Published in the Post Register.

When it comes to voting, we often pay attention to the “sexy” races at the top. We get excited every four years during a presidential election, but we often forget the importance of state races.

We heap praise or blame on the president, depending on our “team” and what’s going on, but in reality, a lot of what goes on in our lives is impacted by other players.

For example, whether your marriage is protected or whether you have bodily autonomy depends, at this point, on the laws Congress passes. Even the courts can throw a wrench in the process. President Biden’s student loan forgiveness is currently stalled in the legal system.

At the state level, we tend to get wrapped up in the governor’s race. But the fact that our cities can’t raise the revenue they need to provide adequate fire services is down to policies enacted by the state legislature. Rules governing whether your miscarriage must be investigated as “murder” are up to the state legislature.

Recent Supreme Court decisions are the results of laws passed in state legislatures. What goes on in the statehouse matters. A lot. Arguments scheduled for Moore vs. Harper are coming up on December 7. This Supreme Court Case will test whether a state legislature has the “right” to overturn the results of an election.

I’ve heard many people complain about our legislature not paying attention to our interests and needs. Many of our “representatives” are more interested in conspiracy theories and culture war than in property taxes and infrastructure. They complain of federal “overreach” while imposing draconian rules on our city councils and school districts. And now they’re going to be able to meet whenever they want, for however long they want, at taxpayer expense, thanks to the constitutional amendment that just passed.

Looking around, you might be wondering how we got here. “This isn’t who we are” is a common refrain. In the end, the people who show up are the people who decide what happens to the rest of us. And the people who have been showing up may or may not represent the majority opinion. There’s no way to know because, well, a large swath of the population isn’t making its voice heard.

Let’s look at some numbers:

• Idaho’s legislative districts are designed to have about 52,000 people (people of all ages, not just eligible voters) in each.
• There are roughly 36,000 people of eligible voting age in District 33.
• District 33 has slightly more than 23,000 registered voters.
• In the race for District 33, Seat A, just over 13,000 votes were cast.

About 36% of eligible voters decided this contest. They’re the people who registered to vote and then showed up at the polls.

Voting matters. And, in many cases, NOT voting has the potential to have a bigger impact. Passivity is what allows extremists and their champions and enablers in the state legislature to continue making the rules for the rest of us.

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized speaker, writer, podcaster and author. She is the Chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee

Miranda Marquit and Rep. Barbara Ehardt debated in September. Watch the debate and decide whose positions you better align with.

Published in the Post Register.

Where do we put our focus? To hear some local politicians, you’d think the most pressing issue we have in Idaho is George Soros funding drag queens in schools.

Of course, most of us know that George Soros probably doesn’t know what’s going on in Idaho—and certainly isn’t spending any money here. On top of that, rather than drag queens in our schools, we have a rather large teacher shortage.

If we could attract more teachers to Idaho, we’d be in a better position to hire qualified teachers, never mind what they do in their free time.

We know that Idaho teens have a high suicide rate, but rather than addressing mental health and providing adequate support, our so-called leaders are looking for ways to further marginalize already vulnerable teens. They pass ridiculous laws that don’t hold up in court while our children suffer.

They watch as extremists in northern Idaho threaten librarians and try to distract us by creating scapegoats out of a relatively small portion of our population. I’m not sorry to point out that actual extremists issuing death threats to librarians are a true threat to our republic (which is classified as a type of democracy).  Meanwhile, our current “representatives” would create a false moral panic around drag queens.

Give me a break.

Rather than addressing the 2016 property tax exemption mess the legislature created, they’d rather shift the blame to city and county governments—while restricting what our municipalities can do to solve problems. One of our current “representatives” spent time at a recent forum telling engaged and informed citizens that they didn’t know anything. She then proceeded to justify why it’s fine that commercial properties only bear 30% of the property tax burden while 70% falls on residential homeowners.

Our current crop of “representatives” is good at kicking the can down the road and shifting blame. They refused to take advantage of Medicaid expansion dollars from the federal government, only implementing this benefit for Idaho citizens after we demanded it through a ballot initiative. They refused to do the right thing and adequately invest in education—until, again, they were threatened with a ballot initiative.

