June 30, 2025 • 47 mins
When Matt Todd moved from California to Idaho, he didn’t just bring his family and his business—he brought questions. Big ones. Why is Idaho the way it is? Who’s making the decisions? And why is it so hard to hear directly from the people shaping the future of the state?
That curiosity sparked The Ranch Podcast, a platform dedicated to authentic, long-form conversations with the leaders, changemakers, and everyday residents who define Idaho. In this episode of Ever Onward, Matt shares his unlikely journey from college prep entrepreneur to one of Idaho’s most trusted independent voices.
Matt started The Ranch Podcast in 2019 with short, entertaining clips for his students to listen to on the way to school. But after relocating to Idaho in 2022, he realized there was a void—no central, credible space where Idahoans, especially newcomers like himself, could learn directly from those shaping the state’s education, politics, law enforcement, natural resources, and more.
With humility and curiosity, Matt began interviewing his neighbors—sometimes about HOA meetings—and slowly expanded to include mayors, legislators, sheriffs, and tribal leaders. Through it all, one theme remained: connection.
At the heart of this episode is a critical insight about media today: “People form their worldview passively through content—but the actual leaders of Idaho are rarely part of that content.” The Ranch Podcast bridges this disconnect, letting people speak for themselves—without filters, soundbites, or spin.
Together, we explore:
- What’s really happening in Idaho—beyond the headlines
- The tension between newcomers and longtime residents
- Challenges like affordable housing, property taxes, and education funding
- How thoughtful development can unify instead of divide
- The launch of the Truth in Media Foundation, Matt’s effort to build a long-format, unbiased media center for Idahoans
Whether you’re a lifelong resident or new to the Gem State, this conversation is a powerful reminder of what happens when we slow down, listen closely, and build trust through dialogue.
Matt's Podcast called "The Ranch Podcast" can be found here: https://www.theranchpodcast.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, I get to have
Matt Todd on, who owns and runsthe Ranch podcast.
He's been doing it for aboutthree years.
Incredible guy.
Matt moved up and relocatedfrom California a few years ago
and has really taken a spot inthe Valley here to be the guy
(00:21):
that is interviewing all thepeople in several areas of
business and government andallowing conversations to happen
that just weren't happeningbefore.
I'm a huge fan, regularlistener and it's going to be
really fun to have Matt Todd ontoday.
Again.
Matt Todd, owner and podcasterof the Ranch Podcast.
(00:41):
Matt, welcome man, thank youvery much.
I'm a huge fan, Reached out toyou just because I've been.
Well, you know who first calledme and said you got to listen
(01:01):
to this guy, he's awesome.
It was Bill Whitaker.
Oh, Bill, yeah, he's great.
So, Bill one year.
So we've had several versionsof this over the last six years,
but one version was Bill was myco-host.
Oh awesome, but Bill is like amadman, and having a guy that
travels 92% of his time aroundthe world riding a motorcycle as
(01:24):
your co-host Makes it reallyhard to schedule things.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, man, he's a rolling stone.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
He seems pretty cool though he is a fantastic human
being man.
Hey, I'm a huge fan, hey, thankyou.
I'm a big-time listener.
You have filled a niche.
It's an incredible story,though.
A dude from California comes uphere and figures out how to get
people don't say that word.
Don't say that word hey, I, I'mlike who, I'm like who is this
guy?
And then I'm like what?
(01:50):
But it's so authentic, you do areally great job.
Oh, thank you.
People want I mean I likelistening, because I want to
listen to you and your takes onthese things and and you're not
shying away from having, youknow, randos on there that are
going to say some stuff thatthat are gonna say you know
randos on there that are goingto say some stuff that are going
to say you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
There's a guy actually to that point.
I put out this clip yesterdayor yesterday, the day before,
and it was just having thisconversation about early
literacy and essentially there'sa crisis in education in the
state, with relevancy, whetherpeople buy into it or think it's
valuable.
And what was really funny isit's kind of like look, you know
you're not going to avoidpaying for people one way or
(02:27):
another, like you were going topay for them in the education
and training or you're going topay for them in incarceration
and social programs, but likethere's no world where we don't
pay for people.
And so I put out this clipsaying like hey, look, you can
either invest a little bit ineducation at the beginning of
people's lives or you can invest60 to 70,000 per year for the
rest of their life.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Either you know with incorrections or whatever, and
someone hammered you for that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
What's that?
Did someone hammer you for that?
No, it was hilarious.
Somebody in the comments islike wow, I can't believe it.
But I actually agree with thisguy, like for the first time,
and I wanted I actually wasgoing to reach out and be like
hey man, do you want?
Like I don't know why you woulddisagree, like I don't even
take hard positions on things.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
You do a really, you do a really well.
First of all, um, I love thelevel of guests you're going to
to.
Uh, you know, we, we do, we doa weekly deal here, but I I
pretty much just have on peopleI want to talk to, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right, that my like.
People always say what's youragenda?
Everyone's got an agenda, bythe way, but my agenda, if I, if
I enjoy talking to someone,that I genuinely want to hear
their story and listen about,that's, that's my agenda.
Um, but you, you have time.
How many do you put?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
out.
I mean I do during thelegislative session.
I was doing about 20 per week.
That's crazy.
And then, uh, and now I thoughtit was going to slow down.
I'm like, honey, we just got tocause I got a wife and kids.
I was like we just got to makeit through this.
It was intense and now ithasn't slowed down.
It's like I could do 10 to 20 aweek still, yeah, and you have
on.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You have on some some really great guests that I
absolutely want to run andlisten to, and then I've got
people'm pretty well informed onstuff and it's.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's been great, yeah Well thank you for listening
and, again, I usually just usethe barometer of am I interested
in this thing?
Is there something that I coulddig into?
Because people reach out andthey're like, hey, here's this
big, here's one that came uprecently.
This gal reached out and she'slike I'm a Boise school district
teacher.
We had this huge problem withcleanliness of my home, ec, all
(04:25):
these things, and I got Lymedisease and it was like, okay,
that's a relevant thing, but Idon't really want to be like
that guy who's like the crisishub guy.
So I passed her on to a friendof mine who had a great
conversation with her.
He essentially broke the story.
Channel 6 put out a story thismorning and it's like okay,
that's awesome and I thinkthat's relevant, but it's also
like I don't want to be a crisishub.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, listen, what I like about what you do is I love
how authentic it is.
You immediately connect withpeople.
You've had a couple of myreally good friends on recently.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Who's that?
Chief Allen?
Oh yeah, dude, he's great.
Oh, that guy's, he is legit man, he is one of my great guys.
So I immediately he's like hey,what do you know about this guy
?
I'm like so, he's awesome and Ithought you're just really
digging into the relevant issuesthat are here.
(05:18):
It's great, can?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
we discuss for a second.
How dumb I felt when I realizedthat within Native American
communities you don't say chiefanymore, but his name is chief,
you say chairman.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
His mom named him chief I know, but listen, I use
it to my advantage all the time.
He's been my friend for a longtime and I'm sure he'll listen
to this.
But now that you can say it,you can say I'm good friends
with the chief of the Coeurd'Alene tribe.
Just say chief of the Coeurd'Alene tribe.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Don't say the chief.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Say chief Chief of the Coeur d'Alene tribe.
They're like whoa, you know thechief.
Yeah, you don't know the chief.
Everybody knows the chief.
Everybody knows the chief.
He's the best.
Oh, he's awesome, I can.
People are like you know thechief.
I'm like, well, he's thechairman, yeah, right, anyway,
he's a great guy.
You know what happened to himtwo years ago with his accident.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's one of the craziest stories ever.
He goes out, hops on hisSea-Doos with his daughter, gets
on a Sea-Doo that he normallywould ride, that she would
normally ride.
They're going out for a ridetogether Hits the ignition and
it blows up.
He gets knocked out and breakshis both arms, both legs and is
(06:32):
laying in the lake.
I mean he should have died.
I mean you look at his injury,should have died and and had oh,
he'll tell you I don't know howmany 20, 30 surgeries.
Um, it was only two years ago.
What incredible.
What happened?
Uh, I guess, doing the researchon it, I guess they can vapor
lock and get some, some, somegasoline fumes in where the
ignition is, and I guess this isa known thing.
(06:54):
But yeah, yeah, not a greatthing and then that guy, he
didn't complain uh, yeah hisbiggest complaint.
He used to play basketball likealmost every day and I can't
anyway, great guy.
So tell me, the only thingthat's weird about this is we
don't really like Californians.
Yeah, I don't either.
(07:14):
That's why they're all cominghere, but then they get here and
then they're like hey, no moreright.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Well, I mean kind of I think a lot of the.
I think very unfortunately,some of the.
You know, if you get out of areally bad relationship with
somebody, say, you're datingsome crazy girl, she's just
crazy, and you finally break upwith her, you're like I can't
take this anymore, like my lifeis not worth this, and you break
up with her.
You know the poor girl you meetnext.
(07:39):
You're just beating her upabout you know, on all the she's
like anxiety.
Are you going beating her upabout, you know, on all the
she's like anxiety, or you'regoing to want me to, you know,
hang out with your dumb friends,or like whatever it is.
And she's like well, my friendsare nice.
Like what do you mean?
And people bring, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That is like the best explanation I've heard of it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, you're in a toxic relationship.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It's not that you don't like listen, I love
development.
They are the first ones to comeand oppose it, and there's just
a lot of hypocrisy with it.
So I think some of thissentiment is pretty well
deserved, right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh, a thousand percent, listen, but I think
that's anybody moving here andspecifically because there's a
path of progress that this statehas been on that is almost
impossible to understand, likethere's no.
One of the reasons I startedthe podcast is because how do
you find out about it?
How do you, how do you knowabout what the state has been
doing?
Like, where do you, where doyou research?
(08:37):
Is there a website?
There's no source ofinformation.
So, in in trying to orientmyself properly, it was like,
okay, but I don't know who thesepeople are, I don't know what
the politics are, I don't know,like, the path of progress.
I didn't know that the the farmacross the highway from where I
was living was sold 20 yearsago and they're just waiting
Like I didn't know any of thatand now, all of a sudden, the
community is trying to stop thedevelopment.
(08:58):
It's like, guys, this was inthe works decades ago, like you
just showed up 15 minutes ago.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Hey, I just think it's cool that a guy from
California is doing this.
I mean, you're going to do morefor Californians than the rest
of the state of Californians.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean it's cool, We'll see.
We'll see you are.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
No, because it's authentic.
Just like you said, every issuethat you have on there, you're
like I want to know more aboutthis Grazing.
You've had grazing Ranching.
I mean you're all over theplace.
The episode on the grazing withthat gal that came on.
I'm trying to think.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Oh, gretchen Hyde, yeah, she's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'm sitting there like I didn't know any of that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, here's a question for you.
You've seen people move here.
How long does it take for me tojust be a dude instead of the
dude from California?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Like what do we talk about?
Five years?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Do I have to get the right belt?
Buckle Like what do I get?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I came in the 90s and I'm still not native.
It comes up all the time.
Where did you come from?
Utah, oh my God.
Well, I first moved here when Iwas 18, I guess, but you don't
get credit for that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So, but you don't get credit for that.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It's I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
I'm over 25, I'm 26, 27 yearsnow, and I'm still yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, but at what point?
Like is it essentially, weweren't born here, so we'll
never be Idaho, like you'realways going to be a function of
some other state.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know what's weird about it is?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I've lived in Arizona , utah, and here have you lived
in California and then here,yeah, the same five-mile radius,
my whole life, your whole life.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So I think it'll change.
