangerously mentally ill. They accuse individuals who support this care of “coddling” people. Facilities that treat these unfortunate individuals and protect us all from them, is the responsibility of the legislature to fund, build and staff. The responsibility is not assigned to Boise or its mayor.

Janelle Wintersteen, Boise

Senate race

If Idaho was purple state and there was a viable Democratic candidate, I might agree with David Roth’s premise — that now is not the time for a moderate. But Idaho is not purple, and Roth is not a viable Democratic candidate.

If all registered Democrats and independents voted for Roth, that still wouldn’t overcome the number of registered Republican voters. To beat Risch, there must be a crossover from the Republican side — that is not going to happen currently for a Democrat at the federal level.

Per FEC reporting (including 2025), Roth’s campaign raised $8,642. Achilles’ campaign raised $448,964. Given that disparity, when FEC reporting becomes available for Q2 2026, the gap between the two campaigns will become even larger.

Todd Achilles has spent a year traveling Idaho, meeting Idahoans. He’s appeared for numerous interviews. Todd has a large number of volunteers, and no doubt many Idahoans have seen his billboards wishing Risch a “Happy 83rd Birthday.”

Achilles has a solid, pragmatic campaign with priorities that appeal to a large swath of voters.

Roth has two failed candidacies — 2022 for the Senate and 2024 for the House of Representatives. A third failure will be 2026 if he doesn’t step aside.

Jennifer Pedrali, Nampa

Community solar

In the Climate Action Roadmap that the City of Boise put together in 2021, the city made a commitment to develop a 500 kW community solar project every five years starting in 2025. Community solar is a solar installation, owned by a local group of people or organization other than the energy utility, which centralizes solar installations on a publicly owned building or property and distributes the benefits from that system to the local community. While there have been many technical hurdles to overcome, from regulatory issues to sizing and budgeting the system, it appears that the first installation is within reach.

The city has included a line item for $50k in its FY 2027 budget to complete its first community solar projects. At least a portion of the benefits of this system will go to assist low income individuals with their utility bills. I personally think that this is a great first step! I encourage the city to continue to track and monitor this pilot project so that more installations will come in the future, and I further encourage them to donate 100% of the benefits to help our low-income communities.

Brad Kinney, Boise