Idaho’s Governor Race, Big Ag Machine & Budget Reality

Bob Neugebauer Welcome to the Idaho Pulse. This is your host tea party, Bob. Today, we’re going to speak with a gentleman that I have known and, uh, basically gotten along with pretty well. And I don’t get along with very many people. Uh, who’s going to join me in a conversation about Idaho and some of the things that are probably on the tips of everybody’s tongue nowadays. Uh, his name is Dylan Stocker, and this is a guy who knows a lot about old arms. Not that he is old and he has weak arms, but because he happens to be a collector of old firearms. So I’m going to introduce Dylan. We’re going to start our conversation. Let’s see where this goes because he just might become my new teammate on this show. Dylan, welcome to the Idaho Pulse. And thank you for joining us today.

Dylan Stocker Wow, Bob, thank you for the welcome it is. It is an honor to be here, especially for somebody that I know who has personally been involved in taking action in Idaho for, for twenty years now. Um, thank you. I’d love to love to talk all about Idaho.

Bob Neugebauer Where would you like to start, my friend? I’ll let you pick the first subject.

Dylan Stocker You know, it’s hot topics these days. Uh, it’s an election. We have a GOP primary transpiring right now. I’m personally involved in in an election I’m running. I’m not going to turn this show into that. But, uh, so I’ve seen a lot of things transpiring. But Bob, this governor’s election is turning interesting. It seems like everybody out there is just laid down and said, it’s just that’s just it. Brad Little, he’s got more money than anybody.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I’ll understand. That’s been the case for many years. We went. We went through literally four years of Otter as lieutenant governor. Then we went through, uh, who knows, uh, was three terms of him as the governor. Uh, and who did he bring in to fill that slot? Uh, as lieutenant governor, of course, Brad Little.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer Now, Brad Little, of course, is now our governor for two terms and looking for a third. But I asked you to look back at his history. Where does little come from? Little comes from an agricultural family. His great grandfather came over here as a sheepherder. As a sheep. Uh, what should I say? I guess it’s a sheep farmer

Dylan Stocker Wrangler.

Bob Neugebauer in many ways. Hey, Wrangler. Maybe. Yeah. He’s still trying to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes, so to speak. Um, but when you look at his perspective, he’s a guy who was basically born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Uh, he very seldomly has had to work very hard for much of anything. Twenty years prior to him getting into the legislature was spent as the chairman of Iaci. And of course, you know who it is.

Dylan Stocker Well, so let’s clarify that. That’s the Idaho Association for Commerce and Industry. That is big business, ladies and gentlemen.

Bob Neugebauer And so when you look at his experience and and you go back and look at somebody like Butch Otter’s experience who married into the Simplot family, largest landowners in the state, uh,

Dylan Stocker Indeed.

Bob Neugebauer probably one of the most wealthiest families in the state. Um, and, and he winds up as governor, uh, if you take a look at who we have had for governors just for the last, I don’t know, five terms. These are people who are all for big business. They do not care about small business, and they have done more to destroy our state, as far as I’m concerned, than any two people in the history of Idaho. And it’s only because they are trying to change it into something it was never meant to be. We have sixty two sixty three percent of our state’s land. That’s basically controlled by the federal government.

Dylan Stocker Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer We get thirty two million a year approximately for pills payments. Those pill payments are to go to our schools. We used to get a lot of that money from, uh, from logging, but we don’t have control of our forests anymore. And I will tell you, the Forest Service has no control over anything they do anymore because there are a bunch of idiots. If you

Dylan Stocker Well,

Bob Neugebauer take a

Dylan Stocker they’re

Bob Neugebauer look at

Dylan Stocker they’re

Bob Neugebauer how many

Dylan Stocker controlled

Bob Neugebauer fires.

Dylan Stocker by bureaucratic policy.

Bob Neugebauer Exactly.

Dylan Stocker And and you keep adding and adding and and we know how that goes.

Bob Neugebauer So we’re looking at another term. It looks like it from all from my perspective. Anyway, that little will get in one more time. Um. How badly? He will destroy Idaho for the next four years, I don’t know. Um, but it’s certainly within him to be able to do that, you have micron building a new plant. They can’t find enough concrete to build houses. Anybody realize that? No. Uh, you’ve got two AI data centers going in. Has anybody considered where are we going to get the electric or where are we going to get the water? No, we have all of this going on, and we are literally helping to finance these entities that supposedly are going to bring us into the future, but are sucking us dry of resources and I mean even human resources.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer So how do you change that without unless you can get rid of somebody like little in this election and make a turn for the better in this state, because I just don’t see how it’s going to happen. My own opinion.