It's certainly pretty unique.
There's a heritage.
I didn't understand this placeuntil I ran for governor and I
spent a full year and a half onthe road, I mean me and Maddie
was by my side, but we went toevery town.
Indie was by my side, but wewent.
We went to every town in thisstate a couple of times and uh,
and then I kind of got it.
(10:51):
I kind of got it.
I mean, I think, uh, I thinkthis place still has, uh, this
heritage thing of, hey, this isour place and and you know, we
love it because our heritage andwe don't want it to change.
And I think that you have thegreat state of Ada and a lot of
the people you have come on arefrom Ada County and I really
(11:12):
don't think you kind of fullyget Idaho.
I didn't, until I spent time.
I spent 90% of my time on theroad because I knew this place.
So I spent 90% of my timeeverywhere else in Idaho and
then I'm like, okay, it's adifferent thing.
And I understand now why peoplelook at the great state of Ada
and they're like, oh, that's notIdaho either.
So there's another layer to allthis, right, because most
people are moving to theTreasure Valley and they're like
(11:33):
, hey, this is our place.
If you got out of here andspent time in more rural Idaho,
it's even more jarring.
They're just just, they don'twant to change People.
Don't want to change People,hate change.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I think there's a great I would ask you do you
think there is a great strugglefor ownership, because it seems
that designations andcharacterizations are things
that everybody's grappling for,like?
Are you a real Idahoan Right?
Or is even Ada County IdahoRight?
Are you a conservative?
Are you a real conservative,like all of these things are?
Hey, let's categorize like,let's play identity politics,
(12:10):
but let's just play it with theIdaho conservative politics.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yes, yes, and within what you just said.
I cannot tell you how muchhypocrisy is within what you
just said too.
It is the course You'll sit.
I remember well with Matt wewould be in coffee shops in St
Mary's, idaho, right, and we'dbe sitting with guys that would
just be freaking, hammering mebecause of my positions or what
(12:36):
I thought about educationwhatever.
And I would take it, man, Iwould just sit there and take it
, and I was always good aboutlistening to people.
I really like listening topeople and learning from them,
because I think that's whyAmerica is great, right?
I mean, you look at your show.
You look at all the differentpeople that come on with very
strong opinions that are allover the place, by the way, you
do a really good job of justkind of listening to them and
(12:56):
respecting.
I love that, but then you haveto just ask a couple of
questions after they go.
What do you think about this?
So I think, people, it's humannature to have tribalism and be
part of a group that I love, andthen it's also human nature to
have a lot of blind spots.
So, as much as you hate thegovernment, you're the first one
(13:18):
in line for Medicare.
As much as you hate thegovernment, you'll bitch and
moan about that road out frontthat they're not fixing.
Or healthcare is the big one,right?
Everyone hates the fact thatpeople have the government's
helping with healthcare untiltheir wife gets cancer Right In
St Mary's, right, right, and theonly way they are going to get
world-class treatment in StMary's.
Idaho Is government assistanceIs government assistance,
(13:39):
otherwise they would have diedin six months.
Right Right have died in sixmonths, right Right, and so you
start asking, or loans on theirhomes or anything or anything.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You start going through this.
What about it?
What about the education billfrom last year?
Ninety three, ok.
So let me get this right.
You want to give five thousanddollars to people who are going
private?
Yeah, totally fine, ok, great.
And you want no requirements orregulations?
Ok, fine, that's fine.
And then you want to add anadditional cursive writing
requirement over here to thealready overburdened,
overregulated public.
(14:10):
It's like okay, do we wantrequirements on education
dollars or not?
Just pick one.
And I'm good either way.
If you say, hey, give all 500requirements to the private
schools or remove allrequirements from the public
schools, just pick one.
You got to pick it, just pickone, but they can't.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
all requirements from the public schools Just pick
one.
You got to pick it.
Just pick one, but they can't.
We're going to go all over theplace today because I'm telling
you we're going to go all overthe place.
So one of the things everyonealways asks why I ran, and I
honestly thought I could make adifference in a couple of areas.
One was education.
So when I ran, we went andvisited 87 of the school
districts and I sat with theirsuperintendents and just asked
them what's right about thisplace?
what's wrong about this place?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
what challenges do you have?
Where do you?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
see the future of education in your town.
And you go from West Ada andBoise and kind of Ada County to
just even if you just go 90miles west of here and you've
got Payette and Fruitland andyou've got you can hit a nine
iron and be in a differentschool district.
They all got their ownsuperintendents, they all have
their own challenges and you sitand listen to people and you'd
(15:08):
realize just how kind of messedup it is.
We don't scale things well ineducation.
We don't ask the rightquestions.
You look at how we spend moneyand then you start asking about
this local control and idea ofwho gets paid what.
But look at what Debbie triedto do this year just changing
the formula a little bit and gothammered, hammered so you
(15:29):
almost can't win.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Well, I think the politics in Idaho are kind of
like a hedge fund, where peopleare always trying to take
advantage of movement, anydirection.
It doesn't matter if it'spositive or negative movement.
It just means, like you know,superintendent Critchfield is
doing something good.
She's doing something bad, itdoesn't matter, we have to
capitalize on it.
And generally you capitalize onit by saying it's the wrong
thing to do, so say she's doingsomething positive, you've got
to find a spin on it.
(15:52):
It's like no, no, this is bad.
She's doing something bad.
And you're like, yes, this isbad.
So, no matter where you go,it's like there's an
relativization structure toarticulate a failed policy or
failed attempt and you have tocapitalize both ways.
Very well said.
I'm telling you it's hedge fundpolitics.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's hedge fund politics.
That's what it is, hey.
So what brought you here?
I mean the same thing thatbrings everyone here.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, I mean, that depends, right, I think.
Pursuit of a better life,obviously, but what in
particular made it a better lifeis a better question.
Nobody moves here because theythink they're going to have a
worse life right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And like anyone that thinks, hey, we got to slow the,
it's not changing, I mean Idon't even have to ask why.
I mean, why would you even wantto live in this wonderful place
?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It's like, why would?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
you want to live.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Why would you want to live in eagle, right?
Well, yeah, I just moved toeagle.
Yeah, I was living in anunincorporated ada county until
recently, but yeah, I mean it'sfor me.
First off, I'm raising threeboys, okay, and that's how old
are they?
Uh, 13, 11 and 8.
Man, they're monsters I have.
I made, uh, I make six eggsthis morning that I'm gonna try
to split with me and my wife andmy eight-year-old eats all of
them.
And then'm going to try tosplit with me and my wife and my
(17:04):
eight-year-old eats all of them.
And then I make six more tosplit with me and my wife and he
eats half of those.
So I have an eight-year-old.
That's 135 pounds of man furyand he's like Gaston from Beauty
and the Beast where he's, likeI was a boy, I ate three dozen.
So I have these big kids, a lotof giddy up, as you can imagine
(17:24):
.
And the culture in Californiastate that shall not be named,
excuse me, the culture downthere is more one of like look,
the holy grail of that educationand cultural system is like a
very quiet six-year-old girl whowill sit down and do everything
she's told and not needanything else.
The holy grail is not some kidwho's like vibrating at the
(17:46):
table, as you could imagine, mykids do.
So it wasn't working in thatrespect.
There's also a very odd I wastalking to somebody just
yesterday about this.
There's an odd lack of culturalgrounding, meaning you can move
here and people will say to youhey, I'm a fourth generation,
I'm a fourth generation, I'm afifth generation.
Mayor Trevor Chadwick from STAR.
(18:06):
When he came on he was talkingabout the culture of STAR and he
was like listen, every timebird season comes around, duck
hunting season, people freak out.
They see people within the citylimits with shotguns.
They hear gunshots Like, yeah,man, you're going to hear more
of this.
This is our culture.
And there's a self-awareness toIdaho that does not exist in
California, because so manypeople are transient and the
(18:27):
nature of the occupancy istransactional.
People don't move there becausethe quality of life is great.
They move there to make a lotof money or they were born there
and this is all they know.
Because of that, you don't havean actual culture.
You don't have a groundedCalifornia culture because it's
whoever happens to be there atthat moment, and so you have
this fluidity where people arebeing told what to do and told
(18:51):
what to think and told what theculture is.
So the BLM movement rolls around, that's the Black Lives Matter,
not Bureau of Land Managementthat rolls around and
everybody's like oh my gosh, Iguess we're all racist.
What do you do you mean?
Like, how do you like I'mMexican?
Like what do you?
I have black adopted brothers.
Like what do you mean?
I'm racist.
And they're like well, that's,you know, like what the news
says.
So you have this.
(19:11):
You know culturaldemoralization.
You don't have any grounding,grounding reality there.
You have a culture that's verymuch against you know.
Know, high energy males youhave.
You have a number of problemsthere.
And then, of course, everythingthat happened around 2020 just
solidified everything where it'slike oh, this is like a failed
state, but people can't existhere, but I don't know anybody
(19:34):
who lives there that functionsin the real world, that actually
saying, hey, this is great yeah, it's horrible it's horrible
it's got to be sad lookingaround your community.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I spent almost a month down there a couple months
ago down in Santa Monica andit's like Third Street Promenade
and it's just vacancy.
I mean it's a failed system.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Right and for the people that can tolerate it
generally can insulatethemselves with extreme amounts
of financial backing.
So they live up on the top ofhills, they have gated
communities and they don't.
It's like we lived in thisplace called Danville, which was
very much like Eagle littletiny house there.
We got into it.
We were happy that we got intoit, but that was the most.
(20:16):
That was the safest township inthe state of California and,
mind you, it was 25 minutes fromOakland and it was very similar
to Eagle.
There was a freeway runningdown the center of it.
So people would come fromOakland, jump off the freeway 30
seconds to somebody's house $2million house, 1,800 square feet
by the way Kick in, smash andgrab 60 seconds they're out.
(20:36):
They jump on the freeway andthen they transition.
It's like they're gone.
So you have this constantanxiety of, oh my gosh, people
are like you know, we're 20minutes away from a real crime,
not like we're talking likesevered heads and ballpark crime
, like cartel style action.
Yeah, it's very sad.
So that's why you left a littlebit.
That's one of the reasons why,why, why, oh, okay, well, look
(21:00):
man, where are you going?
You're not going to the coastalstates.
You're not going to Oregon,you're not going to Washington,
all right, so take those out.
What you want to go to Arizona,you don't want to be there
because you're here and you werethere.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I'm not going to Arizona.
Listen, no one's ever going toget an argument from me why
you're here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Great, so wait, just walk Mexico.
No, I saw Better Call Saul.
I'm not going to New Mexico.
Okay, so you're not going there.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Montana as a huge fan and my brother-in-law lives
down there in Albuquerque.
We've done the Breaking Badtour and it's awesome because
you get to go see all the Anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But never.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
New Mexico.
No, I'm not going to New Mexico, I'm not going to New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm not going to Colorado, right?
Because I mean, the problemsthat you have in California are
very similar to problems inColorado.
Right, you're on the way, soyou're out of those Wyoming.
I don't know anybody in Wyoming, montana, not a huge Billings
fan, it's fine.
It's like I are you going to goto Texas?
First off, texas has growthproblems.
(22:05):
You're just going to be in agiant subdivision.
That's like 100 miles by 100miles.
Right, that's an even biggerproblem.
So you have all of that.