Can we trust these same people to do the right thing with this education investment? The legislature is supposed to allocate the funds during the next session. But will those funds support the requirement in Idaho’s constitution to uniformly fund public education? I have doubts. They’re already talking about diverting money from public education and giving tax breaks for private education. Plus, basing it on sales tax? The last time the legislature based education funding on sales tax, they cut it back almost immediately.

Our “representatives” have a history of grandstanding, making bad policies for non-existent problems and trying to distract us with a made-up culture war. 

It’s time to invest in Idaho, its people and our communities. Our focus should be on holding elected officials accountable for their extremist views and policies, not letting them distract us with non-issues.

Miranda Marquit is a nationally recognized financial expert, writer, speaker and podcaster. She is the chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for state representative.

This op-ed appeared in the Post Register.

Our Idaho Democratic Party platform focuses on values. It’s simple and straightforward. Rather than parsing out pages and pages of specific policies, the platform focuses on what matters. In fact, you might be surprised to find much in common with the values stated in the platform.

This week, I want to focus on the first pillar of our platform: A quality education for every Idaho student.

“We believe in fulfilling our constitutional and moral obligation to fully and adequately fund public education. We believe that education is a life-long enterprise, and we support increasing access to technical and vocational training, higher education, job skills training and life-long learning opportunities.”

Our forebears accepted that education is necessary for civil society. Thomas Jefferson believed an educated populace essential to knowledgeable participation in public life — particularly in creating a well-informed citizenry. The authors of Idaho’s constitution thought it important enough to demand that our representatives provide a uniform public education.

Unfortunately, rather than focusing on a uniform education, our legislators have instead allowed extremists to dictate an agenda that tears down public education. Rather than building up schools, they suggest jailing librarians. Rather than encouraging knowledge and critical thinking, some school board members insist on banning books.

Meanwhile, we face a teacher shortage in Idaho. We don’t offer our teachers competitive pay or state-level loan forgiveness programs provided in other states. Our so-called leaders underfund education and then announce a budget “surplus.”

An investment in education yields dividends in safer communities, more knowledgeable citizens and better health. Research indicates that a good education — one that starts early in life — improves a variety of outcomes for individuals and communities.

Many Idahoans would rather see us invest in our children and our future rather than indulging in significant tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. Sure, it was probably nice to get that $75 or $150 extra in your bank account that one time. But is it worth it if we continue to underfund education and drive teachers away?

One of the top factors businesses consider when relocating is an educated workforce. In surveys of business owners, taxes don’t make the top three considerations when deciding where to locate. But here we are, in Idaho, with a bunch of “leaders” patting themselves on the back for a massive surplus and more plans to give tax breaks to their cronies.

Idahoans consistently list education as a top priority, but our legislators regularly ignore pleas to give education the boost it needs — especially in rural areas. It’s time for that to change. We have a chance to make our voices heard this November. We can vote on the Quality Education Act (Prop 1) requiring the legislature to do its job and take the first step toward adequately funding education. On top of that, we have the chance to get rid of representatives who pay lip service to education while voting to cut funding. It’s time for legislators who will put our money where their mouths are.

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized financial expert, writer, speaker and podcaster. She is the chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for State Representative.

This column appeared in the Post Register.

“[L]aws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. … We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Our laws have, in general, progressed as we have as a people as we attempt to truly live up to the lofty ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, our march through history is the story of various groups demanding their “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” be recognized by the government.

Our nation has always provided more rights and freedoms for some than for others.

For example, in the event of a disaster, public officials may plead with you to donate blood to save lives, but they can’t force you to violate your own bodily autonomy to save the life of another. If your blood or bone marrow would save the life of a two-year-old, the state would not force you to give up your bodily autonomy to save that life. No one would charge you with murder for letting that two-year-old die, even though you could have saved them with your body.

We recognize the right to bodily autonomy of corpses. You must be an organ donor to save lives with your body parts. Even if your organs could save five other lives, we have agreed that someone else’s right to life doesn’t supersede your right to bodily autonomy — even after you’re dead.

There are all sorts of ways we’ve stated that some people’s rights are more important than others. Some states decided that a person’s right to control their “property” was more important than another human’s right to life and liberty. As a result, we got a patchwork of laws that said your basic rights as a human depend on the state in which you live.