Dylan Stocker Yeah, I mean, I, I really am not happy that I generally agree with you. But again, the whole point of us talking about this as people that are involved and do understand is to highlight the issues. And there’s a lot of words that speak to people. There’s one that comes out as growth is supposed to pay for itself, right? That’s, that’s been a, those are words when you’re at a county commissioner level, um, when you are at the real basic services level of, of all of our livelihoods, our growth is supposed to pay for itself. The Idaho state growth plan is let’s get the money in here as fast as we can and we’ll figure it all out later. Meta, you want to come? Great. We’ll we’ll give you some incentives. We’ll figure it out later. Micron, you want to come in? Great. We’ll figure it out later. Uh, wait a minute. A lot of people don’t understand this, Bob, is that in most counties, when a large development is going in, the Idaho Department of Water Resources or the District water master isn’t even counseled in the approval process to decide whether we have enough water for it. I mean, you and I could talk about water for a long time, but I’m going back to this election, the governor election. I fully believe in loyalty. I fully believe in organizing in a team and accomplishing a goal. That’s important. But once that organization starts to disrespect the civic process and include the people, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that’s what’s transpiring today. If you look at the. If the governor. Governor’s election, I think that every election should have a debate for a GOP primary or a Democrat primary. The primary should have debates. And right now there are no debates in. Mark my words. Brad Little will not engage in one. And it should be a part of the civic process. Currently, today there is one candidate, Mark Fitzpatrick, who’s a firebrand. He has some concerns about his business marketing practices, but regardless, he has two counties in Idaho that have endorsed him for governor. If we’re going to have a GOP primary where there are entire county entities supporting the Grand Old party, then I’m sorry. We must have a debate in order to engage in this civic process. When you look at the national, the local media transpiring, I can’t remember who said this, but it was actually Mark Fitzpatrick. Look, look what’s happening in local media. You have a very liberal news media system here in Idaho. Channel seven, channel six, channel two. All of it is general statesman. It’s all generally a liberally supported organization. We have a GOP, a a governor that is a Republican. Where is all the take down of the governor? They are a part of this too. Where where is the deep, hard questions that you would normally be getting from CNN to President Trump. There is an interesting organization that transpired and basically the Butch Otter, Brad Little organization, Idaho Association for Industry and Commerce machine that again, I respect in the creation of it, has grown to such a point where they now can completely disrespect involving the people. Because when you’ve got one point six million dollars in your election fund and the next closest candidate’s at about one hundred thousand bucks, the truth is, is I think we have a little bit of a surprise coming to Governor Little. I’m not suggesting there’s a chance that he loses, but one candidate, Mark Fitzpatrick, is out there every day. And when you look at the social media game that he has transpiring, when you look at the GOP or grand old party county entities that are welcoming him and, and endorsing him, The people are upset. And Brad, I think is about to make a mistake by not. He’s just like, I got this. Why do I even try? That’s a huge problem.

Bob Neugebauer Um, let me take you back for a few years, and we’ll take a look at the campaign that, uh, Labrador ran against,

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer uh, against little. Okay. And what did he do? He got Ahlquist join in the campaign.

Dylan Stocker Yeah,

Bob Neugebauer Who happens

Dylan Stocker it’s like

Bob Neugebauer to

Dylan Stocker a

Bob Neugebauer be

Dylan Stocker pro scenario.

Bob Neugebauer happens to be a Mormon. Okay.

Dylan Stocker Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer Now, when you look at the split on the vote, you have Labrador getting about thirty, thirty one percent. You have little getting about thirty seven percent, maybe a little more. And then you have Oquist taking another twenty seven percent. And the rest of it is kind of mixed. But what he did was he took that election away from Labrador.

Dylan Stocker One hundred percent.

Bob Neugebauer All right. So Okay, every time you think something is going to be a certain way, think twice, because that’s not necessarily the way it goes. It was similar to when utter and I was very involved in this campaign. Fulcher was trying to take Otter out in his third term, and we came real close. We won all the big counties, all the big spots, but we lost in the areas that Otter happened to be strong in. And these are the old line Idahoans who don’t particularly care for change. Okay.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer And plus that, you know, Fulcher was not a big deal out in eastern Idaho. Eastern Idaho is a big part of what happens here. And this is where all the dairy is. This is where all the farming is. This is where all the real big money from agriculture is. Then you

Dylan Stocker Absolutely.

Bob Neugebauer think back. You think back about where these guys came up from. They came up from agricultural powerhouses. All of the ones that have been the governors of these of this state have had that big AG behind them. You can’t get elected without it. Think about the number of. People we have now in our state legislature that are out there talking up different scenarios because that’s what they’re paid to do. There are six hundred and ninety six of them. You know how many times that is our legislature?

Dylan Stocker Uh, that’s. I’ll just say you’ve got the answer. Hit me.

Bob Neugebauer Five times. Almost.

Dylan Stocker Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer Okay. Those are the people running around saying, buy this product, buy that product, buy my product, buy the other product.

Dylan Stocker Well, let

Bob Neugebauer I

Dylan Stocker me let

Bob Neugebauer mean.

Dylan Stocker me throw a couple of points at you with that one. I grew up, I, I drove truck in the spuds in eastern Idaho. Okay. They let the high schools out for two weeks out of the year. Seventeen year old kids running around and, you know, thirty, forty, fifty thousand pound trucks delivering spuds. I’ve witnessed it. Okay. And you’re one hundred percent right. But let’s remind all the listeners out there the basis for big AG, these people are subsidized with tax dollars. They’re not out there just being inherently successful with their potatoes or their cows or their sheep or anything like that. They are being fed money with tax dollars to grow in that powerful strength. And then they’re left with the the tremendous land ownership. Uh, if you thought the movie or the TV show, um, oh my goodness, with Kevin Costner. My gosh, how could I, uh, forget about Montana and ranching and him becoming governor? You know, if you thought that that was a thing for that TV show, might as well be Idaho. But it’s all about the good Ole boys maintaining control of the of all the the subsidies that they get, and then continuing to get more subsidy from the big business for having that control.