And then, if you push anyfarther east, all of our family
my wife and I both left ourentire family back in California
.
So it's like, okay, 60 minuteplane flight, no problem, right,
(22:25):
a hundred bucks.
If you get it cheap, no problem.
And I knew one person who hadmoved up here, this dear friend
of mine from jujitsu.
We'd been training partners forover a decade and he moved up
here in 2020 and he said, man,it is different here.
It is great for raising kids,this is a great area.
And I was like done, done,we're there.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So that was it, and it probably has not disappointed
in any way.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No, no, has not disappointed, was not inaccurate
, 100% on point.
And when you look at all that,you just it's like okay, what do
you want people to do?
Like we can play the political,like oh you're not from here
game.
Great, I'm an American,Everybody has American flags,
Everybody loves America.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Okay, you just hate other Americans who are looking
for an American dream.
Talk about hypocrisy, yeah, Iknow, and the idea that it's
going to stop, it's going to getmore expensive, because I think
the regulations that they'retrying to do to pass to I mean
it's going to be because they'renot going to stop people coming
here.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Okay, talk to me about this, because I was
talking to the mayor of Caldwelljust yesterday and we were
discussing Caldwell's positionon development and growth versus
Middleton's position, which isessentially Middleton came out
with an ordinance that said hey,if our services, like our
schools, are at capacity orovercapacity to a certain degree
, you can't build until there'sanother school built Now.
(23:48):
That will be good for peoplethat exist there right now
because you won't continue tooverburden the systems, but it
will also drive up the cost ofhousing because you're going to
limit the stock.
Caldwell is taking a slightlydifferent tact.
You're the developer.
What's the right answer?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So the right answer is supply and demand.
I mean, it just freaking is,and no matter what anyone tells
you, it's supply and demand.
And then, underlying that, wegot to have formulas that have
growth, pay for growth.
But what happens is, if youlook, whether it's the
legislature or localjurisdictions, they can't help
themselves by getting involvedand they're very
well-intentioned, they reallyare.
(24:18):
They're trying to do the rightthing, but it's not the right
thing.
So anytime they make it harderto have any type of housing,
it's going to cost more.
But I do think, like, how doesgrowth pay for growth?
And how do we as developers dothat?
We have some of the greatesthousing developers in the
country.
If you look at their sub—DavidTurnbull Look at Brighton, look
(24:39):
at any subdivision he's done.
It's got a school in the middleof it.
It's got a school in the middleof it.
It's community focused.
Go, drive through any one ofthem.
I mean it'd be the envy of theentire country.
Look at what Corey Barton does,look at what Jim Hunter does.
I mean, go down the list, donHubble what they did for years.
We create great places andthose developers, if you look,
(25:08):
they will tell you I have paidfor my-oriented.
I mean, we couldn't have it anybetter, right?
So to blame development, notpaying their way, that doesn't
make any sense, right?
So then you got what I thinkneeds to happen tonight.
You got the three-legged stoolof taxes property, sales and
income tax and I think, havingreally good ways to say are we
planning forward a tax strategywhich allows us to keep property
(25:32):
taxes where they need to be forpeople.
Sales tax where the consumerthat's using is actually paying
for growth?
Last thing is we don't bond.
Well, here, you probably haveheard this a hundred times, but
20 years ago when I was looking,we had a group we put together
20 years ago and said, hey, oneof the problems we're going to
have in Idaho is we don't havethe tools to bond that other
states do.
(25:52):
So if you look at Utah and justthe toolbox they have for
bonding that allows people thatare going to use services to pay
for those services over time,it's a very conservative
principle.
We don't have that.
We have urban renewal that getsmisused all the time.
So I'm the first to admit yougo up to North Idaho and I
remember the first time I saw it.
(26:13):
There's a booklet up there thathas all of the cases of misused
urban renewal for developmentand you look through them you're
like yeah, yeah, yeah, but it'sthe only tool there is, so then
jurisdictions push it and useit irresponsibly.
So it's a big question.
I think we need to figure outhow to bond better to pay for
(26:34):
some of the big infrastructureprojects transportation
infrastructure so that it's paidfor by people over time.
I think we need to watchproperty taxes and everyone's
you know Mike's really keen ongetting those down but at the
same time we need to fund thethings that matter, I mean
schools.
Can we do better?
I mean, I think there's a lotof things.
I think Debbie I love Debbie.
I love Debbie Critchfield.
(26:55):
I think she's smart, I thinkshe understands.
I think she would do more ifshe could.
There's just more work to bedone to try to do school a
little more efficiently, the waywe spend our dollars.
I think higher ed we've got alot of duplicative processes in
how we do higher ed here.
There's a lot of pressure onhigher ed, but a lot of those
systems are so old andantiquated in the way that the
(27:16):
different universities work anddo stuff.
I think Gordon Jones I thinkyou've had him on at CWI do an
unbelievable thing.
So I think there's a lot ofgood things going on, but
somehow we got to.
We'll get through this.
We have really good leadership.
I just think it's going to takesome big ideas to get through
this and I think it's probablygoing to be some pain.
(27:37):
We're going to probably havesome gridlock on these freeways
before something happens.
I think we're going to havepain.
I think you're going to havepeople are going to keep coming
here and then everyone's.
There's going to be a reset andeveryone's go.
Okay, we got to figuresomething.
It happened in Austin.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Well here, if I may ask, when you're saying growth,
like when people build schools,say, you build a development,
it's like you know 500 houses,you build a school there, right?
Or you know 1000, or whateverit is.
You build a school that youhave that initial one time
expense but that doesn't pay forsalaries over time.
And this is where the bigproblems were a lot of the
growth not paying for growth.
(28:09):
Come in, for instance, star.
You have a new fire department,you have the physical building.
You don't have the salaries forthe nine firemen and women that
you need.
So you have this problem withhey, yeah, we can get developers
to give us this one-time moneyor give us this infrastructure,
but the community has to agreeto provide the long-term funding
(28:29):
for it.
And as of right now in theTreasure Valley, people are
getting obliterated or, excuseme, the taxing districts are
getting obliterated when they'retrying to say hey, we doubled
in size, start, doubled in sizein the last five years and
they're not getting that cap onthe on on their.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Uh, they put a cap on what they can charge in
property taxes.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Essentially, oh, yeah , yeah, and that 389,.
The problem is, you can only goup at most 8%.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I was just with all the mayors in sun Valley a few
weeks ago.
That is still the concern andsomething he's.
I mean, I don't think so.
There, there you go.
There's a legislature trying todo something good, saying, hey,
growth, pay for growth, andthen not allowing that growth to
go be taxed, right.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Right, and that's the problem.
The people if you take star,for instance, stars property
taxes have actually dropped.
People like me that move hereDo not understand.
They're like, well, you havedouble the number of houses, you
should have double the amountof property tax.
It's like okay, sparky, hang ona second.
That's not how this works.
What we have is you actuallyhave a lower property tax than
(29:26):
you had before you doubled sonow you have this distributed
cost.
That's only up roughly 32%compared to, but you have 200%
of the houses.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And the mayors are all.
They're unified in saying that.
Right, it's just yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So we don't have a system where growth can pay for
growth, even if developers do apart and say, hey, I'm making X
number of dollars, I will put Xnumber of dollars back in,
that's a one-time thing.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
You're spot on.
You're spot on.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So what do we do?
Because we're not bonded, spoton.
So what do we do Because we'renot bonded?
People aren't about it.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
People want fewer taxes.
Well, it used to be.
I think it's still us inKentucky super majority.
I mean, if you think you got toget 66 and two thirds like
there's 25% of people that hateeverything, that's true Even if
it was Jesus that wrote thelegislation.
So I mean you're at 25.
That's the margin, right.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
So that's the margin, right, right.
So are you saying we need tochange it, so it's not a super
majority.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So we've come on.
What's the answer?
No, listen, listen.
So over the years, over theyears I've been, we've helped
fund um polling to just seewhere people are sure I think?
I think one of the things we dopoorly here is we don't get data
, sure, and so every single timewe've polled to ask people that
that is a non-starter like youyou talk about.
That's the one thing everyoneagrees on.
So you want me to agree tolower the threshold of how you
(30:43):
want to tax me?
That's not going to happen.
Sure, local option tax there'sbeen a lot of great like.
If you think about, chuckWinder had some great
legislation 20 years ago whereit was basically, hey, we're
going to come to the communityand do a vote and we're going to
say, hey, we're going to usetax dollars for this purpose, is
that okay?
Then we're going to allow thetax to be collected.
Then we're going to come backto you as voters and say, okay,
(31:05):
now we've collected the money,is it okay if we spend it on the
thing we expect?
I mean, that was a prettyfriendly tax policy and that
didn't pass.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Okay, can I ask you because I've been talking to
people about local option tax alot what's the difference
between a local option tax and ataxing district?
Like you have the StarfireDistrict or you have Canyon
County Paramedics, these are,you got Mosquito Abatement.
Okay, whatever it's a taxingdistrict, we have to, we have to
accept, we vote and get thoselike.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
What is that?
There's nothing wrong with it,except for public opinion.
Again, you're like it's sonothing.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
What's the difference between the two?
Because people talk about localoption tax and like we already
have a taxing district that'sbased on voter approval.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The difference is for what you can use the funds for.
Got it so if you have anunrestricted local option tax.
So if I'm in, so there'salready.
So like if you think in sunvalley right now they have a
local option tax in our ourresort communities.
Mccall has a local option taxIn our resort communities.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
McCall has a local option tax that's flexible on
how they use it.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Taxing districts are specific to that entity Got it.
So a local option tax fordistricts.
So in McCall they can use thatlocal option tax for their sewer
or for a road or for whatever,and they're charging people more
.
And the idea is, hey, you gotouter towners coming in, so
that's how it got passed.
So they're like hey, we'regoing to have other people that
come to our town pay more.
We're going to pay more in ourtown too, but we're going to use
(32:24):
those dollars.
Very similar to an auditoriumdistrict concept.
Auditorium district is greatbecause it's a room tax.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah right, so people coming in to take advantage of
hospitality and leisure.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So Chuck's bill was hey, we're going to set up a
local option tax for a specificpurpose, get the dollars.
And then we're going to ask youagain if we can spend the
dollars.
And that didn't even pass.
And if you pull on local optiontax right now, it's like an
80-20 issue.
People just are like so I don'tknow.
I think a local option taxwould be a really good way for
(32:56):
local communities to use dollarsfor things they need, whether
that be be we need to fix oursewer treatment plant in Preston
, idaho, or whether that be weneed to fix a road in Canyon
County.
It would give local government.
And then one irony of this is,if you notice, we're all about
the federal government stayingout of our way as a state.
Hey, leave us alone, but we'renot about the legislature
(33:17):
staying out of the way of localgovernment.
Somehow that principle does notpass Well.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I think the legislator is not about that.
I think local communities.
If you talk to people in Nampa,they're like, hey, why is the
state encroaching on us?
But if you talk to thelegislature, they're like, hey,
this is our job.
We believe in local controluntil it's your local and then
we're in control of you.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Right, yeah, uh gosh.
So you moved up here.
You've been here two, two,three years, three and a half,
three and a half years, and thentell us how the podcast started
.
So you were doing one, you weredone in California.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, so I uh.
So I was an SAT tutor literallyfrom the week I graduated
college until I left the statewhen I was 39, like that day,
and that's all I ever did.
I really enjoy education verymuch, value it and I always
wanted to be a classroom teacher, but it's like I can't.
