2026: Get Ready, Don't Give Up

Prepping for the 2026 Idaho Legislative Session

It’s been a brutal year in so many ways. It almost doesn’t need to be said. We watched our country engage in extrajudicial killings of people crossing the Caribbean, kidnapping and disappearing of people based on their immigration status, wanton killing of citizens and noncitizens on American soil, and unethical maneuvers to force immigrants of all statuses out of the country. We watched somewhat helplessly, doing what we could to these terrible things, but it’s hard to know what to do against such overwhelming force. And truly, this is the tip of the iceberg, as the metaphor goes. I can’t write a year-in-review of every last terrible thing our government is doing to its own people. 

We also saw so many encouraging and brave acts in defense of what matters to us most: care for one another, justice, safety and freedom. The nation saw unprecedented levels of protest at the No Kings events, and Idaho was no exception. Idahoans United for Women & Families has gathered over 50,000 signatures for women’s reproductive rights in the state. There was an outpouring of support for families affected by the Wilder raid and other immigration enforcement that tears families apart. 

Reclaim Idaho and Save our Schools held town halls across the state about the private school voucher bill despite massive public opposition to it. I personally saw mutual aid groups come together to support people and communities with all sorts of things: housing, food, legal aid, shelter from extreme weather and more. Idaho 50501 put out a resources on food aid. And I continue to be impressed by the bravery of the Kootenai County Democrats, who were publicly insulted, threatened, and assaulted a public event by people associated with the local Republican party. They have refused to be intimidated and continue to stand up for their right to be heard.  

Some amazing investigative journalism turned up serious problems: sexual abuse at Idaho prisons being ignored; the growing influence of Christian Nationalism in Idaho legislative policy, the impact of Idaho’s strict abortion ban, the scale and cost of and the children arrested at the Wilder arrests, a sting operation-turned-ICE raid in Canyon County and the defunding of public education in Idaho in favor of private education. 

We are gearing up for another horrifying session for the Idaho legislature, where they propose to strip away more rights from Idaho citizens and resident, attempt to force women into increasingly menial roles and remove the remaining shreds of dignity for marginalized people in Idaho, that is, poor people, people of color, children, immigrants, LGBTQ people. We are likely to see some repeat appearances of last year’s bad bills as groups like the Idaho Family Policy Center, a Christian Nationalist lobbyist group that has grown in budget, staff and influence. The Idaho Freedom Foundation continues their rather boring and repetitive demands that all public funding and government end because Marxism (really, that is the level of their analysis). They are calling for all non-citizens to be excluded from all public institutions, deliberately conflating immigrants of all statuses into one category: “illegal alien”.  A predictable and disgusting bit of xenophobia. They are not likely to achieve this, but normalizing immigrant hate and removal of foreigners from the public is their goal. Nevertheless, the Idaho legislature will probably consider several deeply anti-immigrant bills, either in committee or by floor vote:

• Make English the official language of Idaho (seriously? What a waste of time).

• Require public schools to report the immigration status and nationality of each student. 

• Expand immigration enforcement across the state with 287(g) agreements

• Criminalize people and organizations who support undocumented immigrants

We are also facing budget cuts as the Idaho legislature has been reckless passing tax cuts for the wealthy for the past few years. The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy recently released a report indicating how repeated tax cuts passed by the Idaho legislature since 2021 have benefited the wealthy, shifted the tax burden to the lower incomes in Idaho and reduced state funds so much that current services cannot be maintained. The result is $1 billion annually has been removed from state funds, compromising our ability to meet current financial commitments. This budget deficit is likely to be further exacerbated by new tax rules from the “Big Beautiful Bill” that will reduce tax revenue through multiple avenues. 

“This effort is about ensuring that Idaho government remains lean, efficient, and aligned with the values of our taxpayers” is the quote from the governor’s office, an ironic comment given the Idaho legislature’s and governor’s habit of ignoring the will of Idahoans when it conflicts with their campaign donors and and personal ideology. 

• The Idaho legislature passed the private school voucher bill despite overwhelming testimony against it (by a 10-1 margin), and Governor Little signed it despite a record 32,000 Idahoans calling his office in opposition (86%  of the total). A survey by Boise State University indicates that 53% of Idahoans opposed this school voucher bill, with only 38% supporting it (source for all statistics).

• 6,178 Idahoans called the Governor’s office in 2021 asking him to veto SB 1110, a bill which dramatically raised the requirements for citizen ballot initiatives. He ignored that opposition and signed the bill (which was later invalidated in state court for being unconstitutional). Testimony at the Idaho legislature also ran against the bill. 

It’s unclear how these cuts will shake out across agencies. Thus far, K-12 schools have been exempted from the 3% cuts imposed on all other state agencies. Funding for the needs of Idahoans is already anemic. Schools famously are unfunded; there is no fund for building maintenance; basic treatment for substance abuse is underfunded; counseling and support for victims of domestic violence fails to meet demonstrated needs; there is no funding for all-day kindergarten; everywhere we look, Idaho does not fund basic services that people here want and need. Just as it is irresponsible to spend money you don’t have, it is irresponsible to cut taxes when there are bills to pay. Balancing a budget means considering what money is needed for a functioning government and society. Idaho has a constitutional mandate to balance the budget, but that does not seem to stop the legislature from recklessly giving away money in the form of tax cuts. 

The people of Idaho deserve better than what our government is serving us. We deserve to have our voices heard and heeded. We deserve elected representatives who actually do what their constituents want. We deserve representative democracy, not the lobbyist-infused oligarchy we have now. We deserve healthcare, reproductive freedom and have our essential needs met. The only way to a fairer world is through working for it: political engagement with our leaders, organizing locally and other advocacy work. If you’re not already involved, find a local group, a local collection of friends or community members to work with. Find an issue that inspires and enlivens you. We cannot work on all the things all at once, but we can support the issues that matter to us most. We can support them financially, we organize events, build resources, and do what we can to help people. That’s why we are here: to help each other live full lives.