Bob Neugebauer How much do you think the government subsidized farms, farmers, agriculture. Last year.

Dylan Stocker I, I should know the answer to that.

Bob Neugebauer Thirty billion dollars.

Dylan Stocker One hundred percent.

Bob Neugebauer So I’d say that’s a pretty substantial amount of money. I’d say

Dylan Stocker That’s

Bob Neugebauer that they

Dylan Stocker a.

Bob Neugebauer have something to say in this state. If they’re

Dylan Stocker It’s

Bob Neugebauer getting

Dylan Stocker a substantial

Bob Neugebauer that kind of money.

Dylan Stocker amount. The.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker Another point that I’ll add, because I love picking up off of you. Our producer is a deep researcher and he made a very simple point. Since eighteen seventy three, you can look at congressional transcripts of what was said in the legislative of meetings that bills are being created between legislators and lobbyists in Idaho today, and the argument for not transcribing that was the cost in Idaho, or we’re just a little state. We can’t do that. Well, now, in the advent of technology, we can transcribe the conversation between the lobbyist and the legislators for about one hundred and sixty bucks. If we knew the conversations that were happening in the room as the bills were being created and where the chips are lying, and who this giant game of poker that’s being played at the expense of us, not them, things would be quite different. And so when you mention those six hundred and sixty lobbyists or what have you, that’s that’s again, these are just tidbits. These are just morsels of why we now have a state government that has grown in too much power and flex too much power to the point where we have a governor’s election of the state that completely just disregards the actual civic process that made America was what it is today.

Bob Neugebauer Understand we don’t have a civic process anymore. What we have is a lobbyist process.

Dylan Stocker One hundred

Bob Neugebauer It’s

Dylan Stocker percent.

Bob Neugebauer what that that’s that’s what we are living with right now. It’s the reason that Metta got a fifty million dollar tax break. It’s the reason that, uh, the other data center got a fifty million dollars tax break. It’s the reason. I mean, it’s the reason for almost everything is some lobbyist sold the idea to our legislators who, as far as I’m concerned, in many cases are dumber than stones because they don’t understand what they’re doing to the people in this state. You wonder why housing is the price it is. It’s because of the influx of people coming in here. It’s

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer because they need more workers yet. I built my house five years ago. Cement was selling, concrete was selling at sixty eight dollars cubic foot. You know what it’s selling for now? Over

Dylan Stocker I don’t.

Bob Neugebauer two hundred, over two hundred dollars. That’s in six years.

Dylan Stocker Yeah. Talk about inflation. Uh, what’s the what’s the calculated percentage of that? Everybody hears inflation at like, you know, three, four, five, six percent. The real, real, real inflation as you really look at individual chunks that impact people’s lives is in double digits.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah, I agree. And the problem is, nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Uh, we just want to keep growing and growing. Growth is good, but it has a price. We are paying the price here. The people who are in the lower economic strata are paying the price for what’s going on in our in our state right now.

Dylan Stocker Well, let’s,

Bob Neugebauer For what

Dylan Stocker let’s

Bob Neugebauer has

Dylan Stocker bring

Bob Neugebauer happened.

Dylan Stocker that let’s bring that up to. A top level, right? So I, I’ve, I’ve done a little bit of research and I’m like, Bob, I get some of my information from you because you, you practice every day and you have a very well called out the fact that Idaho’s budget in Brad’s term has grown by somewhere around sixty percent since twenty nineteen, where.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker So the the basic questions that some people would ask well would be, well, has our population grown by sixty percent? It hasn’t. Okay, well, where are we getting the money for all of this? It’s not from property tax or sales tax. We’re getting money from the federal government, um, which comes with a lot of strings that people don’t understand. But here’s, here’s the thing for people to realize wherever you’re listening to this from, if you’re in, a county that is not Canyon or Ada or Kootenai or Latah or Bonneville, those are our five largest populated counties. If you’re in forty nine of the other counties, you probably would make an EMS phone call, an emergency phone call, and might get a pickup time in an hour. You have very basic your services of your roads. Um, the county’s entire budget against that fourteen point six billion dollars. All of the counties combined total somewhere around a billion. That’s about a one to twenty different of state spending money versus the counties. Okay. Break that down. Well, those five counties that I just mentioned take up over half of that billion dollars. So, okay, ultimately, Idaho is exacerbating growth. They did pass a bill called House Bill three eighty nine that limited tax. Property tax on. Here you go, ladies and gentlemen. Ready. New construction. So all you people that have been out there paying your taxes for about ten, twenty, fifty years, no change. New construction. Let’s bring in a lot of new people. Build a bunch of homes and give them a bunch of discounts. It’s quite obvious what’s transpiring here, Bob. And

Bob Neugebauer The developers own the state.

Dylan Stocker yeah,

Bob Neugebauer The developers

Dylan Stocker it’s quite

Bob Neugebauer have

Dylan Stocker obvious.

Bob Neugebauer always owned the state for the last twenty five years, and I’ve seen it happen. I see it happen every place, you know, sit on a P and Z committee for a couple of years and and you see some of the things that actually go on underneath the blanket, right underneath the covers, uh, the deals that are made, uh, the power plays that are made. It’s scary. Uh, most people have no idea of the changes that they would like to take place in this state. When you look at the total amount of tax dollars that California receives a year, it’s three hundred and fifty billion. Okay. That is divided amongst three hundred and fifty. Excuse me. That’s divided amongst forty million people that live there. In Idaho, we have fourteen billion dollars. That’s divided amongst approximately two million people. So in California per person, they spend eight thousand five hundred dollars. In Idaho, we spend seven thousand. Now, does that tell you something?