I can't live that life whereit's like you make 10 bucks an
hour plus like a teacherappreciation card, anyway.
(34:15):
So I was, I was privately,privately employed through to do
education and, along the way,in the end of 2019, my students
I had a classroom.
My students were like, hey, youshould start a podcast.
I don't know anything aboutthat Like, yeah, it'd be great.
What would I say?
They're like, essentially, justrecord what you say to us in
class and publish that.
I was like, well, that's a badidea.
(34:36):
But so I just again, I don'tknow, I have any background in
audio video engineering, so goon to you know YouTube.
It's like, listen, somebody canlearn this, I can learn this.
And it's start with likeiMovies and GarageBand, and so I
started down there and that'sreally where I could.
Originally it was just kind oflike these little thought bubble
gums for my students going toschool.
It's like 10 minute episodes onlike do you like ketchup, right
(34:58):
?
Or like whatever it might be,and that transitioned into this
community hub where you know,obviously, over the over the the
pandemic, with communitiesripping each other apart, I
became this hub for, okay, look,can you just tell me what your
position?
Like I'm not even going toargue with you, just come and
talk to me.
So you had, you know, like thepresident, the teachers union,
the superintendent, then you hadcity council people.
(35:18):
So I kind of cut my teeth onthese interviews that were
people were coming in ready fora fight and realized like I'm
really just interested intalking to you and understanding
your position.
Like we don't even have toagree, isn't?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
that refreshing.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And why is this controversial?
Why is this wild?
So I move up here in thebeginning of 22 and kind of kiss
that goodbye.
I learned a lot from it.
But move up here and I realizedreally quickly like, oh, the
problems that were plaguing ourcommunity there, I can see them.
Exactly the same thing, they'reon the other side.
But you really start realizing,oh, there's no way for people
(35:56):
to properly orient theirworldview here, because, again,
people spend what eight to tenhours a day on their cell phones
looking at social media.
Here's an interesting problemand you could understand this,
I'm sure Twenty years ago if youwere part of an association or
department or office orsomething, you engaged in
passive communication transfer,right.
So you would update a website.
You'd essentially set a buffetof information and the end
(36:19):
consumer, that's the active user.
They could come and grab thatinformation and that was how you
did it.
So the offices and departmentsare like, hey, let's just set
the table and when people wantto come eat, this is the
information.
So you have active and passive.
Now that actually has flipped.
So the end consumer ofinformation is the passive actor
.
I sit on my couch and justscroll infinitely, no problem,
(36:40):
and that's how I get myworldview.
I'm never going to a website,I'm never picking a pamphlet.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
In fact it's fed to me based on what I looked at
last, Exactly Now.
Here's the problem the peoplethat are actually in charge I
hate the fact that my wife sendsme these funny goat videos now
and now Are they the faintinggoats?
Oh yeah, it's always some farmthing and then I can't get rid
of it.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I don't want to see chickens in goat milk anymore.
And no, you're not making yourown fat up, but it's true.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I mean, it's like it doesn't stop.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, so and again, this is the point.
People form their worldviewpassively through consuming.
But the actual leaders of Idahodo not appear in that media.
So you're not seeing GovernorBrad Little, you're not seeing
Superintendent Critchfield.
You're not seeing these people.
So I developed my opinion aboutthe governor, I developed my
opinion about the superintendentof ed, not based on them, it's
(37:29):
based on whoever is telling meabout them.
Well, you go down that roadlong enough.
It's over, man, because youhave no actual connection to
reality.
So figuring this out in 22,it's like, oh my God, this is it
.
If somebody doesn't step up andcreate a platform where you
could integrate the actualleaders and reality of Idaho,
the narrative and worldview thatpeople have of Idaho will be
(37:52):
taken over by whoever is talkingto them.
And you saw this last yearmultiple times.
But remember the water call.
Remember the cobalt mines inIdaho?
Nationally, people thought thefederal government was shutting
down Idaho farmers and farmingout the water resource to cobalt
miners for the Ukraine defense,whatever, total lie.
(38:12):
But where was the water board?
I didn't even know there was awater board until I invited them
on.
These are the problems thatwill absolutely destroy the
state as they have other places,unless people show up where the
individuals consuminginformation are.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Talk about the medium because it's really fast.
I mean it's awesome, it'spretty cool.
I mean the fact that a guy likeyou could come in and have
access to all these people thatwant to tell their story.
You do a great job interviewingthem.
I've told you that already.
I'm a huge fanboy here, but youdo a great job.
But these people aren't askedby anyone else.
Has that shocked you?
I don't think so.
(38:48):
I mean, you look at the list ofpeople you've had on and they
aren't being interviewed by anewspaper.
They aren't being interviewedby local TV stations.
They don't have a venue throughtheir organizations to get out
there.
They probably had a newsletterat some point 20 years ago, but
now they're out talking topeople and you know you've got
this viewership.
It's a really cool way thatpeople can now get connected to
(39:09):
their community.
That didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Well, here's the thing I don't know.
I don't know that it's entirelyaccurate that they're not being
asked.
I think there is a largedistrust, whether appropriate or
not, of legacy media.
I think there's an inherentfiltration problem with legacy
journalism.
If I interview you, and Iinterview you for 10 minutes or
whatever, I'm asking my set ofquestions and I go home and
write an article, there is aninherent filtration that happens
(39:34):
.
I select what I think isimportant, you know what that
happened to me this morning.
I don't want to say who this was, but I got interviewed by a
journalist this morning aboutthe BSU president search and I
don't like this guy.
I love Andrew.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
From my days it's not Andrew but from my days when I
ran for governor.
I'm going to just tell thestory because I don't care.
Sure, please Go.
Came in interviewed me.
I I'm going to just tell thestory because I don't care.
Sure, please go.
Came in interviewed me.
I think Matthew was in the roomLooked at his computer the
entire time he interviewed me.
This is a big interview, that'sgreat.
Like never looked up one timeand left and I thought, man, I
did a pretty good job and thenjust hammered me.
(40:09):
It was nothing Because you knowhow it is right and I'm like
that was my interaction andthat's what you took away from
it, so I've always been a littleleery.
Well, I did an interview withhim this morning for half an
hour on the president BSU search, because I'm on the committee
(40:30):
and as soon as he hung up.
I'm like man.
We'll see what this ends upturning Thursday, I'll know.
But that's the problem.
That's the problem.
Yes, that is the problem.
That story is going to be toldthrough the lens of that guy
about this whole thing and healready I could tell from his
questions he already knows whathe wants the narrative to be.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Listen you just articulated, and that's the
media.
This is it.
He's not a bad guy.
No, he's a bad guy.
I don't even know who he is.
He's a terrible person.
But that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
So it's not that people aren't being asked.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
It's that there's a problem with consumption, the
consumer of those articles, ifthey're worth their salt at all.
The consumer knows what'shappening.
So it's not that it's like, oh,you're just a random guy with a
podcast and like, oh, thisworks because they haven't been
asked.
No, no, no, they're askedconstantly for media appearances
.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
But the magic of what you do is the format too, just
letting people talk, sure, Ithink it's great, because when
you listen to people that comeon your show and I do the same
thing sitting with someone it'shard to hide authenticity, right
?
You know, within the first fewminutes, hey, people come in,
guarded sometimes, sure, butpretty soon you're like okay,
(41:39):
now we're talking.
Yeah, just relax, listen, we'rejust having a conversation and
it feels good to the listener tobe able to say hey, I just
authentically listened tosomeone about something and
they're telling me the truth,versus me reading something
that's been filtered throughsomeone that has a bias, right?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Right, so that's it.
So for me, this path has reallybeen one of you either have
value or you don't.
Okay, so you're going to bringvalue to your immediate
community, hyper-local, or youwill not.
Because if the idea three yearsago was, hey, what if I had
this state-level platform?
Okay, great, what are you goingto start by talking to the
state?
You don't know anything aboutthe state, right?
(42:20):
So my play was essentially look, if I can't add value literally
to my next door neighbor, I'mnot going to do anything.
So my first episode was with mybuddy who literally lived like
three houses down and we weretalking about like the HOA
meeting, right.
And then it's like a little bitbigger to the neighborhood
elementary school.
There was a problem with it.
It's like pushing out more andmore and focusing every second
(42:41):
on can you bring value to thisperson?
Is the guest going to walk awayand be like you know this was
great and you know who youshould talk to, and so again
pushing out.
All of a sudden it became allright.
You're valuable to the city ofEagle.
Okay, you're valuable to alittle bit more of Ada County.
Okay, you're valuable to boom,boom, boom.
And at this point they're likeCongressman Simpson's comms
people call.
(43:01):
They're like hey, are youaround next week?
Because there's value for himto have this.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Isn't he great.
By the way, I had him on minelast week.
I love that guy.
He's great, hey.
So what's next, though?
Like what?
Because we're already talkingfor 49 minutes.
Watch out, watch what's next.
As far as like for you, myinterview today.
No, no, like what's?
You're a smart guy like this,is you go back and look at how
you're doing this and and howit's produced and who you've got
on and where you're heading,and there's value here for for
(43:29):
people, and I think people knowit.
Um, I'm I'm hearing from youabout when you first started
this.
I started hearing from you,from a lot of friends saying,
hey, this guy, this is, this isreally something unique.
Where do you want this to go?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Exactly where it is.
I'm not going national.
The state of Idaho needs this,one of the biggest problems that
people start.
There are always nationalissues.
People are always talking aboutthe administration, there are
all of these problems, but if wedon't keep a lens focused on
Idaho, there will never be atime when we resolve issues.
(44:02):
We can focus on broader things,but that is going to betray the
necessity of attention locally,idaho state leaders and Idaho
prominent figures to Idaho in away that is never done before.
Like if you look at, if youlook at, rogan's platform and
(44:25):
connecting people worldwide,that's fantastic.
Well, look what if we couldjust get him to be here?
We'd be like, hey, could youjust do only episodes about
Idaho?
How great would that be?
Well, it'd be fantastic.
Well, he's not going to do that, right, because there's not a
large enough.
Somebody has to, yeah, somebodyhas to.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Hey, I think it's so good.
I mean, well, first of all, Ithink you're easy to listen to,
you're funny, you'reentertaining, you engage people,
you're authentic, and so Ithink that's the first key is,
do I want to get on and listento you, listen?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
to you.
It has to be voluntary.
I don't even care who yourguest is.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
I mean like the one I was looking at the other day.
I thought I don't even know whothat is, but I don't care and
it was actually really good youhad the new.
It was a professor fromUniversity of Idaho who was
doing a thing on policy.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Awesome McKay.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, fantastic.
I didn't know who this guy was.
Yeah, college of Idaho.
Yeah, college of Idaho.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Anyway, I think you've hit a real niche that we
need.
So the Ranch Podcast you can befound anywhere right, yes,
exactly, youtube, instagram,tiktok, youtube everywhere.
Ranch Podcast.
What else there it is?
Speaker 2 (45:31):
McKay Cunningham, our constitutional crisis.
Yeah, he's fantastic and hishair was even better.
Yeah, it was great hair.
Yeah, he's a.
He's a handsome man.
Yeah, no, it was a fantastic,uh, conversation with him and
again he he was talking aboutbroader, broader national issues
and I was.
