{"id":2189,"date":"2011-11-22T11:39:26","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T18:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2011-11-22T11:39:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T18:39:46","slug":"idaho-governor-says-leaner-government-should-be-the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/11\/22\/idaho-governor-says-leaner-government-should-be-the-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Governor Says Leaner Government Should be the New Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the heels of the bipartisan supercommittee’s announcement<\/a> that it failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion in federal spending, Idaho’s governor decided to weigh in.\u00a0Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s<\/a> opinion piece, with the headline “Leaner, More Focused Government Must Be Our New Normal”, has already appeared in Roll Call<\/em><\/a> and has been distributed to media across the state.\u00a0 Here’s what he has to say:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>How can a largely rural western state of roughly 1.5 million people \u2013 a state whose Republican credentials are matched only by its almost contrarian sense of independence \u2013 possibly set an example of responsible governance for the rest of America?<\/p>\n

In Idaho, we did it by reassessing the proper role of government in people\u2019s lives. We did it by identifying what our Constitution and laws require government to do and eliminating much of what they don\u2019t. We did it by instituting zero-base budgeting and bringing business principles to government. We did it by making tough choices and difficult adjustments early in the economic downturn. And we did it by being cautious, prudent, and yes, conservative with taxpayer dollars in order to live within the people\u2019s means.<\/p>\n

The result was meeting the Idaho Constitution\u2019s requirement for a balanced budget each year, a nearly 20-percent reduction in the size of Idaho\u2019s general fund budget, and a leaner, more efficient and effective State government with an improved bond rating and a strong pension system for State employees.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t raise taxes. We didn\u2019t spend down our reserve accounts at the first sign of trouble. We didn\u2019t spend one-time federal stimulus money on continuing fiscal obligations. We avoided one-size-fits-all solutions and instead built more and stronger partnerships with the private sector to address such challenges as making affordable, accessible health care available to more Idahoans and \u2013 most importantly of all \u2013 improving on an already business-friendly economic environment to bring more career opportunities to our citizens.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy, and it wasn\u2019t always popular. We took plenty of heat along the way from those for whom growing government \u2013 and the sense of entitlement it inevitably fosters \u2013 had become a way of life during the years of economic expansion.\u00a0\u00a0 We listened to taxpayers, we worked to be more inclusive while overcoming hind-bound resistance to change, and we instituted sweeping reforms of our public schools to prepare our state and our students for an increasingly competitive global marketplace.<\/p>\n

The people of Idaho honored me with a second term in 2010 on a theme of \u201climited government; unlimited opportunity.\u201d My commitment now is to ensure the changes we made during the Great Recession become a permanent part of how Idahoans view government\u2019s role in their lives. It no longer can be all things to all people and or even their primary social safety net, but it can and should be part of a continuum of private and public assistance that begins at home and extends to families, social organizations and communities.<\/p>\n

My goal is for Idahoans to see their State government as more of a partner than a provider, more of a facilitator than a regulator, and more focused on educating and empowering citizens to find local solutions than on imposing its own from afar.<\/p>\n

We all remain hamstrung by gridlock and uncertainty in federal policies and the frailties of the global economy. That makes it all the more important that we put our own houses in order, be aggressive in addressing the issues we can handle on our own, and work to help people understand that this is not a matter of crisis management; it\u2019s our new normal.<\/p>\n

The sooner the federal government recognizes what we in Idaho know \u2013 that people are tired of rearranging deck chairs in Washington, D.C., tired of government that over-promises and under-delivers, and ready for fundamental changes in their relationship with government \u2013 the better off we all will be. — Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the heels of the bipartisan supercommittee’s announcement that it failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion in federal spending, Idaho’s governor decided to weigh in.\u00a0Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s opinion piece, with the headline “Leaner, More Focused Government Must Be Our New Normal”, has already appeared in Roll Call and has been distributed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":2192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[27,108],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2200,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}