Dylan Stocker Well as yes, it’s there’s what people say and then there’s what people do. Right? Um,

Bob Neugebauer Absolutely.

Dylan Stocker as a small business, if anybody’s listening, if you’re a small business, please tell me at any point in the last twenty years that you specifically got state support or some incentive for being a better small business. It hasn’t happened once. I know because I run a small business, but if you’re HP, which I’ve been involved in this, if you’re HP and you want to bring a brand new training center into into Idaho, Idaho, Idaho would subsidize or pay for all the training dollars of all those employees for up to three months and offer tax credits. And I get it, I get it. That sounds pretty wise. It’s like, hey, we’ve just welcomed a very wonderful large technology company. It’s going to, you know, increase the types of jobs here in Idaho. But yes, they are successfully growing. They’re successfully bringing big business in and they’re growing it, growing it, growing it, but they’re all of the spending goes back to themselves in the big business. Please show me where it comes back to the individual. Why is it? Here’s another one for you in Boise County. Boise County generates somewhere between ten and eleven million dollars worth of sales tax. That all goes to the state. Their county budget is six point five million dollars. To provide sheriff, EMS, roads, courts, prosecuting attorney and all of what the government should just be based on. That’s all coming from property tax. So these people that are an older generation are struggling in property tax. It’s putting people out of their homes in Idaho, is exacerbating the growth of tourism into this county to where it can barely support itself. And it just takes the eleven million dollars and goes and spends it on daycares.

Bob Neugebauer Well, what do you think about the four hundred and some odd million that we spend on illegals every year?

Dylan Stocker Four hundred million dollars. And

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker my my wife and I had to call nine one one in November of last year and was quoted a two hour wait time. I had to drive my wife from Lowman to Boise. If I had to have happened to had a couple of beers and made a bad decision. You know, we we’ve got a state that is touting themselves as the best business state and least regulated, and we can’t even get our people to the hospital.

Bob Neugebauer I agree with you. We’re having a big fight up here now about our, uh, our local, uh, district for fire and EMS and, uh, they’re wanting to go in a different direction than the county. Now, mind you, I’m in Adams County and Adams County. You have three districts right now. Council, new Meadows and Brundage and Brundage supplies their own equipment and their own people. All right. Why aren’t they all under one administrator? To save about one hundred grand a year. No, we’re not, because everybody wants their own fiefdom.

Dylan Stocker Yes,

Bob Neugebauer When you have

Dylan Stocker one

Bob Neugebauer your.

Dylan Stocker hundred percent.

Bob Neugebauer It’s. You cannot pay for it. You cannot tax people the amount of money it’s necessary to pay for all three separate districts. You need to consolidate, you need to combine, you need to, uh, you need to make, uh, what should I say? You have to give in a little to get a little. And a lot of the people in these different areas, uh, different cities don’t want to give anything in. They want their own particular, uh, county or their city fire department and EMS. Why down here? We have thirty people who are involved and get paid for every time the fire department goes out or the EMS goes out. I mean, it’s almost like a second job for them. They don’t make a lot of money here in, in, in, uh, New Meadows. All right. And the same thing is in, in council. My whole point here is that no, the counties don’t get taken care of. They are poor. We have more poor rural counties than I would guess any other state in the Union. And the reason is they waste all of their money and spend all of their money on these different projects. And if you do a deep dive into the money that has been thrown away literally for the last, even the last two to three years, you can take a look at the Luma project, which is a new accounting, purposeful project that they have had there. It’s well over one hundred million. It still doesn’t work. They’re going to spend another one hundred million on it now. Does that make any sense to you? We have a health care data exchange. It’s supposed to be funded by ninety three million dollars. No one knows where the data exchange is nor where the money went. So my point is, is that We have more waste in our state than you can shake an elephant at. Nobody wants to admit it. They are all scared to admit it. And if there were ever a forensic audit done of our Health and Welfare department and our accounting for all the things that we spend here, we would fail terribly, miserably. You think it’s bad in Minneapolis? Oh, wait till they do. Boise in Idaho.

Dylan Stocker I mean, they’re hiring down there at Health and Welfare, right on Fairview Avenue. Bob, you could move down here instead of trying to beat them. Join them. Sir. I mean, you could go right to the top. Um.

Bob Neugebauer Thank you.

Dylan Stocker So it’s I think it’s truly I think it’s truly hard to see through all of what is happening. But we can go back to looking at the essence of the actions of our state leadership. Okay. These are things that you are associated to or understand, but you have our last election with Brad Little, where Ammon Bundy had come to earn seventeen percent of the vote. Well, look what happened to Ammon Bundy. The.

Bob Neugebauer Don’t. Don’t challenge the establishment. That’s

Dylan Stocker Don’t

Bob Neugebauer what.

Dylan Stocker challenge the establishment

Bob Neugebauer That’s what it

Dylan Stocker or

Bob Neugebauer is.

Dylan Stocker it will crush you. Let’s

Bob Neugebauer Yes.

