OPINION: And the survey says: Idahoans speak out on public issues

This comparison and contrast between Idahoans and their leaders isn’t new in principle, but it’s worth reiterating as the Idaho state government sets about its annual goal setting in the form of the Idaho Legislature.

Every year, for many years now, and generally toward the start of the legislative session, the Idaho Public Policy Survey is released at Boise State University. It is a poll of Idaho’s people about a wide range of public issues.

The survey was conducted by GS Strategy Group; if you wonder (as I do) about how such a survey is conducted these days, GS reported that 38% was done by cell phone, 11% by landline phones, 40% online and 11% by text message. It was conducted in the first part of November.

Its top line was a reversal of the previous year, as respondents found Idaho is moving in the right direction — although what that means exactly isn’t especially clear. Two different people might say, for example, “right direction,” and mean wholly different things by it.

Most of the rest of the findings were more specific and less ambiguous, and very much in line with findings from previous years, which lends some strength to their plausibility. Here are the report’s “key findings” (the whole list) on issues:

“For the second consecutive year, workforce and affordable housing is Idahoans’ top overall legislative budget priority.

“Increased teacher pay is Idahoans’ top education budget priority.

“A majority of Idahoans say they oppose (53%) the use of tax dollars to pay for a private or religious school.

“Nearly half of Idahoans (49%) say access to health care is difficult in the state.

“39% of Idahoans say increasing the number of immigrants helps Idaho’s economy, but that proportion grows to 46% when discussing legal immigrants specifically.

“A majority of Idahoans (55%) believe that abortion should be permitted in Idaho through at least the first trimester. A majority (64%) also believe that exceptions for abortion access should be expanded.

“A majority of Idahoans (51%) have concerns about the security of elections in the United States, but less than a quarter (22%) have concerns about the security in Idaho itself.

“A majority of Idahoans are concerned about campaign spending by independent groups in Idaho.”

That sounds not only very different from the high priorities of the Idaho Legislature, it sounds directly in contradiction to them.

Many states (Oregon, California and Washington among them) are spending much of their legislative effort on housing.

(A suggestion: Check out what other state legislatures are doing, since most of them are meeting by this time of year. What are they dealing with? Some, you will find, are very like Idaho, and others are highly different.)

How successful those efforts will be is unknown, but they’re trying. It’s not a top priority at the Idaho Legislature. Neither is homelessness, which is a big topic elsewhere in Western states.

Attitudes toward abortion and immigration clearly are very different statewide than at the Statehouse. Idahoans generally do not seem comfortable with the how-absolute-can-we-make-our-abortion-ban approach at the Legislature.

Health care access in Idaho — which by any reasonable standard is one of the top problems in Idaho right now — obviously registers as a serious matter for many Idahoans. You’ll not find a lot of action in that area at the Legislature, which in recent years has gone out of its way to make the problem worse.

Most Idahoans say they’re concerned about the massively-rising levels of campaign spending by independent (often out of state) groups in Idaho elections, including — but not exclusively — legislative elections. Expect the sound of crickets about that at the Statehouse.

Idaho’s legislators aren’t acting in secret. There are plenty of ways Idahoans actually can track, in detail and even in real time, the actions of their lawmakers at Boise. Few seem to do it. Probably few even know who their legislator is (except that, for nearly everyone, it’s an “R”).

That’s the simplest, straight-line explanation of why so many legislators get so easily reelected. Doing the will of the people doesn’t really seem to explain it.

Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor who blogs at ridenbaugh.com. He may be contacted at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com.