I was happy to have thatconversation because I thought
it was relevant to have, but he,he's also a college of I, who's
(45:54):
been the most surprising guestfor you I had this guy by the
name of Charlie Lyons CharlieLyons, charlie Lyons it was back
in January this year and he isa rancher, but he started the
initial rangeland fireprotection agencies in Idaho and
hearing his story of why heneeded that as a rancher and
(46:18):
what the problem was and it wasthis multi-decade long, such a
classically Idaho story, becausehere you have individuals
struggling for their existenceand they're trying to defend
their way of life and nosolution that could be found and
they figured out something todo on their own and it was a
(46:41):
take the problem, address theproblem, don't look for the
government for our solution.
And that, to me, has become themost, the most classic Idaho
story, which is there is no helpcoming and if we don't figure
this out, it's over.
And it was man.
He took me through a journey,man.
We were both like laughing andthen crying and then laughing.
(47:02):
It was wild.
I have to listen to it.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, it was great.
Well, if there's anything wecan ever do to help, let us know
.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Well, come on my show .
I'll come talk some trash.
Oh yeah, Come talk some trash.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I.
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, I get to have
Matt Todd on, who owns and runsthe Ranch podcast.
He's been doing it for aboutthree years.
Incredible guy.
Matt moved up and relocatedfrom California a few years ago
and has really taken a spot inthe Valley here to be the guy
(00:21):
that is interviewing all thepeople in several areas of
business and government andallowing conversations to happen
that just weren't happeningbefore.
I'm a huge fan, regularlistener and it's going to be
really fun to have Matt Todd ontoday.
Again.
Matt Todd, owner and podcasterof the Ranch Podcast.
(00:41):
Matt, welcome man, thank youvery much.
I'm a huge fan, Reached out toyou just because I've been.
Well, you know who first calledme and said you got to listen
(01:01):
to this guy, he's awesome.
It was Bill Whitaker.
Oh, Bill, yeah, he's great.
So, Bill one year.
So we've had several versionsof this over the last six years,
but one version was Bill was myco-host.
Oh awesome, but Bill is like amadman, and having a guy that
travels 92% of his time aroundthe world riding a motorcycle as
(01:24):
your co-host Makes it reallyhard to schedule things.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, man, he's a rolling stone.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
He seems pretty cool though he is a fantastic human
being man.
Hey, I'm a huge fan, hey, thankyou.
I'm a big-time listener.
You have filled a niche.
It's an incredible story,though.
A dude from California comes uphere and figures out how to get
people don't say that word.
Don't say that word hey, I, I'mlike who, I'm like who is this
guy?
And then I'm like what?
(01:50):
But it's so authentic, you do areally great job.
Oh, thank you.
People want I mean I likelistening, because I want to
listen to you and your takes onthese things and and you're not
shying away from having, youknow, randos on there that are
going to say some stuff thatthat are gonna say you know
randos on there that are goingto say some stuff that are going
to say you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
There's a guy actually to that point.
I put out this clip yesterdayor yesterday, the day before,
and it was just having thisconversation about early
literacy and essentially there'sa crisis in education in the
state, with relevancy, whetherpeople buy into it or think it's
valuable.
And what was really funny isit's kind of like look, you know
you're not going to avoidpaying for people one way or
(02:27):
another, like you were going topay for them in the education
and training or you're going topay for them in incarceration
and social programs, but likethere's no world where we don't
pay for people.
And so I put out this clipsaying like hey, look, you can
either invest a little bit ineducation at the beginning of
people's lives or you can invest60 to 70,000 per year for the
rest of their life.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Either you know with incorrections or whatever, and
someone hammered you for that.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
What's that?
Did someone hammer you for that?
No, it was hilarious.
Somebody in the comments islike wow, I can't believe it.
But I actually agree with thisguy, like for the first time,
and I wanted I actually wasgoing to reach out and be like
hey man, do you want?
Like I don't know why you woulddisagree, like I don't even
take hard positions on things.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
You do a really, you do a really well.
First of all, um, I love thelevel of guests you're going to
to.
Uh, you know, we, we do, we doa weekly deal here, but I I
pretty much just have on peopleI want to talk to, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Right, that my like.
People always say what's youragenda?
Everyone's got an agenda, bythe way, but my agenda, if I, if
I enjoy talking to someone,that I genuinely want to hear
their story and listen about,that's, that's my agenda.
Um, but you, you have time.
How many do you put?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
out.
I mean I do during thelegislative session.
I was doing about 20 per week.
That's crazy.
And then, uh, and now I thoughtit was going to slow down.
I'm like, honey, we just got tocause I got a wife and kids.
I was like we just got to makeit through this.
It was intense and now ithasn't slowed down.
It's like I could do 10 to 20 aweek still, yeah, and you have
on.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You have on some some really great guests that I
absolutely want to run andlisten to, and then I've got
people'm pretty well informed onstuff and it's.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's been great, yeah Well thank you for listening
and, again, I usually just usethe barometer of am I interested
in this thing?
Is there something that I coulddig into?
Because people reach out andthey're like, hey, here's this
big, here's one that came uprecently.
This gal reached out and she'slike I'm a Boise school district
teacher.
We had this huge problem withcleanliness of my home, ec, all
(04:25):
these things, and I got Lymedisease and it was like, okay,
that's a relevant thing, but Idon't really want to be like
that guy who's like the crisishub guy.
So I passed her on to a friendof mine who had a great
conversation with her.
He essentially broke the story.
Channel 6 put out a story thismorning and it's like okay,
that's awesome and I thinkthat's relevant, but it's also
like I don't want to be a crisishub.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, listen, what I like about what you do is I love
how authentic it is.
You immediately connect withpeople.
You've had a couple of myreally good friends on recently.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Who's that?
Chief Allen?
Oh yeah, dude, he's great.
Oh, that guy's, he is legit man, he is one of my great guys.
So I immediately he's like hey,what do you know about this guy
?
I'm like so, he's awesome and Ithought you're just really
digging into the relevant issuesthat are here.
(05:18):
It's great, can?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
we discuss for a second.
How dumb I felt when I realizedthat within Native American
communities you don't say chiefanymore, but his name is chief,
you say chairman.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
His mom named him chief I know, but listen, I use
it to my advantage all the time.
He's been my friend for a longtime and I'm sure he'll listen
to this.
But now that you can say it,you can say I'm good friends
with the chief of the Coeurd'Alene tribe.
Just say chief of the Coeurd'Alene tribe.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Don't say the chief.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Say chief Chief of the Coeur d'Alene tribe.
They're like whoa, you know thechief.
Yeah, you don't know the chief.
Everybody knows the chief.
Everybody knows the chief.
He's the best.
Oh, he's awesome, I can.
People are like you know thechief.
I'm like, well, he's thechairman, yeah, right, anyway,
he's a great guy.
You know what happened to himtwo years ago with his accident.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's one of the craziest stories ever.
He goes out, hops on hisSea-Doos with his daughter, gets
on a Sea-Doo that he normallywould ride, that she would
normally ride.
They're going out for a ridetogether Hits the ignition and
it blows up.
He gets knocked out and breakshis both arms, both legs and is
(06:32):
laying in the lake.
I mean he should have died.
I mean you look at his injury,should have died and and had oh,
he'll tell you I don't know howmany 20, 30 surgeries.
Um, it was only two years ago.
What incredible.
What happened?
Uh, I guess, doing the researchon it, I guess they can vapor
lock and get some, some, somegasoline fumes in where the
ignition is, and I guess this isa known thing.
(06:54):
But yeah, yeah, not a greatthing and then that guy, he
didn't complain uh, yeah hisbiggest complaint.
He used to play basketball likealmost every day and I can't
anyway, great guy.
So tell me, the only thingthat's weird about this is we
don't really like Californians.
Yeah, I don't either.
(07:14):
That's why they're all cominghere, but then they get here and
then they're like hey, no moreright.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Well, I mean kind of I think a lot of the.
I think very unfortunately,some of the.
You know, if you get out of areally bad relationship with
somebody, say, you're datingsome crazy girl, she's just
crazy, and you finally break upwith her, you're like I can't
take this anymore, like my lifeis not worth this, and you break
up with her.
You know the poor girl you meetnext.
(07:39):
You're just beating her upabout you know, on all the she's
like anxiety.
Are you going beating her upabout, you know, on all the
she's like anxiety, or you'regoing to want me to, you know,
hang out with your dumb friends,or like whatever it is.
And she's like well, my friendsare nice.
Like what do you mean?
And people bring, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That is like the best explanation I've heard of it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, you're in a toxic relationship.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It's not that you don't like listen, I love
development.
They are the first ones to comeand oppose it, and there's just
a lot of hypocrisy with it.
So I think some of thissentiment is pretty well
deserved, right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh, a thousand percent, listen, but I think
that's anybody moving here andspecifically because there's a
path of progress that this statehas been on that is almost
impossible to understand, likethere's no.
One of the reasons I startedthe podcast is because how do
you find out about it?
How do you, how do you knowabout what the state has been
doing?
Like, where do you, where doyou research?
(08:37):
Is there a website?
There's no source ofinformation.
So, in in trying to orientmyself properly, it was like,
okay, but I don't know who thesepeople are, I don't know what
the politics are, I don't know,like, the path of progress.
I didn't know that the the farmacross the highway from where I
was living was sold 20 yearsago and they're just waiting
Like I didn't know any of thatand now, all of a sudden, the
community is trying to stop thedevelopment.
(08:58):
It's like, guys, this was inthe works decades ago, like you
just showed up 15 minutes ago.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Hey, I just think it's cool that a guy from
California is doing this.
I mean, you're going to do morefor Californians than the rest
of the state of Californians.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean it's cool, We'll see.
We'll see you are.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
No, because it's authentic.
Just like you said, every issuethat you have on there, you're
like I want to know more aboutthis Grazing.
You've had grazing Ranching.
I mean you're all over theplace.
The episode on the grazing withthat gal that came on.
I'm trying to think.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Oh, gretchen Hyde, yeah, she's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I'm sitting there like I didn't know any of that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, here's a question for you.
You've seen people move here.
How long does it take for me tojust be a dude instead of the
dude from California?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Like what do we talk about?
Five years?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Do I have to get the right belt?
Buckle Like what do I get?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I came in the 90s and I'm still not native.
It comes up all the time.
Where did you come from?
Utah, oh my God.
Well, I first moved here when Iwas 18, I guess, but you don't
get credit for that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So, but you don't get credit for that.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
It's I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
I'm over 25, I'm 26, 27 yearsnow, and I'm still yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, but at what point?
Like is it essentially, weweren't born here, so we'll
never be Idaho, like you'realways going to be a function of
some other state.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know what's weird about it is?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I've lived in Arizona , utah, and here have you lived
in California and then here,yeah, the same five-mile radius,
my whole life, your whole life.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So I think it'll change.
It's certainly pretty unique.
There's a heritage.
I didn't understand this placeuntil I ran for governor and I
spent a full year and a half onthe road, I mean me and Maddie
was by my side, but we went toevery town.
Indie was by my side, but wewent.
We went to every town in thisstate a couple of times and uh,
and then I kind of got it.
(10:51):
I kind of got it.
I mean, I think, uh, I thinkthis place still has, uh, this
heritage thing of, hey, this isour place and and you know, we
love it because our heritage andwe don't want it to change.
And I think that you have thegreat state of Ada and a lot of
the people you have come on arefrom Ada County and I really
(11:12):
don't think you kind of fullyget Idaho.
I didn't, until I spent time.
I spent 90% of my time on theroad because I knew this place.
So I spent 90% of my timeeverywhere else in Idaho and
then I'm like, okay, it's adifferent thing.