Dylan Stocker look what happened to Mark Fitzpatrick and I. The only reason why I talk about him is he’s the only thing that I’ve seen, and I’m. I’m studying the candidates. I’m. I’m a person that wants to know. Um, Mark Fitzpatrick took the playbook of Nick Shirley and went and started knocking on doors of daycares. He videotaped and recorded twenty five different daycares that were doing exactly the same thing in Minneapolis. There was there was no kids there. It is happening in Idaho right after Mark Fitzpatrick published that information. His businesses were sales audited, sales tax audited immediately. And it’s like, okay, so I’ve got more than one business that just randomly came up to a sales tax audit. So he did a Freedom of Information Act request to ask why. And the guy on the phone was like, well, it’s just routine. This is just what we do. But in the Freedom of Information Act request that generated why the little box that says the reason that tripped this is redacted. There’s one hundred percent lawfare transpiring and he’s posted all of this again. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And there is a money machine that the Idaho State government is in control of. Ask yourself why grocery tax has not been repealed. You could can unpack that all day long and it’ll tell you every story that you need to know. And it ultimately boils down to, um, I think it might possibly be a machine that even Brad Little can’t control himself. I think that even Brad Little, if deep down in Brad Little’s heart somewhere, he’s like, man, I know that I shouldn’t be doing this, but if I don’t comply, I will be the gobbled one. And

Bob Neugebauer Do you think?

Dylan Stocker that

Bob Neugebauer Do

Dylan Stocker that

Bob Neugebauer you

Dylan Stocker is the problem that we have.

Bob Neugebauer do you think Brad Little actually is in charge?

Dylan Stocker One hundred percent. That’s exactly what I’m saying. I that’s precisely

Bob Neugebauer He

Dylan Stocker what I’m

Bob Neugebauer in

Dylan Stocker saying.

Bob Neugebauer most cases, he doesn’t even know what the heck is going on. Okay. He has a group of people up there who make the decisions for him. And all of those people are involved in big business, corporate tag, you name it. They make the decisions. He does not. You look at this guy, he can’t debate for one reason. He doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. Here’s a man who has been pumping money into our education system for eight years, almost eight years now. Has it improved? No,

Dylan Stocker No.

Bob Neugebauer the answer is simply no. We are still number forty seven in the country in public education. When they put up a bill to have school choice, we had two hundred and sixty eight thousand students in our public schools. They are permitting ten thousand of those students to be able to use this new public, this new private school system where they get money back from the government. Not only that, but the cost to send a child to a public school is about five thousand dollars more in real numbers than it is for a private school?

Dylan Stocker Well and why bureaucracy. Right.

Bob Neugebauer Yes,

Dylan Stocker I mean,

Bob Neugebauer exactly.

Dylan Stocker we can it’s it’s number one ish. It’s certainly a top issue of the Idaho voter. It should be about the corruption. I mean, it should be about the corruption. I’ll say that one more time. It should be about the corruption. It’s obvious folks. However, show me where there is a CEO of any. I’ve said this before. Show me where there’s a CEO of any company that came out and spent more than anyone and generated the same or less of a result and wasn’t fired within a year’s period of time. And so we have a government machine that is now protecting him from that accountability. And in in the you look at the control of Dan Foreman, who roared a bill about not forcing teachers to pay for the unions and taxes. You know, tax tax money funding these unions. Brad Little is effectively I hate the word rhino Republican in name only. I hate it. But look at what’s transpiring. He is, in my opinion, like you said, a puppet to the machine just like Joe Biden. He is pumping money into public education as if it’s a wonderful thing when ultimately is the worst use of our tax dollars ever. Because why we only track a result, not an activity. Any business in the country focuses metrics on the activity. Activity times effectiveness equals results. We don’t get the result until that year is already over and it’s too late. And so we’re at the top level are really like, well, which schools have the greatest attendance percentages? Which schools have the greatest homework turned in on time. We. None of the activity is tracked in these ratings and so at the end of the day, we’re left with a very poor result and somehow, where is if I if I if I’m Brad Little, I’m like, I just spent, you know, six point seven billion dollars on education, whatever it is. And the results didn’t change. Why am I not out bumping out every administrator and being like, you better make a change and I better see some results or you are out and these people are getting paid a quarter million, three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand dollars a year.

Bob Neugebauer To give you a better idea of how excuse me, how our money is being spent, we have something called the launch program. You know what that is?

Dylan Stocker I do, and I will

Bob Neugebauer Okay.

Dylan Stocker say this because it’ll come back to me. My daughter participates in the launch program today.

Bob Neugebauer Uh, do you know the corporations, uh, that are involved in this launch product that sit on the board of this launch product and they decide what the curriculum is going to be.

Dylan Stocker No, no, I definitely have a lot to learn about launch.

Bob Neugebauer Okay. We spend seventy million dollars a year in this program. We are basically a, I guess we’re a training ground for the corporations that run this program that are on the board for this program. Instead of them paying to have their people trained, the taxpayer is paying them to be trained. Is that the purpose of having our taxes go to something like this? I would prefer you take that seventy million, put it into private schools, because when you have competition and you have real competition, the whole basic education system changes for the better.

Dylan Stocker I got I gotta take you back on that one, though. Bob. Sorry. I’ve got to defend. Um, they took that seventy million dollars from the taxpayer taking it from, from Peter and giving it to David or, or Joan shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t have been money taken in the first place because that money allowing the competition I one hundred percent support. But taking the money in the first place is, is the problem that we’re dealing with today. It’s it’s any time we have anytime we have an entity that can’t survive without its government, then we are a socialist entity, which is essentially Idaho as a state government by itself. Take the federal dollars away and all of the two hundred and eighty nine agencies that you talk about would disappear. Uh, because so it, it is, it is a problem of that connection to its own success.

