Policy

The Property Tax: Expensive and Outdated

By Ronald M. Nate, Ph.D.

May 19, 2026

When my dog gets hold of one of her toys, she won’t let it go. The harder I try to take it, the harder she holds on. I’m the same way about the revolutionary idea of eliminating property taxes in Idaho. The more you try to talk me out of abolishing these unfair, misguided, and […]

TAGS: Apartment, Appraisers, Article VII, Assessed, Assessors, Budgets, Cities, Collections, Confiscations, Constitutional Rights, County, County Assessors, Disputes, Economy, Evicted, Fire Stations, Fixed Incomes, Fred Birnbaum, Higher, Homeowners, Idaho, Idaho Constitution, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho Sales Tax, IFF, Income Tax, Increase, Inflation, Lawyers, Libraries, Local, Local Governments, Market Value, Mosquito Control, Payments, Police Services, Product Tax, Property Tax Bill, Property Taxes, Regulations, Rent, Sales Tax, School Construction, School Districts, Section 2, State-Collected Tax, Taxes, Taxing Districts, Unpaid, Unrealized Gains, Use Tax, Values

Play for the Team on Your Jersey: It’s an Integrity Thing.

By Rachel Hazelip, M.A.P.P.

May 14, 2026

Imagine your favorite sports team. They all wear the same uniform, stand under the same banner, and operate under the same creed — not just to play, but to win according to a shared playbook. Each player brings unique strengths, but when they join the team, they all commit to the same rules, values, and […]

TAGS: Absentee Voting, accountability, Affiliation, Alignment, Break Ranks, Clarity, Consistency, Constitutional Obligations, Democratic Party, Environmental Stewardship, Executive Officials, fiscal conservatism, fiscal responsibility, Grocery Tax Repeal, Idaho, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho Launch program, IDGOP, IDP, Integrity, Leadership, Liberty, Limited Government, Local Officials, Party, Party Platform, Party Politics, Policy, Promises, Property Ownership, Quality Public Education, Repealing Medicaid Expansion, Representatives, Republican party, Resolutions, Social Equity, State Representatives, State Senators, Team, Traditional Family Values, Undermine Party Priorities, Uniform, Values, Working Class

Teacher Appreciation Should Not Be Tied to Spending on Education

By Fred Birnbaum

May 8, 2026

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week across the country, and it prompted Governor Brad Little to issue a press release where he had this to say: “This is Teacher Appreciation Week, a meaningful opportunity to recognize the people who stand at the front of our classrooms each day, shaping the future of our state. I […]

TAGS: 2019, 2021, Appreciation, Bonus, Brad Little, compensation, COVID Funds, COVID-19, Funding Increases, Governor, House Bill 516, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho politics, Institution, K-12, Micromanagement, Money, pay, Payroll, raises, school, School District, state government, Student Performance, Teacher, Teacher Unions, Teaching Performance

Saving Money Should Not Be a Thankless Task for Legislators

By Fred Birnbaum

April 30, 2026

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a staff member of one of Idaho’s US Senators. The conversation centered around why it was so difficult to get federal spending under control - which clearly has not happened. This staffer remarked to me that when Congress cuts spending, they hear loudly from those who […]

TAGS: 14.5 Billion, Agency, Bills, Budget, Congress, Cuts, Defunded, Federal Employees, Fiscal Year 2026, Fiscal Year 2027, Fiscally Conservative, government, Growth, Idaho, Idaho Freedom Foundation, IRS, Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee, President Trump, Savings, Session, Spending, State Senator Wintrow, taxpayers, Thankless Job, Wall Street

Buried Without a Vote: The Secret Power of Committee Chairmen

By Rachel Hazelip, M.A.P.P.