And I understand now why peoplelook at the great state of Ada
and they're like, oh, that's notIdaho either.
So there's another layer to allthis, right, because most
people are moving to theTreasure Valley and they're like
(11:33):
, hey, this is our place.
If you got out of here andspent time in more rural Idaho,
it's even more jarring.
They're just just, they don'twant to change People.
Don't want to change People,hate change.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I think there's a great I would ask you do you
think there is a great strugglefor ownership, because it seems
that designations andcharacterizations are things
that everybody's grappling for,like?
Are you a real Idahoan Right?
Or is even Ada County IdahoRight?
Are you a conservative?
Are you a real conservative,like all of these things are?
Hey, let's categorize like,let's play identity politics,
(12:10):
but let's just play it with theIdaho conservative politics.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yes, yes, and within what you just said.
I cannot tell you how muchhypocrisy is within what you
just said too.
It is the course You'll sit.
I remember well with Matt wewould be in coffee shops in St
Mary's, idaho, right, and we'dbe sitting with guys that would
just be freaking, hammering mebecause of my positions or what
(12:36):
I thought about educationwhatever.
And I would take it, man, Iwould just sit there and take it
, and I was always good aboutlistening to people.
I really like listening topeople and learning from them,
because I think that's whyAmerica is great, right?
I mean, you look at your show.
You look at all the differentpeople that come on with very
strong opinions that are allover the place, by the way, you
do a really good job of justkind of listening to them and
(12:56):
respecting.
I love that, but then you haveto just ask a couple of
questions after they go.
What do you think about this?
So I think, people, it's humannature to have tribalism and be
part of a group that I love, andthen it's also human nature to
have a lot of blind spots.
So, as much as you hate thegovernment, you're the first one
(13:18):
in line for Medicare.
As much as you hate thegovernment, you'll bitch and
moan about that road out frontthat they're not fixing.
Or healthcare is the big one,right?
Everyone hates the fact thatpeople have the government's
helping with healthcare untiltheir wife gets cancer Right In
St Mary's, right, right, and theonly way they are going to get
world-class treatment in StMary's.
Idaho Is government assistanceIs government assistance,
(13:39):
otherwise they would have diedin six months.
Right Right have died in sixmonths, right Right, and so you
start asking, or loans on theirhomes or anything or anything.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You start going through this.
What about it?
What about the education billfrom last year?
Ninety three, ok.
So let me get this right.
You want to give five thousanddollars to people who are going
private?
Yeah, totally fine, ok, great.
And you want no requirements orregulations?
Ok, fine, that's fine.
And then you want to add anadditional cursive writing
requirement over here to thealready overburdened,
overregulated public.
(14:10):
It's like okay, do we wantrequirements on education
dollars or not?
Just pick one.
And I'm good either way.
If you say, hey, give all 500requirements to the private
schools or remove allrequirements from the public
schools, just pick one.
You got to pick it, just pickone, but they can't.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
all requirements from the public schools Just pick
one.
You got to pick it.
Just pick one, but they can't.
We're going to go all over theplace today because I'm telling
you we're going to go all overthe place.
So one of the things everyonealways asks why I ran, and I
honestly thought I could make adifference in a couple of areas.
One was education.
So when I ran, we went andvisited 87 of the school
districts and I sat with theirsuperintendents and just asked
them what's right about thisplace?
what's wrong about this place?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
what challenges do you have?
Where do you?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
see the future of education in your town.
And you go from West Ada andBoise and kind of Ada County to
just even if you just go 90miles west of here and you've
got Payette and Fruitland andyou've got you can hit a nine
iron and be in a differentschool district.
They all got their ownsuperintendents, they all have
their own challenges and you sitand listen to people and you'd
(15:08):
realize just how kind of messedup it is.
We don't scale things well ineducation.
We don't ask the rightquestions.
You look at how we spend moneyand then you start asking about
this local control and idea ofwho gets paid what.
But look at what Debbie triedto do this year just changing
the formula a little bit and gothammered, hammered so you
(15:29):
almost can't win.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Well, I think the politics in Idaho are kind of
like a hedge fund, where peopleare always trying to take
advantage of movement, anydirection.
It doesn't matter if it'spositive or negative movement.
It just means, like you know,superintendent Critchfield is
doing something good.
She's doing something bad, itdoesn't matter, we have to
capitalize on it.
And generally you capitalize onit by saying it's the wrong
thing to do, so say she's doingsomething positive, you've got
to find a spin on it.
(15:52):
It's like no, no, this is bad.
She's doing something bad.
And you're like, yes, this isbad.
So, no matter where you go,it's like there's an
relativization structure toarticulate a failed policy or
failed attempt and you have tocapitalize both ways.
Very well said.
I'm telling you it's hedge fundpolitics.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's hedge fund politics.
That's what it is, hey.
So what brought you here?
I mean the same thing thatbrings everyone here.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, I mean, that depends, right, I think.
Pursuit of a better life,obviously, but what in
particular made it a better lifeis a better question.
Nobody moves here because theythink they're going to have a
worse life right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And like anyone that thinks, hey, we got to slow the,
it's not changing, I mean Idon't even have to ask why.
I mean, why would you even wantto live in this wonderful place
?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It's like, why would?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
you want to live.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Why would you want to live in eagle, right?
Well, yeah, I just moved toeagle.
Yeah, I was living in anunincorporated ada county until
recently, but yeah, I mean it'sfor me.
First off, I'm raising threeboys, okay, and that's how old
are they?
Uh, 13, 11 and 8.
Man, they're monsters I have.
I made, uh, I make six eggsthis morning that I'm gonna try
to split with me and my wife andmy eight-year-old eats all of
them.
And then'm going to try tosplit with me and my wife and my
(17:04):
eight-year-old eats all of them.
And then I make six more tosplit with me and my wife and he
eats half of those.
So I have an eight-year-old.
That's 135 pounds of man furyand he's like Gaston from Beauty
and the Beast where he's, likeI was a boy, I ate three dozen.
So I have these big kids, a lotof giddy up, as you can imagine
(17:24):
.
And the culture in Californiastate that shall not be named,
excuse me, the culture downthere is more one of like look,
the holy grail of that educationand cultural system is like a
very quiet six-year-old girl whowill sit down and do everything
she's told and not needanything else.
The holy grail is not some kidwho's like vibrating at the
(17:46):
table, as you could imagine, mykids do.
So it wasn't working in thatrespect.
There's also a very odd I wastalking to somebody just
yesterday about this.
There's an odd lack of culturalgrounding, meaning you can move
here and people will say to youhey, I'm a fourth generation,
I'm a fourth generation, I'm afifth generation.
Mayor Trevor Chadwick from STAR.
(18:06):
When he came on he was talkingabout the culture of STAR and he
was like listen, every timebird season comes around, duck
hunting season, people freak out.
They see people within the citylimits with shotguns.
They hear gunshots Like, yeah,man, you're going to hear more
of this.
This is our culture.
And there's a self-awareness toIdaho that does not exist in
California, because so manypeople are transient and the
(18:27):
nature of the occupancy istransactional.
People don't move there becausethe quality of life is great.
They move there to make a lotof money or they were born there
and this is all they know.
Because of that, you don't havean actual culture.
You don't have a groundedCalifornia culture because it's
whoever happens to be there atthat moment, and so you have
this fluidity where people arebeing told what to do and told
(18:51):
what to think and told what theculture is.
So the BLM movement rolls around, that's the Black Lives Matter,
not Bureau of Land Managementthat rolls around and
everybody's like oh my gosh, Iguess we're all racist.
What do you do you mean?
Like, how do you like I'mMexican?
Like what do you?
I have black adopted brothers.
Like what do you mean?
I'm racist.
And they're like well, that's,you know, like what the news
says.
So you have this.
(19:11):
You know culturaldemoralization.
You don't have any grounding,grounding reality there.
You have a culture that's verymuch against you know.
Know, high energy males youhave.
You have a number of problemsthere.
And then, of course, everythingthat happened around 2020 just
solidified everything where it'slike oh, this is like a failed
state, but people can't existhere, but I don't know anybody
(19:34):
who lives there that functionsin the real world, that actually
saying, hey, this is great yeah, it's horrible it's horrible
it's got to be sad lookingaround your community.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I spent almost a month down there a couple months
ago down in Santa Monica andit's like Third Street Promenade
and it's just vacancy.
I mean it's a failed system.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Right and for the people that can tolerate it
generally can insulatethemselves with extreme amounts
of financial backing.
So they live up on the top ofhills, they have gated
communities and they don't.
It's like we lived in thisplace called Danville, which was
very much like Eagle littletiny house there.
We got into it.
We were happy that we got intoit, but that was the most.
(20:16):
That was the safest township inthe state of California and,
mind you, it was 25 minutes fromOakland and it was very similar
to Eagle.
There was a freeway runningdown the center of it.
So people would come fromOakland, jump off the freeway 30
seconds to somebody's house $2million house, 1,800 square feet
by the way Kick in, smash andgrab 60 seconds they're out.
(20:36):
They jump on the freeway andthen they transition.
It's like they're gone.
So you have this constantanxiety of, oh my gosh, people
are like you know, we're 20minutes away from a real crime,
not like we're talking likesevered heads and ballpark crime
, like cartel style action.
Yeah, it's very sad.
So that's why you left a littlebit.
That's one of the reasons why,why, why, oh, okay, well, look
(21:00):
man, where are you going?
You're not going to the coastalstates.
You're not going to Oregon,you're not going to Washington,
all right, so take those out.
What you want to go to Arizona,you don't want to be there
because you're here and you werethere.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I'm not going to Arizona.
Listen, no one's ever going toget an argument from me why
you're here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Great, so wait, just walk Mexico.
No, I saw Better Call Saul.
I'm not going to New Mexico.
Okay, so you're not going there.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Montana as a huge fan and my brother-in-law lives
down there in Albuquerque.
We've done the Breaking Badtour and it's awesome because
you get to go see all the Anyway.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But never.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
New Mexico.
No, I'm not going to New Mexico, I'm not going to New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm not going to Colorado, right?
Because I mean, the problemsthat you have in California are
very similar to problems inColorado.
Right, you're on the way, soyou're out of those Wyoming.
I don't know anybody in Wyoming, montana, not a huge Billings
fan, it's fine.
It's like I are you going to goto Texas?
First off, texas has growthproblems.
(22:05):
You're just going to be in agiant subdivision.
That's like 100 miles by 100miles.
Right, that's an even biggerproblem.
So you have all of that.
And then, if you push anyfarther east, all of our family
my wife and I both left ourentire family back in California
.
So it's like, okay, 60 minuteplane flight, no problem, right,
(22:25):
a hundred bucks.
If you get it cheap, no problem.
And I knew one person who hadmoved up here, this dear friend
of mine from jujitsu.
We'd been training partners forover a decade and he moved up
here in 2020 and he said, man,it is different here.
It is great for raising kids,this is a great area.
And I was like done, done,we're there.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So that was it, and it probably has not disappointed
in any way.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No, no, has not disappointed, was not inaccurate
, 100% on point.
And when you look at all that,you just it's like okay, what do
you want people to do?
Like we can play the political,like oh you're not from here
game.
Great, I'm an American,Everybody has American flags,
Everybody loves America.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Okay, you just hate other Americans who are looking
for an American dream.
