Interview with Senator Carlson
The second session of Idaho’s 68th Legislature started on Monday, January 12 and kicked off with Governor Brad Little’s State of the State address. The next day, on Tuesday January 13, I was fortunate to be able to speak with District 7 State Senator Cindy Carlson, who, despite the flurry of activity at the beginning of the session, was able to take the time to update her constituents on what is happening in Boise this year.
Senator Cindy Carlson, who is a Republican from Riggins, represents Idaho’s 7th Legislative District, which includes Adams and Idaho County, as well as a portion of Nez Perce, along with State Representatives Mike Kingsley of Lewiston, and Charlie Shepherd of Pollock. In the past, Carlson has been on the Education, Transportation, and Agricultural Affairs Committees. This year, she is still on the Education Committee, but is also on the Finance Committee, or the budget committee, and she said that will be one of her biggest priorities this year.
“Idaho has to batten down the hatches,” said Carlson. The state currently has a projected deficit of over $40 million due to a variety of factors. Carlson said that agencies have already looked over their budgets and tried to do reductions internally, and Governor Brad Little has also made some proposals, so now they are trying to put it all together so it makes sense and the state can have a balanced budget.
Health and Welfare was one budget Carlson was particularly anxious to dig into. “I’m just thinking that there are some things there that we may have to do some deep diving into,” she said. Particularly, Carlson said there needed to be side rails on Medicaid expansion. “If we don’t put a stop to Medicaid expansion, the state won’t be able to operate,” said Carlson, “There no way we would be able to balance a budget.”
Carlson said she thought her constituents wanted them to spend money wisely, and if individual agencies couldn’t find the necessary cuts themselves, it would be down to the budget committee to do so. She said to dig into the budget she needed to be asking a lot of questions and there wasn’t a lot of time to get to the bottom of matters while the legislature was in session. When asked if she thought there was significant fraud in budgets such as has recently come to light in other states, Carlson thought it was entirely possible, but didn’t think it was on a huge scale in Idaho.
In addition to the budget, Senator Carlson said she also has an “extreme desire” to work on educational funding. “We have a very archaic funding formula,” she said, “education as we know it is changing, and we have to be on the forefront of it.”
When asked what a different model would look like Carlson wasn’t sure yet about specifics, but thought it would have to bring together all the different factions. She said she loved the way charter schools worked, but wasn’t sure the funding model would work for the traditional schools. “We wouldn’t be reducing funding,” she clarified, “we would be fixing the formula.” She wasn’t sure there would be enough time during the legislative session to finish, but was hopeful. “Fixing the education funding formula would be a huge, huge plus, if we can get it done,” she said.
Although Senator Carlson is not on the Transportation Committee this year, she mentioned transportation issues were still dear to her heart and were a significant issue in Idaho. “Our state is expanding faster than we planned,” she said, “we have transportation, road issues that we are not able to keep up with.” Carlson mentioned the past proposal of a highway through Indian Valley and Emmett, might come up again in the future, and that they may start doing studies on it this year, but that the state will not have the money to fund such a project for a long time. However, she mentioned it could still happen if there was federal money available for it. “If the federal government decides to start spending money on roads, we want to be first in line,” she said.
Carlson wasn’t anticipating pushing a lot of legislation herself this session, but did have one bill drafted that she said was essentially a clean up bill to ensure photos of deceased individuals are not being shared by the government without the expressed permission of family members. She thought that working on the budget would be more than enough to occupy her time this session.
If you have an opinion it is important to reach out to your representatives. Carson said the best way to contact her during the legislative session was via email, she has an intern that checks emails daily and she tries to answer every personally written email herself. She encouraged constituents to express their concerns and desires. “I think I have a finger on the pulse, but I may not, so the more communication the better, she said, “you just may only get a sentence back from me!” Her email address is ccarlson@senate.idaho.gov
Senator Cindy Carlson thanked her constituents for the support they have given her in the past. “I’m on the front lines trying to work on their behalf, balancing the budget, making wise decisions with funds,” she said,” utilizing Idaho’s revenue the best way possible.”