Bob Neugebauer Well, you’re talking about taking away are somewhere in the neighborhood of six million dollars. Five million dollars. Uh, the state could not survive.

Dylan Stocker Absolutely.

Bob Neugebauer It would.

Dylan Stocker Absolutely.

Bob Neugebauer It literally would have to slash, uh, agency after agency. The Constitution only calls for us to have twenty three agencies. Why do we have one hundred and eighty nine?

Dylan Stocker It’s it’s it does get back to that thing where it makes you feel like you’re taking crazy pills. But unfortunately, when. We when an organization grows beyond. Accountability and ultimately and controls all of the levers, which is media. All of the taxing solutions can crush anything in its way effectively. Idaho. Idaho is is not a red state. Bob. We know this Idaho. If we look at the activity of our governor and our state leadership, we have government supported education. We have government supported childcare. We have government supported agencies. Um, none of these things can survive without the government money. It’s and because it’s taxing everything so hard that what it gets to get to itself. Uh, that sounds like socialism.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker That

Bob Neugebauer Socialism.

Dylan Stocker is just

Bob Neugebauer And we we become a nanny state.

Dylan Stocker we are, we are a nanny state. And, you know, when you’re at the top, it’s, it’s pretty powerful. I think going back to what I started with the government, the, the governor’s election, I honestly really believe that the efforts of one of these candidates is going to highlight the fact that people, the real conservative person, again, we have entire county, um, Committees and entities that are over it. We have word getting out, and I do fear for this for any one of these candidates that go out and they highlight the chink in the armor and mark my words, you’re going to see lawfare. How many people are of this state that are really conservative, are upset about the federal level lawfare that transpired to President Trump?

Bob Neugebauer Do

Dylan Stocker They

Bob Neugebauer you think

Dylan Stocker are

Bob Neugebauer that

Dylan Stocker very

Bob Neugebauer doesn’t

Dylan Stocker upset

Bob Neugebauer exist

Dylan Stocker about

Bob Neugebauer here?

Dylan Stocker it. Say

Bob Neugebauer Do you

Dylan Stocker that.

Bob Neugebauer think that does? Do you think that that doesn’t exist here?

Dylan Stocker Oh, that’s precisely what I’m highlighting. And it. We’re going to see a proving. We’re going to see. Just before a bear dies. When you shoot a bear in the woods, when you shoot it with a bow and arrow, there is a gasp. There’s a one final gasp. It’s unique to the bear. You know when it’s time to come out of the tree stand, when that bear finally lets its last. And in this governor’s election, the gasp of the actual Republican conservative is going to breathe out. And you having lived in Denver, Colorado, when just before it turned into what it is today. It’s the same playbook we’re getting played, my friend.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I don’t disagree with you. And I will tell you that, um, Idaho is not the only state that a lot of this is happening to. We just happen to be one of them, but we happen to be one of those states where we don’t actually control our own destiny. When you have sixty two sixty three percent of the land owned by or controlled by the federal government, you’re basically at their mercy, which is one of the reasons we get forty percent of our state budget from the feds. They understand that.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer And that’s the reason we get the payments for our education system. But I will tell you, when you look at it from a dollar and cents point of view of our budget, five point five billion goes to Medicare, Medicaid, the another three and a half billion goes to, uh, our education system, which of course is failing, but evidently, so is our Medicare system and Medicaid system because we have too many people on it that don’t belong on it. That is that’s not a failure of the systems themselves. It’s a failure of the government to control them and to organize them properly.

Dylan Stocker Now I challenge you. That’s a success of our current government. That is currently a, a thing of, of operational strength. Because when you have an entire needy body of people that require that social service to survive. You have just built in your voter base, which is a Democratic playbook. That

Bob Neugebauer Thank

Dylan Stocker is

Bob Neugebauer you.

Dylan Stocker why there are illegals here. That is why that that is happening. The whole point is, is that it is by design. It is

Bob Neugebauer Yes.

Dylan Stocker not a it is not a Republican system. And so what do we do about it, Bob? We’ve always talked. You know, I feel wonderfully supported by somebody who helps us with information that’s like, okay, okay, okay. So what’s the solution? I mean, awareness is the first step to change and we have to

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker look for our opportunities. And right now that opportunity is to push and drive for a debate. It is not about the checkbook. If we all want elections by checkbook, we’d have Kamala Harris.

Bob Neugebauer Well,

Dylan Stocker Okay.

Bob Neugebauer hold on a second. Just before you get into the checkbook, how many employees does the state have?

Dylan Stocker Thank you. They’re the largest single employer in the state of Idaho.

Bob Neugebauer How many employers do they have?

Dylan Stocker Oh, you’re

Bob Neugebauer How many employees?

Dylan Stocker you’re you’re you’re killing me with bad radio by asking questions

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker that I don’t have the answer to. So I’ll be the fool

Bob Neugebauer Alright,

Dylan Stocker here. Go ahead.