We just had a lavish celebration for a document insisting “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are “unalienable.” But in the past, we’ve restricted access to the ballot box, one of the best ways to maintain these rights. We put restrictions on whom consenting adults could marry — a major way our society recognizes the pursuit of happiness. All sorts of restrictions limiting access to these “unalienable” rights, from redlining practices to birth control access, mark our history.

The Supreme Court has, over time, recognized the importance of overturning precedents that limit these rights. Today’s Court, however, seems determined to return us to a situation in which your “unalienable” rights depend on where you live. Do we really believe that “states’ rights” supersede the rights of the individual for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” Are we prepared to return to a time when your “unalienable” rights are what a state legislature tells you they are?

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized personal finance expert, writer, speaker and podcaster. She is the chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for the state legislature.

This was published in the Post Register.

“This isn’t who we are.”

We say that a lot lately.

Many of us were relieved that a U-Haul full of Patriot Front men were detained, rather than being able to carry out an attack on a peaceful and joyful Pride gathering in Coeur d’Alene. We were even more relieved when it turned out that most of those men were from out of state.

It’s easy to look at out-of-staters with hate in their hearts and pat ourselves on the back, and proclaim, “This isn’t who we are.”

But remember: Someone we elected gave them a platform. One of our legislators hosted an event where her guests invited them in.

People we elected voted for legislation that would jail librarians.

Someone we elected signed a law that he knew — and said he knew — would cause great harm to people in our state.

And we elected the people that voted for and passed that law in the first place.

It’s easy to tell ourselves that we aren’t the kind of people who storm peaceful gatherings. We point to the people geared up in a U-Haul and say, “Whew, that’s not us. We would NEVER.”

The much harder task is to look at ourselves and whom we elect to represent us and look at the outcomes of their policies. We say a lot of things, but do our actions — and the actions of the people we elect to represent us — bear all that out?

We say we’re a state that values education. However, some of our own representatives, right here in Bonneville County, have voted to reduce funding to our colleges. Our elected representatives show great disrespect to teachers and refuse to fund education adequately. We have a teacher shortage in Idaho because we offer low salaries, aren’t among the states that offer teacher loan forgiveness and our elected officials pile on ridiculous rules for our teachers.

No wonder we have a shortage. Teachers can go to a neighboring state and make tens of thousands of dollars more — without all the hassle.

Rather than focusing on real issues like affordable housing, protecting our rights, funding education and conserving our public lands, our legislature has spent a lot of time in the last five years grandstanding, creating bogeymen and passing bad laws designed to harm already-marginalized Idahoans.

And we keep sending them back.

It’s not pleasant to look inward and see this inconsistency. In general, many of us don’t like to look at the hard truths about who represents us and the harm they do. It’s much easier to look at the extremists yelling slurs and brandishing weapons. We can say we’re definitely not them.

But have we thought about the kind of Idaho we want to be? And the people we need to elect in order to create that Idaho?

We say we want certain things, but we keep electing people who do none of it. At some point, we either need new representatives or we need to accept who we are.

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized financial expert, writer, speaker and podcaster. She is the chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee.

This was published in the Post Register

“You’re not one of those liberals, are you?”

The other patrons of the winery were talking amongst themselves and got to the “where are you from” stage of the conversations.

One of them said he was from California, but made it clear he wasn’t a liberal. He came because he wanted to be a “real” Idahoan.

The response?

“Well, we should be able to shoot liberals who aren’t real Idahoans.”

This got me thinking.

Whether or not the “consequence” of being “liberal” in Idaho was said in jest or not, what stood out to me was the idea of what makes some a “real” Idahoan.

In Idaho, we have a strong tradition of “purpleness.” Prior to extremists coming into Idaho from other states, it was not uncommon for Democrats and Republicans to have closer-to-equal numbers in the legislature. It was not uncommon to see Democratic governors like Cecil Andrus or be represented in Congress by well-respected (on all sides) Democrats like Frank Church.

Somehow, though, in the last few years, these extremist transplants have convinced too many people that “real” Idahoans align with their very narrow beliefs.