Talk about hypocrisy, yeah, Iknow, and the idea that it's
going to stop, it's going to getmore expensive, because I think
the regulations that they'retrying to do to pass to I mean
it's going to be because they'renot going to stop people coming
here.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Okay, talk to me about this, because I was
talking to the mayor of Caldwelljust yesterday and we were
discussing Caldwell's positionon development and growth versus
Middleton's position, which isessentially Middleton came out
with an ordinance that said hey,if our services, like our
schools, are at capacity orovercapacity to a certain degree
, you can't build until there'sanother school built Now.
(23:48):
That will be good for peoplethat exist there right now
because you won't continue tooverburden the systems, but it
will also drive up the cost ofhousing because you're going to
limit the stock.
Caldwell is taking a slightlydifferent tact.
You're the developer.
What's the right answer?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So the right answer is supply and demand.
I mean, it just freaking is,and no matter what anyone tells
you, it's supply and demand.
And then, underlying that, wegot to have formulas that have
growth, pay for growth.
But what happens is, if youlook, whether it's the
legislature or localjurisdictions, they can't help
themselves by getting involvedand they're very
well-intentioned, they reallyare.
(24:18):
They're trying to do the rightthing, but it's not the right
thing.
So anytime they make it harderto have any type of housing,
it's going to cost more.
But I do think, like, how doesgrowth pay for growth?
And how do we as developers dothat?
We have some of the greatesthousing developers in the
country.
If you look at their sub—DavidTurnbull Look at Brighton, look
(24:39):
at any subdivision he's done.
It's got a school in the middleof it.
It's got a school in the middleof it.
It's community focused.
Go, drive through any one ofthem.
I mean it'd be the envy of theentire country.
Look at what Corey Barton does,look at what Jim Hunter does.
I mean, go down the list, donHubble what they did for years.
We create great places andthose developers, if you look,
(25:08):
they will tell you I have paidfor my-oriented.
I mean, we couldn't have it anybetter, right?
So to blame development, notpaying their way, that doesn't
make any sense, right?
So then you got what I thinkneeds to happen tonight.
You got the three-legged stoolof taxes property, sales and
income tax and I think, havingreally good ways to say are we
planning forward a tax strategywhich allows us to keep property
(25:32):
taxes where they need to be forpeople.
Sales tax where the consumerthat's using is actually paying
for growth?
Last thing is we don't bond.
Well, here, you probably haveheard this a hundred times, but
20 years ago when I was looking,we had a group we put together
20 years ago and said, hey, oneof the problems we're going to
have in Idaho is we don't havethe tools to bond that other
states do.
(25:52):
So if you look at Utah and justthe toolbox they have for
bonding that allows people thatare going to use services to pay
for those services over time,it's a very conservative
principle.
We don't have that.
We have urban renewal that getsmisused all the time.
So I'm the first to admit yougo up to North Idaho and I
remember the first time I saw it.
(26:13):
There's a booklet up there thathas all of the cases of misused
urban renewal for developmentand you look through them you're
like yeah, yeah, yeah, but it'sthe only tool there is, so then
jurisdictions push it and useit irresponsibly.
So it's a big question.
I think we need to figure outhow to bond better to pay for
(26:34):
some of the big infrastructureprojects transportation
infrastructure so that it's paidfor by people over time.
I think we need to watchproperty taxes and everyone's
you know Mike's really keen ongetting those down but at the
same time we need to fund thethings that matter, I mean
schools.
Can we do better?
I mean, I think there's a lotof things.
I think Debbie I love Debbie.
I love Debbie Critchfield.
(26:55):
I think she's smart, I thinkshe understands.
I think she would do more ifshe could.
There's just more work to bedone to try to do school a
little more efficiently, the waywe spend our dollars.
I think higher ed we've got alot of duplicative processes in
how we do higher ed here.
There's a lot of pressure onhigher ed, but a lot of those
systems are so old andantiquated in the way that the
(27:16):
different universities work anddo stuff.
I think Gordon Jones I thinkyou've had him on at CWI do an
unbelievable thing.
So I think there's a lot ofgood things going on, but
somehow we got to.
We'll get through this.
We have really good leadership.
I just think it's going to takesome big ideas to get through
this and I think it's probablygoing to be some pain.
(27:37):
We're going to probably havesome gridlock on these freeways
before something happens.
I think we're going to havepain.
I think you're going to havepeople are going to keep coming
here and then everyone's.
There's going to be a reset andeveryone's go.
Okay, we got to figuresomething.
It happened in Austin.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Well here, if I may ask, when you're saying growth,
like when people build schools,say, you build a development,
it's like you know 500 houses,you build a school there, right?
Or you know 1000, or whateverit is.
You build a school that youhave that initial one time
expense but that doesn't pay forsalaries over time.
And this is where the bigproblems were a lot of the
growth not paying for growth.
(28:09):
Come in, for instance, star.
You have a new fire department,you have the physical building.
You don't have the salaries forthe nine firemen and women that
you need.
So you have this problem withhey, yeah, we can get developers
to give us this one-time moneyor give us this infrastructure,
but the community has to agreeto provide the long-term funding
(28:29):
for it.
And as of right now in theTreasure Valley, people are
getting obliterated or, excuseme, the taxing districts are
getting obliterated when they'retrying to say hey, we doubled
in size, start, doubled in sizein the last five years and
they're not getting that cap onthe on on their.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Uh, they put a cap on what they can charge in
property taxes.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Essentially, oh, yeah , yeah, and that 389,.
The problem is, you can only goup at most 8%.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I was just with all the mayors in sun Valley a few
weeks ago.
That is still the concern andsomething he's.
I mean, I don't think so.
There, there you go.
There's a legislature trying todo something good, saying, hey,
growth, pay for growth, andthen not allowing that growth to
go be taxed, right.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Right, and that's the problem.
The people if you take star,for instance, stars property
taxes have actually dropped.
People like me that move hereDo not understand.
They're like, well, you havedouble the number of houses, you
should have double the amountof property tax.
It's like okay, sparky, hang ona second.
That's not how this works.
What we have is you actuallyhave a lower property tax than
(29:26):
you had before you doubled sonow you have this distributed
cost.
That's only up roughly 32%compared to, but you have 200%
of the houses.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And the mayors are all.
They're unified in saying that.
Right, it's just yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So we don't have a system where growth can pay for
growth, even if developers do apart and say, hey, I'm making X
number of dollars, I will put Xnumber of dollars back in,
that's a one-time thing.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
You're spot on.
You're spot on.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So what do we do?
Because we're not bonded, spoton.
So what do we do Because we'renot bonded?
People aren't about it.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
People want fewer taxes.
Well, it used to be.
I think it's still us inKentucky super majority.
I mean, if you think you got toget 66 and two thirds like
there's 25% of people that hateeverything, that's true Even if
it was Jesus that wrote thelegislation.
So I mean you're at 25.
That's the margin, right.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
So that's the margin, right, right.
So are you saying we need tochange it, so it's not a super
majority.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So we've come on.
What's the answer?
No, listen, listen.
So over the years, over theyears I've been, we've helped
fund um polling to just seewhere people are sure I think?
I think one of the things we dopoorly here is we don't get data
, sure, and so every single timewe've polled to ask people that
that is a non-starter like youyou talk about.
That's the one thing everyoneagrees on.
So you want me to agree tolower the threshold of how you
(30:43):
want to tax me?
That's not going to happen.
Sure, local option tax there'sbeen a lot of great like.
If you think about, chuckWinder had some great
legislation 20 years ago whereit was basically, hey, we're
going to come to the communityand do a vote and we're going to
say, hey, we're going to usetax dollars for this purpose, is
that okay?
Then we're going to allow thetax to be collected.
Then we're going to come backto you as voters and say, okay,
(31:05):
now we've collected the money,is it okay if we spend it on the
thing we expect?
I mean, that was a prettyfriendly tax policy and that
didn't pass.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Okay, can I ask you because I've been talking to
people about local option tax alot what's the difference
between a local option tax and ataxing district?
Like you have the StarfireDistrict or you have Canyon
County Paramedics, these are,you got Mosquito Abatement.
Okay, whatever it's a taxingdistrict, we have to, we have to
accept, we vote and get thoselike.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
What is that?
There's nothing wrong with it,except for public opinion.
Again, you're like it's sonothing.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
What's the difference between the two?
Because people talk about localoption tax and like we already
have a taxing district that'sbased on voter approval.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The difference is for what you can use the funds for.
Got it so if you have anunrestricted local option tax.
So if I'm in, so there'salready.
So like if you think in sunvalley right now they have a
local option tax in our ourresort communities.
Mccall has a local option taxIn our resort communities.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
McCall has a local option tax that's flexible on
how they use it.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Taxing districts are specific to that entity Got it.
So a local option tax fordistricts.
So in McCall they can use thatlocal option tax for their sewer
or for a road or for whatever,and they're charging people more
.
And the idea is, hey, you gotouter towners coming in, so
that's how it got passed.
So they're like hey, we'regoing to have other people that
come to our town pay more.
We're going to pay more in ourtown too, but we're going to use
(32:24):
those dollars.
Very similar to an auditoriumdistrict concept.
Auditorium district is greatbecause it's a room tax.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah right, so people coming in to take advantage of
hospitality and leisure.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So Chuck's bill was hey, we're going to set up a
local option tax for a specificpurpose, get the dollars.
And then we're going to ask youagain if we can spend the
dollars.
And that didn't even pass.
And if you pull on local optiontax right now, it's like an
80-20 issue.
People just are like so I don'tknow.
I think a local option taxwould be a really good way for
(32:56):
local communities to use dollarsfor things they need, whether
that be be we need to fix oursewer treatment plant in Preston
, idaho, or whether that be weneed to fix a road in Canyon
County.
It would give local government.
And then one irony of this is,if you notice, we're all about
the federal government stayingout of our way as a state.
Hey, leave us alone, but we'renot about the legislature
(33:17):
staying out of the way of localgovernment.
Somehow that principle does notpass Well.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I think the legislator is not about that.
I think local communities.
If you talk to people in Nampa,they're like, hey, why is the
state encroaching on us?
But if you talk to thelegislature, they're like, hey,
this is our job.
We believe in local controluntil it's your local and then
we're in control of you.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Right, yeah, uh gosh.
So you moved up here.
You've been here two, two,three years, three and a half,
three and a half years, and thentell us how the podcast started
.
So you were doing one, you weredone in California.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, so I uh.
So I was an SAT tutor literallyfrom the week I graduated
college until I left the statewhen I was 39, like that day,
and that's all I ever did.
I really enjoy education verymuch, value it and I always
wanted to be a classroom teacher, but it's like I can't.
I can't live that life whereit's like you make 10 bucks an
hour plus like a teacherappreciation card, anyway.
(34:15):
So I was, I was privately,privately employed through to do
education and, along the way,in the end of 2019, my students
I had a classroom.
My students were like, hey, youshould start a podcast.
I don't know anything aboutthat Like, yeah, it'd be great.
What would I say?
They're like, essentially, justrecord what you say to us in
class and publish that.
I was like, well, that's a badidea.
(34:36):
But so I just again, I don'tknow, I have any background in
audio video engineering, so goon to you know YouTube.
It's like, listen, somebody canlearn this, I can learn this.
And it's start with likeiMovies and GarageBand, and so I
started down there and that'sreally where I could.
Originally it was just kind oflike these little thought bubble
gums for my students going toschool.
It's like 10 minute episodes onlike do you like ketchup, right
(34:58):
?
