Notice the irony?
The state of Idaho is trying, by law, to stop its publicly supported institutions from practicing diversity, equity and inclusion, which used to be fundamental Christian values.
Ironically, in Latin, DEI means “of God.”
Where have we gone astray?
Gary E. Richardson
Boise
Informative, then naive
Cheer: Marty Trillhaase’s analysis (Tribune, Dec. 8) of the bleak property tax outlook for Idaho homeowners was very informative. And Trillhaase is right: Speaker Mike Moyle is wasting bonus funds to avoid indexing the homestead exemption.
The problem is property tax law from 1982’s initiative to 2006’s HO405 leaves it to Moyle to do so. (bit.ly/41FE5EF, bit.ly/3KOznea).
Idaho has a toothless form of indexing that seems to only require reporting the amount the exemption should be rather than actually setting the exemption amount.
If Reclaim Idaho is looking to put one in the win column, it should put together an initiative that addresses this need. It’s an idea that will almost certainly have a lot of truly bipartisan grassroots support.
Jeer: Trillhaase’s “The federal government covers 90% of (Medicaid expansion’s) cost.” That just might be the most naive thing Marty Trillhaase has ever written (Tribune, Dec. 22).
Federal funds still come from us and most states are paying more in federal taxes than the state gets back in federal funds.
That’s according to Digg.com which pegged Idaho as paying $2.73 in 2021 federal taxes for each federal dollar the state received (bit.ly/4gTck02).
Sure, that’s across the board and some programs might have a better return on investment, but it remains that there is no such thing as a free, or even reduced, lunch when it comes to federal funding.
Thomas A. Hennigan
Asotin