I keep getting told to “go back where I came from,” but, unlike many of these extremists, I did grow up here. What am I supposed to do? Move back to the west side? Because I graduated from Skyline High School.

Both Democrats and Republicans represent real Idaho values. Both Democrats and Republicans are real Idahoans. Transplants are even real Idahoans.

For decades, real Idahoans have valued education. For decades, real Idahoans have prioritized helping their neighbors. We had a huge outpouring of support from real Idahoans for Medicaid Expansion when our legislature refused. Real Idahoans want to invest in our communities by expanding access to opportunities for affordable housing and protecting the most vulnerable among us.

Yet, somehow, extremists have taken hold of the narrative of what a “real” Idahoan is — and it’s ugly.

In their minds, librarians should be jailed for doing their jobs. They think teachers deserve retaliation for telling the truth. And if you disagree, you’re some sort of leftie who doesn’t belong in Idaho.

But our traditions say otherwise. Here in Idaho Falls, we have a long tradition of strong women who founded our libraries and built our parks. These are women the extremists would deride as “too liberal” and “not real Idahoans.”

How did we get here? Why do these extremists who came here looking for redoubt paradise get to tell me, someone who grew up here with Idaho values, that I’m not a real Idahoan and I should leave?

It’s time to take our state back from the vocal extremist minority that has scared our elected officials into passing and signing bills they know are harmful. These extremists and their enablers are cooking up more bad policies for problems that don’t exist while ignoring the real Idaho values that would have us invest in our people, family and communities.

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized personal finance expert, speaker, writer and podcaster.  She is the Chair of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and candidate for state legislature.

Originally published in the Post Register May 20, 2022.

George Washington had a point when he warned us against getting too caught up in political parties. 

Our political system is increasingly difficult to navigate these days, especially when we look at primaries.

Political parties get to set the rules for their primaries in states like Idaho. The Republican Party closed its primary about a decade ago, forcing people to register as Republican or be unable to participate. New rules were instituted this year making it even harder to navigate how to participate.

(The Democratic primary remains open in Idaho.)

Other states offer different approaches, such as a top-two outcome regardless of party, or ranked-choice voting. Both of these approaches rely less on party affiliation and more on the voters responding to the candidates and their policies.

These systems also allow more people to participate, rather than locking people out. 

We’ve seen what happens with a partisan primary setup here in Idaho. These types of primaries favor extremists. Even though we like to say that extremists “aren’t who we are,” our legislature has been passing a lot of extremist laws in the last three years. Extremist lawmakers make up culture war “problems” and create bad policies to “solve” these non-existent issues.

Even though these extremists represent a minority of voters and people in Idaho, they carry out-sized influence. They don’t even have to be in the legislature to influence our laws and policies. 

There are enough moderates in the state legislature to stop some of the harmful (and often unconstitutional) legislation that we’ve seen passed in the last three years. However, these moderates worry about being primaried by extremists and the money their backers will pour into the race. So, it makes it easier to go along. Reluctantly vote yes for this bill. Pander a bit over there. Offer a little performative hand-wringing.

There might be sighs of relief now that this recent primary is over, but you have only to look at recent legislation to see that moderates haven’t stopped any of it — even though they could have. Much of the extremist agenda pushed by the IFF makes it through the House. A decent amount of it makes it through the Senate — and is signed by our governor.

All of this is enabled by a primary system that allows the few to push their agenda on the rest of us. Extremists are more likely to show up consistently in primaries, year after year. And, later, in the general election, people are more likely to just vote for their “team,” rather than assess whether the person running actually aligns with their values.

The entire party primary system we have right now favors rule by an extremist minority. And unless we push for change to this system, we will have more of the same going forward: Frenzied attempts to “save” Idaho during the primary, with our governor going back to signing extremist bills into law while wringing his hands and saying he wishes the legislature would send him something different.  

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized financial expert, speaker and podcaster. She is the State Committeewoman for the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee.

Published in the Post Register.

Let’s talk a little bit about family values.

We spend a lot of time insisting that we want to support families.

However, when you look at some of the policies that we have, it becomes clear that we talk a big game, but we’re not ready to invest in our communities and families.

