OPINION: Idaho’s MAGA warriors will be running amok in the 2026 legislative session

Idaho MAGA warriors are giving off troubling vibes as the state heads into the 2026 legislative session. With all signs indicating a severe shortage of revenue to fulfill the needs of critical state programs, they have been sharpening their knives to cut to the bone. They seem to be blind to the fact that there are two ways of balancing a budget. When I worked for Senator Len Jordan in the early 1970s, he told me the Republican philosophy for balancing a budget: decide the funding needs of essential programs and then raise sufficient revenue to fulfill those needs. That’s how Jordan operated as Idaho’s Governor in the early 1950s and during his ten years in the U.S. Senate.

Governor Little is now faced with a budget deficit this year, but the words “tax increase” do not seem to be in his vocabulary. He only speaks of spending cuts. The revenue shortfall should not be a surprise. Last year, Little happily signed a bill granting $400 million in tax cuts that favored the wealthy, despite the fact that it was $300 million more than he had proposed. At that time, he expressed concerns about future years and the effect of expected federal spending cuts but simply disregarded those concerns.

Little also signed HB 93, a bill that subsidizes private and religious education. The $50 million cost will be visited upon taxpayers who derive no benefit from the program. It provides practically no accountability for the use of the subsidy funds. The $50 million is just what the state had proposed to spend on our chronically underfunded special education programs, but that proposal was recently scrapped because of budget woes. The projected shortfall of revenue for the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, is about $40 million. Next year, the deficit could range between $600 million and $1 billion, depending upon whether the state adopts federal tax code changes. The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy reported that the state reduced revenue by a cumulative total of $4 billion over the past five years to pay for income tax cuts. House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, the chief architect of the tax cutting frenzy, deserves the credit for our budgetary poverty. Here's hoping he does not try it again this year.

MAGA legislators are hoping to make additional cuts to Idaho’s Medicaid program, including repeal of the Medicaid expansion that 60% of Idaho voters approved in 2018. That would deprive up to 90,000 Idahoans of medical coverage. In combination with the massive Medicaid cuts in Trump’s Big Beautiful Billionaire Bill that was approved by Idaho’s Congressional delegation last year, it would devastate Idaho’s rural hospitals and threaten access to healthcare for everyone. The Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), which controls the voting of many MAGA legislators, has called for the outright repeal of Medicaid expansion and for cutting K-12 school funding by $166.5 million. The group has no use whatsoever for public education and has done all within its power to sabotage our public schools and dedicated teachers.

Idahoans who support strong public schools, a healthy population and basic common-sense policymaking should let their legislators know that Senator Jordan's approach to balancing the budget is correct. Essential programs should be adequately funded, even if it requires a tax increase.

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Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He also publishes at substack.com/@jjcommontater.