Bob Neugebauer I’m going to give you the statistics. It’s somewhere around thirty six thousand, including the teachers. Okay. When we pay the dues for. By the way. Okay.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer If you take all of those people and you take their husbands or wives and relatives, okay? And then you take all of those people who are on Medicare and get a subsidy or a stipend from our health and welfare department. You’re talking about the swing vote in this state. That’s why we continue to have the same people in office year after year. It doesn’t change much unless Iaki decides they’re going to put some money into something and change it. Look at somebody like Lanita Zuiderveld late

Dylan Stocker She’s

Bob Neugebauer conservative.

Dylan Stocker going down.

Bob Neugebauer Oh, yeah. Great conservative. Yet you find that the Dairymen’s Association has gone up against her. Not in a political sense, but in a business sense, since they happen to be in the business of selling product to the dairy organizations. The products that they use on a daily basis, they’re not going to buy from them anymore if they can help it. Now

Dylan Stocker And.

Bob Neugebauer you see how this whole state is controlled.

Dylan Stocker Yeah. And what we call it is democratic socialism, Bob. That’s the whole point

Bob Neugebauer Right.

Dylan Stocker is that’s that’s the guys that is the wonderful life that they have been able to express. Now, other issues, unfortunately, the independent nature of Republicans. You’ve heard every national pundit talk about this is that the Democrats organize in the most tremendous ways. Believe it or not, Brad Little has accomplished this through Kelly, Anthon through Guthrie, um, through foreman, through these people that are able to desk desk legislation that are created by real conservatives and get trashed, essentially are essentially the Democratic playbook is being utilized in Idaho in such a way. And right now you have finally the basis for the real conservatives to try to come back and fight it. I’m not saying the names I’m about to name are. I’m not saying I know them or I understand that they are guided by all the principles. I’m just looking at what I see. But you have Idaho’s Gang of Eight that is coming together as a actual conservative force to fight this, beast that has been created. You now have organizations like honor Idaho, Idaho Freedom Foundation, and you have these people that are finally getting it. It’s like, look, all of these people are coming out and fighting it with their one little sword and being maybe a little bit right. But if you don’t put all the swords together and all the carts together and everything together, I do believe, Bob, that that that light collection of people to battle it are coming together and starting to strategically finally maybe expose what’s happening here.

Bob Neugebauer I spent six years as a precinct committeeman. Excuse me? I went to all the meetings, all the Republican meetings. I sat through all of the BS that they were pumping out, and finally came to the conclusion that there was no real unification. There was those who wanted to be the gurus. There were the wannabes who wanted to move up and change things. And then there were the people like me, who were the grunts who did the groundwork. But net net, you have three factions within the Republican Party. There is no one entity. The only one entity that you could say might be Republican is the group that are supported by the corporations and the people. And that is all about Iaci.

Dylan Stocker Yeah. Once again, you called them Republicans. They’re clearly not acting as such. But because that money is all, that money is all in the name of the of the organization itself, not the people that it’s designed to support as this country is to support the people, not the, the, uh, the, the controllers, if you will.

Bob Neugebauer Look, they’re trying to do the same thing to Dorothy Moon that they did to, uh, Mr. Peterson, who used to be our former RNC chief and what they tried to do. The Labrador remember in the last election when Labrador was running the Republican group? This hierarchy that I talk about, they backed a Democrat to run for AG, not Labrador.

Dylan Stocker I. I mean, how many times do we need to prove the case, right?

Bob Neugebauer Exactly. But nobody seems to care.

Dylan Stocker Well, it’s funny, so I’ve lived in Idaho my whole life. I was very surprised. I have a gentleman who is a dear friend of mine. He’s eighty seven years old. He’s been involved in Idaho for a very long time, and he is big AG in Twin Falls. He has more land in that area than anybody and all the way up until Covid. He’s a Democrat. There is a difference between the old Democrat and the New Democrat. And he admitted that to me and I’m like, whoa. His name is Jean. I’m like, Jean, are you serious? I’m a young, easily influenced person, so I’m just I’m naive. I just assume I’m like, you’re a farmer. You’re you’re a rancher. You’re you’re a conservative. I mean, is he know the entire state of Idaho if we do go back and remember, was it was led by a Democrat governor at one point,

Bob Neugebauer Absolutely.

Dylan Stocker and those people were also big AG. And this gentleman, when he told me that, it blew my mind. And then he watched what happened in through Covid. And he’s like, yeah, I was I was Democrat. I mean, this is a just a heart and gold good old boy. And he’s guided by good principle and he’s, oh, I can’t, I can’t do that anymore in the name of Covid. But again, my point is Idaho is controlled by a big, big AG was controlled by Democrats in Idaho for a very, very long time. They

Bob Neugebauer So what

Dylan Stocker only

Bob Neugebauer does that tell you?

Dylan Stocker they only changed their name

Bob Neugebauer Yes.

Dylan Stocker to represent. And that’s a fact.

Bob Neugebauer Yes, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. And that’s a point that everybody should get to recognize. The Democrats of old are the Republicans of today. They have not really changed their venue. They are still there. It’s like a zebra. They never can change their stripes. They do the same things over and over. Might be a different name, but it’s the same thing.