April 28, 2026

It isn’t a power afforded in House or Senate rules. It isn’t written into Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure, and it certainly isn’t penned into the Constitution. Yet, during legislative sessions at the Idaho Capitol, it is utilized and treated as an authorized exercise of power. We are, of course, talking about the chairman’s drawer. […]

TAGS: abolish, accountability, Big Ag, Chairman Dan Foreman, Chairman Jim Guthrie, Chairman John Vander Woude, Chairman Ron Mendive, Chairman Vito Barbiari, Chairman’s Drawer, Child Protective Services, Cloud-Seeding, Committee Chairman, Constitution, De Facto, Debate, Deliberation, Department of Health and Welfare, Disenfranchise, Federalist 51, Fiscal Restraint, Founding Fathers, Government Unions, Governor, Grocery Tax Repeal, House Bill 592, House Bill 633, House Bill 660, House Bill 669, House Bill 745, House Bill 850, House Bill 912, House Bill 953, House Bill 954, House Bill 955, House Bill 956, House Environment Energy and Technology Committee, House Health and Welfare Committee, House Resources and Conservation Committee, Idaho, Idaho legislature, Idaho Power, Immigration Bills, individual liberty, James Madison, Jefferson’s Manual Of Parliamentary Practice, Limited Government, Medicaid expansion repeal, medical industrial complex, parental authority, Personal Bill, Power, Procedure, Recorded Votes, Self-Defense, Senate Bill 1298, Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee, Senate State Affairs Committee, Special Interest Groups, Teachers Unions, Veto, We the People, weather modification

The Measure of a Man

By Wayne Hoffman, guest columnist and President-Emeritus, Idaho Freedom Foundation

April 22, 2026

House Bill 461, introduced late in the 2025 legislative session, would have required the state to run an analysis of the Idaho Launch program to determine its effectiveness. I won’t bore you with all the details, but essentially the question is: “Does this program help the state the way Gov. Brad Little and other proponents […]

TAGS: $8000, 2025, Artist, Brad Little, Candlestick Maker, Career, career path, Entrepreneur, government incentive, H461, High School Graduates, human flourishing, HVAC Installers, Idaho, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Launch program, Life Trajectory, Musician, Nursing Assistants, Office Clerks, State-Selected, taxpayers, Welders, workforce

Kneecapping Conservatives, Protecting Bureaucrats: Vander Woude’s Lame Duck Legacy

By Rachel Hazelip, M.A.P.P.

April 16, 2026

As the 2026 legislative session reached its disappointing end, so too did Chairman John Vander Woude’s tenure in the Legislature. Rather than attempting to solidify his legacy as one of defense for children, families, and freedom, he seemingly spent his final days in the Capitol running interference for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, […]

TAGS: 2025 Medical Freedom Act, Able-Bodied, Big Government, Chairman, Child Protective Services, DOGE Task Force, Drawered, General Orders, H592, H757, H808, H809, H850, H912, H953, H954, H956, House Health and Welfare, Idaho, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho politics, John Vander Woude, Lame Duck, Legislation, Legislature, Lucas Cayler, Medicaid expansion repeal, medical mandates, Rep. Jordan Redman, Rep. Rob Beiswenger, SNAP, Status Quo, We the People, Work Requirements

Idaho’s Budget Grew 2.5% Despite the Cuts, because of Welfare Spending

By Fred Birnbaum

April 8, 2026

If you were paying attention to the budget debates on both the House and Senate floors during the legislative session, you might think the Legislature made significant cuts to the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget. Unfortunately, based on preliminary numbers, total appropriations are a 2.5% increase, with FY27’s $14.453 billion outpacing the FY26 original appropriation […]

TAGS: $1 Billion, Appropriation, Budget, budget cuts, Budget Growth, COVID Funds, Enhancements, Fiscal Year 2026, Fiscal Year 2027, Funding, government, Health and Human Services, House, House Bill 850, Idaho, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho politics, Increase, Legislature, Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, New Federal Program, Reductions, Rural Health Transformation Fund, Senate, Senate Bill 1331, Supplemental, Welfare, welfare state

How to Judge a “Maintenance Budget” in Idaho

By Brett Farruggia

March 5, 2026

Returning to Fiscal Sanity after COVID Last December, Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) released a Conservative Budget Plan for Idaho. The plan returns sanity to Idaho’s budgets and reverts government to a reasonable baseline after the explosion of COVID-related spending. Specifically, the plan brings state agency budgets to pre-COVID spending levels (allowing only for inflation and […]

TAGS:

Why the Fight Over $15 Million in Budget Reductions?

