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In a news conference after Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address, House Republican leadership previewed state lawmakers priorities for the 2025 legislative session.
House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told reporters he’d like to see a lot more tax relief than in recent years – and less spending. While the governor announced a proposal for $100 million to cut taxes, Moyle said he’d like to see three times that in tax relief.
And Moyle said a proposed bill this year would direct state agencies to review Idaho’s statutes in the hopes of cleaning up state law, similar to the governor’s zero-based rulemaking initiative that has drawn national attention.
When Gov. Little unveiled his support for $50 million in state funds that could be funneled toward private schools, he stressed that the proposal would need accountability. Asked what accountability measures would look like, Moyle said he wants to know what the governor wants.
“But we want to make sure the money’s going to the child. We want to make sure that those schools … are certified and they’re doing a good job,” Moyle said.
House Assistant Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, said parents are most accountable for their kids’ education.
“There’s not a bureaucrat out there who cares more about my child’s education than me,” he said.
But Monks said lawmakers would work with the governor on sideboards, and that he thinks lawmakers can find solutions that “satisfy his desires as well as ours.”
On immigration, Majority Caucus Chair Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, plans to re-introduce his bill from the 2024 legislative session that would’ve created a state crime for illegal immigration.
“We saw that at the end of session. We ran out of time to get it across the Senate side, but there’s great support from the governor’s office as well as the Senate and the House to get that bill back,” Crane told reporters.
Moyle also said election security bills are planned, including bills that would require more disclosure for who is behind electioneering communications, establish criminal liability for “malicious” lies in elections, and to require more disclosure in lobbying and nonprofits involved in elections.