Or like whatever it might be,and that transitioned into this
community hub where you know,obviously, over the over the the
pandemic, with communitiesripping each other apart, I
became this hub for, okay, look,can you just tell me what your
position?
Like I'm not even going toargue with you, just come and
talk to me.
So you had, you know, like thepresident, the teachers union,
the superintendent, then you hadcity council people.
(35:18):
So I kind of cut my teeth onthese interviews that were
people were coming in ready fora fight and realized like I'm
really just interested intalking to you and understanding
your position.
Like we don't even have toagree, isn't?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
that refreshing.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And why is this controversial?
Why is this wild?
So I move up here in thebeginning of 22 and kind of kiss
that goodbye.
I learned a lot from it.
But move up here and I realizedreally quickly like, oh, the
problems that were plaguing ourcommunity there, I can see them.
Exactly the same thing, they'reon the other side.
But you really start realizing,oh, there's no way for people
(35:56):
to properly orient theirworldview here, because, again,
people spend what eight to tenhours a day on their cell phones
looking at social media.
Here's an interesting problemand you could understand this,
I'm sure Twenty years ago if youwere part of an association or
department or office orsomething, you engaged in
passive communication transfer,right.
So you would update a website.
You'd essentially set a buffetof information and the end
(36:19):
consumer, that's the active user.
They could come and grab thatinformation and that was how you
did it.
So the offices and departmentsare like, hey, let's just set
the table and when people wantto come eat, this is the
information.
So you have active and passive.
Now that actually has flipped.
So the end consumer ofinformation is the passive actor
.
I sit on my couch and justscroll infinitely, no problem,
(36:40):
and that's how I get myworldview.
I'm never going to a website,I'm never picking a pamphlet.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
In fact it's fed to me based on what I looked at
last, Exactly Now.
Here's the problem the peoplethat are actually in charge I
hate the fact that my wife sendsme these funny goat videos now
and now Are they the faintinggoats?
Oh yeah, it's always some farmthing and then I can't get rid
of it.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I don't want to see chickens in goat milk anymore.
And no, you're not making yourown fat up, but it's true.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I mean, it's like it doesn't stop.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, so and again, this is the point.
People form their worldviewpassively through consuming.
But the actual leaders of Idahodo not appear in that media.
So you're not seeing GovernorBrad Little, you're not seeing
Superintendent Critchfield.
You're not seeing these people.
So I developed my opinion aboutthe governor, I developed my
opinion about the superintendentof ed, not based on them, it's
(37:29):
based on whoever is telling meabout them.
Well, you go down that roadlong enough.
It's over, man, because youhave no actual connection to
reality.
So figuring this out in 22,it's like, oh my God, this is it
.
If somebody doesn't step up andcreate a platform where you
could integrate the actualleaders and reality of Idaho,
the narrative and worldview thatpeople have of Idaho will be
(37:52):
taken over by whoever is talkingto them.
And you saw this last yearmultiple times.
But remember the water call.
Remember the cobalt mines inIdaho?
Nationally, people thought thefederal government was shutting
down Idaho farmers and farmingout the water resource to cobalt
miners for the Ukraine defense,whatever, total lie.
(38:12):
But where was the water board?
I didn't even know there was awater board until I invited them
on.
These are the problems thatwill absolutely destroy the
state as they have other places,unless people show up where the
individuals consuminginformation are.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Talk about the medium because it's really fast.
I mean it's awesome, it'spretty cool.
I mean the fact that a guy likeyou could come in and have
access to all these people thatwant to tell their story.
You do a great job interviewingthem.
I've told you that already.
I'm a huge fanboy here, but youdo a great job.
But these people aren't askedby anyone else.
Has that shocked you?
I don't think so.
(38:48):
I mean, you look at the list ofpeople you've had on and they
aren't being interviewed by anewspaper.
They aren't being interviewedby local TV stations.
They don't have a venue throughtheir organizations to get out
there.
They probably had a newsletterat some point 20 years ago, but
now they're out talking topeople and you know you've got
this viewership.
It's a really cool way thatpeople can now get connected to
(39:09):
their community.
That didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Well, here's the thing I don't know.
I don't know that it's entirelyaccurate that they're not being
asked.
I think there is a largedistrust, whether appropriate or
not, of legacy media.
I think there's an inherentfiltration problem with legacy
journalism.
If I interview you, and Iinterview you for 10 minutes or
whatever, I'm asking my set ofquestions and I go home and
write an article, there is aninherent filtration that happens
(39:34):
.
I select what I think isimportant, you know what that
happened to me this morning.
I don't want to say who this was, but I got interviewed by a
journalist this morning aboutthe BSU president search and I
don't like this guy.
I love Andrew.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
From my days it's not Andrew but from my days when I
ran for governor.
I'm going to just tell thestory because I don't care.
Sure, please Go.
Came in interviewed me.
I I'm going to just tell thestory because I don't care.
Sure, please go.
Came in interviewed me.
I think Matthew was in the roomLooked at his computer the
entire time he interviewed me.
This is a big interview, that'sgreat.
Like never looked up one timeand left and I thought, man, I
did a pretty good job and thenjust hammered me.
(40:09):
It was nothing Because you knowhow it is right and I'm like
that was my interaction andthat's what you took away from
it, so I've always been a littleleery.
Well, I did an interview withhim this morning for half an
hour on the president BSU search, because I'm on the committee
(40:30):
and as soon as he hung up.
I'm like man.
We'll see what this ends upturning Thursday, I'll know.
But that's the problem.
That's the problem.
Yes, that is the problem.
That story is going to be toldthrough the lens of that guy
about this whole thing and healready I could tell from his
questions he already knows whathe wants the narrative to be.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Listen you just articulated, and that's the
media.
This is it.
He's not a bad guy.
No, he's a bad guy.
I don't even know who he is.
He's a terrible person.
But that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
So it's not that people aren't being asked.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
It's that there's a problem with consumption, the
consumer of those articles, ifthey're worth their salt at all.
The consumer knows what'shappening.
So it's not that it's like, oh,you're just a random guy with a
podcast and like, oh, thisworks because they haven't been
asked.
No, no, no, they're askedconstantly for media appearances
.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
But the magic of what you do is the format too, just
letting people talk, sure, Ithink it's great, because when
you listen to people that comeon your show and I do the same
thing sitting with someone it'shard to hide authenticity, right
?
You know, within the first fewminutes, hey, people come in,
guarded sometimes, sure, butpretty soon you're like okay,
(41:39):
now we're talking.
Yeah, just relax, listen, we'rejust having a conversation and
it feels good to the listener tobe able to say hey, I just
authentically listened tosomeone about something and
they're telling me the truth,versus me reading something
that's been filtered throughsomeone that has a bias, right?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Right, so that's it.
So for me, this path has reallybeen one of you either have
value or you don't.
Okay, so you're going to bringvalue to your immediate
community, hyper-local, or youwill not.
Because if the idea three yearsago was, hey, what if I had
this state-level platform?
Okay, great, what are you goingto start by talking to the
state?
You don't know anything aboutthe state, right?
(42:20):
So my play was essentially look, if I can't add value literally
to my next door neighbor, I'mnot going to do anything.
So my first episode was with mybuddy who literally lived like
three houses down and we weretalking about like the HOA
meeting, right.
And then it's like a little bitbigger to the neighborhood
elementary school.
There was a problem with it.
It's like pushing out more andmore and focusing every second
(42:41):
on can you bring value to thisperson?
Is the guest going to walk awayand be like you know this was
great and you know who youshould talk to, and so again
pushing out.
All of a sudden it became allright.
You're valuable to the city ofEagle.
Okay, you're valuable to alittle bit more of Ada County.
Okay, you're valuable to boom,boom, boom.
And at this point they're likeCongressman Simpson's comms
people call.
(43:01):
They're like hey, are youaround next week?
Because there's value for himto have this.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Isn't he great.
By the way, I had him on minelast week.
I love that guy.
He's great, hey.
So what's next, though?
Like what?
Because we're already talkingfor 49 minutes.
Watch out, watch what's next.
As far as like for you, myinterview today.
No, no, like what's?
You're a smart guy like this,is you go back and look at how
you're doing this and and howit's produced and who you've got
on and where you're heading,and there's value here for for
(43:29):
people, and I think people knowit.
Um, I'm I'm hearing from youabout when you first started
this.
I started hearing from you,from a lot of friends saying,
hey, this guy, this is, this isreally something unique.
Where do you want this to go?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Exactly where it is.
I'm not going national.
The state of Idaho needs this,one of the biggest problems that
people start.
There are always nationalissues.
People are always talking aboutthe administration, there are
all of these problems, but if wedon't keep a lens focused on
Idaho, there will never be atime when we resolve issues.
(44:02):
We can focus on broader things,but that is going to betray the
necessity of attention locally,idaho state leaders and Idaho
prominent figures to Idaho in away that is never done before.
Like if you look at, if youlook at, rogan's platform and
(44:25):
connecting people worldwide,that's fantastic.
Well, look what if we couldjust get him to be here?
We'd be like, hey, could youjust do only episodes about
Idaho?
How great would that be?
Well, it'd be fantastic.
Well, he's not going to do that, right, because there's not a
large enough.
Somebody has to, yeah, somebodyhas to.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Hey, I think it's so good.
I mean, well, first of all, Ithink you're easy to listen to,
you're funny, you'reentertaining, you engage people,
you're authentic, and so Ithink that's the first key is,
do I want to get on and listento you, listen?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
to you.
It has to be voluntary.
I don't even care who yourguest is.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
I mean like the one I was looking at the other day.
I thought I don't even know whothat is, but I don't care and
it was actually really good youhad the new.
It was a professor fromUniversity of Idaho who was
doing a thing on policy.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Awesome McKay.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Cunningham.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, fantastic.
I didn't know who this guy was.
Yeah, college of Idaho.
Yeah, college of Idaho.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Anyway, I think you've hit a real niche that we
need.
So the Ranch Podcast you can befound anywhere right, yes,
exactly, youtube, instagram,tiktok, youtube everywhere.
Ranch Podcast.
What else there it is?
Speaker 2 (45:31):
McKay Cunningham, our constitutional crisis.
Yeah, he's fantastic and hishair was even better.
Yeah, it was great hair.
Yeah, he's a.
He's a handsome man.
Yeah, no, it was a fantastic,uh, conversation with him and
again he he was talking aboutbroader, broader national issues
and I was.
I was happy to have thatconversation because I thought
it was relevant to have, but he,he's also a college of I, who's
(45:54):
been the most surprising guestfor you I had this guy by the
name of Charlie Lyons CharlieLyons, charlie Lyons it was back
in January this year and he isa rancher, but he started the
initial rangeland fireprotection agencies in Idaho and
hearing his story of why heneeded that as a rancher and
(46:18):
what the problem was and it wasthis multi-decade long, such a
classically Idaho story, becausehere you have individuals
struggling for their existenceand they're trying to defend
their way of life and nosolution that could be found and
they figured out something todo on their own and it was a
(46:41):
take the problem, address theproblem, don't look for the
government for our solution.
And that, to me, has become themost, the most classic Idaho
story, which is there is no helpcoming and if we don't figure
this out, it's over.
And it was man.
He took me through a journey,man.
We were both like laughing andthen crying and then laughing.
(47:02):
It was wild.
I have to listen to it.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, it was great.
Well, if there's anything wecan ever do to help, let us know
.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Well, come on my show .
I'll come talk some trash.
Oh yeah, Come talk some trash.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
I.
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