'We have identified the enemy'

COEUR d’ALENE — North Idaho legislators said they had a solid session, but believe it could have been better.

One problem several cited during Saturday’s town hall meeting at the Altar Church was that too many Democrats were disguised as Republicans.

“We have exposed who the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) are,” said Rep. Joe Alfieri, District 4, Seat A.

He said a number of central committees have censured representatives and others around the state have issued no-confidence votes.

“They have been warned that if they continue on their path that they will not be supported in the next election cycle by these central committees,” Alfieri said.

About 100 people attended the two-hour meeting put on by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

Legislators who attended were Sen. Carl Bjerke, Rep. Jordan Redman, Rep. Tony Wisniewski, Rep. Elaine Price, Sen. Ben Toews, Rep. Ron Mendive, Rep. Vito Barbieri, Rep. Dale Hawkins and Rep. Doug Okuniewicz.

Legislators recapped session successes and defeats in education, medical freedom, election integrity and abortion.

Mendive was disappointed that a bill that would have let qualifying parents or guardians teach youth to drive and receive Class D driver’s training instruction permits was vetoed by Gov. Brad Little.

"I have a tendency to pick bills that the governor doesn’t like,” he said, smiling.

Hawkins said serving on the House Education Committee, "was like banging your head on the wall trying to get anything good done.”

Price agreed.

"We had a bad House Education Committee and couldn’t get anything passed out of it," she said.

Hawkins said their biggest fight is with RINOs and they need to be exposed "for what they are."

"They are Marxist Democrats who have run as Republicans," Hawkins said.

Barbieri said there are legislators who sound like Democrats and vote like Democrats, “But they had an R by their name."

Toews said Democrats created committees to counteract conservative committees.

"We need to figure out how to stop that," he said.

Alfieri said that in the past, nothing was said about Republicans who voted Democrat. But they will now be held responsible, he said.

"We have identified the enemy," Alfieri said.

“Hopefully in the next election cycle we can replace some of those people and have a truly conservative state,” he said.

Bjerke said Republicans must protect Idaho from what is happening nationwide.

"We are now waking up to the fact our economic system is basically socialism," he said.

Okuniewicz was pleased with what he said was a more conservative Senate.

“We’ve seen a lot of good conservative legislation start there," he said.

Asked if the Legislature could give residents 65 and over a property tax break, Okuniewicz said he would be happy to look into it, but questioned its constitutionality.

Alfieri agreed it could be a problem to give preference to a specific age group.

“You’re creating a separate class of people," he said.

Still, Alfieri said, property tax relief would continue to be an issue and he feared some could be taxed out of their homes.

Hawkins offered one solution to lower property taxes: "What we need to do is eliminate levies."

He said even with prices rising on almost everything due to inflation, school districts “still want to come back to us for more.”

Mendive said property taxes are "the worst tax we have.”

“I would like to find a way to get away from it completely,” he said.

Okuniewicz said residents elect school boards and vote on levies.

“You’ve done it to yourselves," he said.

Price spoke of the need to address government overspending.

“We need to shift so that governments are understanding the money is not an endless bucket of money. It’s coming from taxpayers," she said. "And we have to be responsible for it just like we were running our own budget.”

Price said in her first year, she did a lot of reading and figuring things out.

Next year, she said she will be more confident and comfortable.

“Now I know what to expect,” she said.

Toews said it comes down to staying involved, having a voice and voting.

“I think we will see the changes we want to see,” he said. “It just might take another election cycle.”

Hawkins said elected officials in the room will face stiff challenges to keep their posts.

“We have our work cut out for us," he said.