Everyone wants a stable economy and a responsible state budget. But Idaho’s Republican supermajority has sabotaged both. While GOP leaders stay silent, the facts are clear: state revenue has plummeted for three straight months. The freefall began when the Trump-Musk regime took power and started wrecking the economy. In March alone, revenues came in 20% below projections. No, Idaho is headed straight for a fiscal cliff.
This crisis isn’t an accident. It’s the direct result of Republican politicians giving hundreds of millions in tax handouts to the ultra-wealthy while slashing public services like education. They cooked the books with a lowballed revenue projection to justify $400 million in permanent tax giveaways and funneled another $50 million into subsidies for private, religious, and for-profit schools.
Governor Little saw the warning signs. His administration released February’s dismal revenue report showing a double-digit shortfall. Still, Republican lawmakers rammed through revenue reductions four times larger than what even the governor claimed Idaho could afford. And Little folded, signing the budget while knowing exactly how much damage it would do.
Now the bill is coming due, and it’s Idaho families who’ll pay the price.
With revenues collapsing, the state will slash even deeper into the public investments that help kids thrive, protect our way of life, and build a strong economy. But the tax breaks for the wealthy? Locked in. Republicans already gutted essential services to ram through their tax scam. What is coming next will be even worse.
Public schools, already slammed with a $68 million cut this year, now face even more devastation. Our colleges and universities, already targeted for political retribution by Republican lawmakers and stripped of $19 million, will take more hits, making it harder and more expensive for young Idahoans to build their future. Infrastructure projects will be stalled again. Even our state police and parks will feel the pain.
And there’s another blow to Idaho families. While Republicans gave hundreds of millions in tax handouts to the top, they quietly let the Idaho Child Tax Credit expire. That means hundreds of thousands of working families now pay more. Did they proudly publicize that move? Of course not. They know it’s shameful. They’re counting on families not realizing what was done to them.
Idahoans deserve leaders who budget based on facts, not fantasies, and who put working families, public schools, and essential services ahead of wealthy donors and out-of-state interests.
So next time a Republican brags about those tax handouts, remember what they cost: your child’s school, your family’s tax credit, your safety, and your future. Idaho can’t afford another budget built on manipulations and misplaced priorities. We deserve better, and that starts by demanding it at the ballot box.
Onward,
Lauren Necochea
Idaho Democratic Party Chair