OPINION: This is no time for Little to go along to get along

When Idaho Gov. Brad Little presents his State of the State address Monday, he will face arguably the most conservative GOP-led Legislature in recent memory.

So this is no time for Little’s MO — go along to get along. That’s what you’ve seen when the governor caved to bills that targeted librarians or attempted to undermine the voters’ initiative and referendum rights.

This year calls for muscular executive leadership on these issues:

Vouchers — Until now, the governor seemed to stand against the idea of drawing off scarce tax dollars from Idaho’s public education to subsidize some children attending private schools. He had every reason to.

For instance, as Idaho Education News’ Ryan Suppe recently documented, a limited, pilot program with spending caps often evolves into a budget-busting, universal entitlement. Arizona, for example, is spending $800 million on its voucher system, far more than anticipated.

Should that happen in Idaho, it will mean draining resources from the rural half of the state without access to private education and placing the bulk of that money into religious schools located in the state’s urban centers.

It’s hardly a grassroots issue in Idaho, but out-of-state interests have purchased the Legislature they want. Moreover, Little’s resistance seems to be waning.

If that’s so, at least provide some guardrails. Idaho’s public schools are accountable to the taxpayers. Why not insist that any private academy or even homeschoolers who accept public vouchers agree to standardized testing, curriculum standards and disclosures about how tax dollars were spent?

Medicaid expansion — Although this was never popular with the GOP Legislature, the voters passed it — by almost 61% — extending health care coverage to people earning too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but too little to afford government-subsidized private insurance under Obamacare.

Should this Legislature pursue outright repeal — or death by a thousand cuts — the health of some 81,553 working poor Idahoans would be threatened.

Little should stand firm, reminding his fellow Republicans that undermining this program deprives the state of federal funds that pay 90% of the bills. Do that and you risk the ability of Idaho hospitals — especially the smaller operators — to maintain a full range of services. You risk returning to the days when Idaho taxpayers picked up the total cost of providing emergency room care to the medically indigent. And you risk losing nearly $800 million from Idaho’s economy.

Women’s health — Before Idaho’s extreme anti-abortion rights Legislature became the dog that caught the car with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it’s doubtful anyone considered the plight of women suffering crisis pregnancies.

Now it’s clear that by threatening doctors with prison terms, lawmakers have compromised the health care of Idaho women. In some cases, they have been airlifted to hospitals out of state where appropriate care is available.

Meanwhile, physicians, unwilling to choose between patient care and their own professional well-being, are fleeing the state. That includes about a fifth of the state’s obstetricians and more than half of its maternal-fetal medicine specialists. Some hospitals have closed maternity centers, and much of rural Idaho now exists in a maternal health care desert.

Promises to address this deficiency have not been redeemed.

Little can use the gubernatorial bully pulpit to insist upon passing laws that permit “the treatment of a woman whose pregnancy or other health condition in the good faith clinical judgment of her physician so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate impairment of a major bodily function or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part; provided however that no abortion shall be deemed necessary because the physician believes she may or will take action to harm herself.”

Illegal immigration — What is an Idaho Republican governor to do when the leader of his party, Donald Trump, rode to a second term on the promise to deport undocumented immigrants?

How about recognizing the truth?

Mass deportation would be ruinous to Idaho’s agricultural, construction and tourism industries.

As the University of Idaho’s McClure Center for Public Policy Research noted last year, Idaho can’t replace the 30,000 to 45,000 undocumented immigrants who fill jobs in a state undergoing a labor shortage.

“Idaho industry professionals report that in some industries, unauthorized immigrant workers are filling key gaps in the labor supply, allowing businesses to grow, maintain or avert closure,” the McClure study said. “In Idaho, businesses are competing for workers more than workers are competing for jobs.”

The alternatives are stark — either bring labor to Idaho industries or send Idaho industries where the labor is.

Why not start with the obvious? Focus Idaho’s resources where the problem is acute — undocumented immigrants who are criminals and pose a threat to public safety.

That’s not breaking with Trump. It’s merely standing up for Idaho.

Property taxes — After burning through more than a half-billion dollars of surplus money to avoid it, Idaho now faces a choice. Under the leadership of House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, lawmakers have refused to update the Homestead Exemption — which is supposed to shield half of a modest home’s value from taxation — for nearly a decade of inflation.

Its top benefit is capped at $125,000. It should be placed at $238,154.

Commercial property owners have benefited from a tax shift that has placed about 75% of the tax burden on homeowners.

Making the plight of homeowners a gubernatorial priority would put the onus on Moyle and his colleagues in a way they would find uncomfortable.

Standing up for Idaho children, homeowners, patients and the economy: Isn’t that what we elect governors to do? — M.T.