If we genuinely supported families and were serious about family values, we wouldn’t tell people what their families had to look like. And we’d support policies that encourage thriving families.

When you get right down to it, though, it’s a lot of lip service and not much action.

We have the resources. What we lack is the willingness to prioritize family-friendly programs and policies that include:

• Parental leave
• Inclusive healthcare
• Childcare
• Early childhood education
• Affordable housing
• Uniform and accessible public education
• Access to comprehensive family planning

Idaho has some of the most restrictive rules regarding who qualifies for various programs. At the same time, though, we also have some of the lowest wages in the country. Even those making an average hourly rate in Bonneville County and working 40 hours have a hard time eking out a living, much less supporting a family.

Rather than pretending like people don’t want to work, our elected officials should acknowledge that most Idahoans want to work and provide for their families. Still, they need some help, especially in a state where wages don’t keep up with the cost of living. Instead of arguing over whether librarians should be put in jail, we should be addressing affordable housing and supporting early childhood education, which studies show results in long-term benefits to the safety and health of communities.

Supporting family values also includes investing in community resources. We should be expanding access to libraries and parks. The recent decision by the county library board to end the contract with the Idaho Falls Library is disappointing, as we could be working together to create a county-wide system that would benefit more patrons — and families.

It’s time for us to stop acting like family values center on whom you sleep with and what you’re doing — that doesn’t harm others — in the privacy of your home.

Family values are about supporting families. It’s about investing in our communities and people. Let’s stop pretending like we don’t have the resources. We do. It’s time to put our money where our mouths are.

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized financial expert, consultant, speaker and writer. She is the state committeewoman for the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for the state legislature.

Published in the Post Register.

It’s Financial Literacy Month.

I love this month because, well, as someone who makes a living by writing, podcasting and speaking about money, I don’t think enough can be said about this subject.

While bringing more attention to our relationship with money is an important part of understanding our finances, financial literacy isn’t a magic solution to some of the widespread issues we face.

By most commonly accepted measures, the economy is doing gangbusters. At a national level, the deficit is lower and the reported unemployment rate is at the lowest it’s been in decades. While we all hate the impact inflation has on our pocketbooks, it’s also a sign of an economy that’s heating up. 

Here’s the thing: the national economy is not your personal economy. Plus, no amount of financial literacy on the personal level can make up for the fact that, in our state, many of our elected officials have no interest in policies that would actually invest in our communities and support hard-working Idahoans. They’d rather underfund education and infrastructure for decades, call it a surplus and then give tax breaks to their cronies.

According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a four-person household with two adults working 40 hours per week the household could manage a living if they made a combined $22.82 per hour or $43,305.60 per year. PayScale.com says the average hourly rate in Idaho Falls is $17.36 per hour or $36,108.80 per year. 

Zumper reports that rent in Idaho Falls increased 15% since last year, and Zillow reports that the median price of buying a home increased 28.8% in the last year. That doesn’t even include what this does to property tax rates for seniors on fixed incomes.

You can’t financial literacy yourself out of these numbers. And yet our legislature spent more time this session baselessly attacking librarians and teachers than addressing our affordable housing issue — something we’ve been begging them to do since 2016 when the state legislature passed a terrible property tax policy.

When cities tried to step in and help, the legislature passed laws to prevent our municipal leaders from creating reasonable policies. Instead, they say, “get a better job.” But how do you do that when the same politicians also castigate you for getting student loans to pay college costs that have increased 179.2% in the last 20 years. “What about a trade?” There’s a nationwide shortage of trade instructors because they get more money outside of teaching. 

Unfortunately, mouthing empty platitudes about financial literacy and suggesting unrealistic “solutions” doesn’t actually help your personal economy.

We need real leaders at the statehouse who are ready to invest in Idaho and its people, rather than grandstanding on irrelevant culture war issues. 

Financial literacy is important, yes. But the research out there suggests that it’s not enough. We also need family-supporting policies surrounding childcare, education, leave and community resources to actually help most Idahoans improve their personal economies. 

Miranda Marquit, Master of Business Administration, is a nationally recognized financial expert, writer, consultant and podcaster. She is the state committeewoman for the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee and a candidate for state legislature.