By Fred Birnbaum

March 4, 2026

Idaho is about two-thirds through the current budgeting year, Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). Adjustments to the budget are now underway in the Legislature. Recall how the governor observed a softening of revenues during the early part of last year and issued a “hold-back” through Executive Order 2025-05 of three percent to all agencies except public […]

TAGS: Budget Reform, Executive Order 2025-05, fiscal responsibility, FY26, government spending, Governor’s Hold-back, Idaho Fiscal Policy, Idaho legislature, Idaho Political News, Idaho Republicans, Idaho state budget, JFAC, Legislative Budget Process, Medicaid Provider Cuts, Per Capita Spending Idaho, Right-sizing Budget, S1331, Senate Bill 1331, State Spending Trends, Trustee and Benefit Payments

Marxism and Western Tradition: Identifying the Proper Role of Government

By Rachel Hazelip, M.A.P.P.

February 20, 2026

The Idaho legislative session is in full swing, and as lawmakers debate particular issues like education, parental rights, bodily autonomy, judicial reform, regulations and licensure, and budgets, they are actually engaging — often implicitly — in the age-old philosophical dispute about the proper role of government. Lawmakers are daily confronting the question: who should shape […]

TAGS: Alexis de Tocqueville, American Founding Fathers, Boise Statehouse, civic virtue, civil society, consent of the governed, constitutional republic, federalism, Federalist Papers, historical materialism, Idaho budget debates, Idaho education policy, Idaho legislature, Idaho politics, individual liberty, James Madison, John Locke, judicial reform, Karl Marx, Limited Government, Marxism vs. Capitalism, moral authority, natural law, parental rights Idaho, political philosophy, proper role of government, Second Treatise of Government, Self-governance, separation of powers, social order, state sovereignty, state vs family, The German Ideology, Western constitutional tradition, William Blackstone

The Grasping Hand of the Welfare State: Medicaid and Rural Health Transformation

By Fred Birnbaum

February 18, 2026

The Idaho House recently passed House Concurrent Resolution 25, calling for an Article V Convention to propose a federal Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). Legislators who supported the BBA bemoaned the lack of fiscal discipline in D.C. Yet, less than a week later, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed Senate Bill 1264, calling for about […]

TAGS: Article V Convention, Balanced Budget Amendment, BBA, Cost of Medicaid in Idaho, federal deficit, federal funding, Federal Grants, Federal healthcare spending per capita, fiscal discipline, government overreach, Governor Brad Little, House Concurrent Resolution 25, Idaho DOGE Committee, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho legislature, Idaho Medicaid expansion, Idaho Rural Health Transformation Fund, IFF, Impact of OBBA on state budgets, legislative oversight, Medicaid reform, national debt, OBBA, One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Repealing Medicaid expansion in Idaho, RHTP, Rural Health Transformation Program, Rural Healthcare Idaho, Senate Bill 1264, Senator Kevin Cook, Senator Lisa Murkowski

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Policy

The Property Tax: Expensive and Outdated

Play for the Team on Your Jersey: It’s an Integrity Thing.

Teacher Appreciation Should Not Be Tied to Spending on Education

Saving Money Should Not Be a Thankless Task for Legislators

Buried Without a Vote: The Secret Power of Committee Chairmen

The Measure of a Man

Kneecapping Conservatives, Protecting Bureaucrats: Vander Woude’s Lame Duck Legacy

Idaho’s Budget Grew 2.5% Despite the Cuts, because of Welfare Spending

How to Judge a “Maintenance Budget” in Idaho

Why the Fight Over $15 Million in Budget Reductions?

Marxism and Western Tradition: Identifying the Proper Role of Government

The Grasping Hand of the Welfare State: Medicaid and Rural Health Transformation

Latest Research

Idaho Freedom Index