Dylan Stocker I’m going to throw one out for you, Bob. I’ve got. Okay. So again, I think that we I don’t think that we’re one hundred percent right about everything. And anybody that thinks they are, are a fool and you should get away from them. I think that we definitely study. I think that we look at it, we have business experience. I think that you and I in what we’re talking about today is very, very real thing. If anybody’s listening, go dig into what we’re talking about. Any one of those subjects, what are we going to do about it? I believe the biggest opportunity today is to let’s have a GOP primary debate. Let’s let this happen. And if your governor doesn’t show up, let’s let’s get a debate together, Bob. I’ll help organize it. And whoever decides not to show up, that’s your. Okay. We’re going to do it anyways. And this one candidate had the opportunity to answer the questions and call it all out. Um, we’ve got to start giving these other intelligent voices a way to speak. And if the one side of it doesn’t want to show up, well, then I guess you got your answer.

Bob Neugebauer Oh, just don’t do it in New Meadows. We’re only going to get five or six people to show up.

Dylan Stocker We can do it all on the internet, my friend. We’ll get every dang one of them to show up.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah. Unfortunately, uh, the biggest problem is getting people to show up. We had the same problem with the tea Party for many years. Um, when you, uh, when you take a look at the last voting that we just had even up in our small town here, we have five hundred people in the New Meadows town. We have another three hundred that live in Meadow Creek, all right. And the surrounding area. So out of those who actually went out for a special election to raise more money for the schools,

Dylan Stocker Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer twenty five percent showed up.

Dylan Stocker Yeah. I mean it’s disappointing, right? That’s a that’s

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker a essence of the public school system is winning. There should be an entire semester or year just on the concept of elections and its importance, right? The concept of voting and why the concept of the Constitution and what it’s actually based in. And the. The public school system and its organization, of which Idaho spends more than any single other line item in its budget, is winning.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah, but remember something. Education is big business in Idaho.

Dylan Stocker Yeah,

Bob Neugebauer Anybody

Dylan Stocker absolutely.

Bob Neugebauer who doesn’t anybody who thinks otherwise is a dope.

Dylan Stocker And

Bob Neugebauer They

Dylan Stocker when

Bob Neugebauer have

Dylan Stocker you

Bob Neugebauer been

Dylan Stocker have

Bob Neugebauer pulling.

Dylan Stocker an education system that only pays based on attendance, it

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Dylan Stocker only pays based on attendance. It does not reward based on merit. It does not reward based on, uh, ratios of homework turned in. It doesn’t do anything to record to reward the activity of education. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s plainly laying around for all to see, but, uh, we have voter exhaustion. We have problem exhaustion. We have a majority population that exists on a W two that can’t, if they had a three thousand dollars bill pop up, They’d be they’d be losing their house or their car or anything. Uh, it’s it’s winning.

Bob Neugebauer One of the one of the interesting statistics, if you read through the number of kindergarteners that are starting or have started over the last three to four years have been on a steady decline every year. Uh,

Dylan Stocker Thank

Bob Neugebauer they are

Dylan Stocker thank

Bob Neugebauer being

Dylan Stocker goodness

Bob Neugebauer homeschooled.

Dylan Stocker for that.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah, they’re

Dylan Stocker Thank

Bob Neugebauer being homeschooled.

Dylan Stocker goodness for that. Yes, I’m

Bob Neugebauer So

Dylan Stocker thank

Bob Neugebauer they

Dylan Stocker you for pointing that out.

Bob Neugebauer people know the school system is failing. Uh, they just don’t know what to do about it. And I find a lot of this has to do with the fact that two parents are working. Nobody goes to the PTA meetings. Nobody gets involved in what kind of curriculum the kids are being taught. And nobody really understands who the teachers are that are teaching them and spending those after hours with them.

Dylan Stocker It’s it’s having being a person who has raised or is raising three children since two thousand and five and up till today. You know, my wife and I made the decision to be a single income household. That was not an easy choice. My kids still went to public school, but we had, um, augmented some education and some ways that, that my family could work and do daycare, at least at the young levels, sending your child for the state to pay for your daycare with no checks and balances. Your, your child is being raised by a person that has zero accountability to morals, character, um, just what’s transpiring in those things. Like it’s very, it’s very, very, very tough because as you know, um, our government governments have taxed the real living person at the state and federal level to the point where they have no choice but to comply. I had lost a vehicle to repossession through. Thankfully, the two thousand and eight blunder that our federal government led us through. Right. And so it’s what am I going to do? What am I going to do when I’m riding a motorcycle to work back and forth every day in the wintertime with snow, rain, sleet, hail, the whole thing? Um, there’s not much an individual can do. So they’ve, uh, they’re like, well, just put them in a public school, you know, that’s all we can do.

Bob Neugebauer We have a three hundred million dollar daycare center in Idaho, and that is considered our public schools.

Dylan Stocker Yeah. For sure. It is, it is a daycare and it is utterly and absolutely having a thirteen year old child in middle school today, not teaching the education that I got when I was a kid, which maybe wasn’t so great. Idaho has never been great. Idaho has never been great, but I have heard of some projects by the education system that literally have teachers asking thirteen year olds to write an essay based on a very sensitive national level subject, say, like illegal immigration. After that is written, this is what my thirteen year old tells me after that. That was written based on those children’s opinion. The teacher deemed them to be a Democrat or a Republican, and labeled them based on the words that they wrote on an intense subject that that these kids don’t even have a concept of that’s happening in our public school system. And the parents have to be able to tell their kids that it’s all not what you believe, and you have to take, you know, like these people are believing that what their kids are getting in an education is in the name of, you know, good old reading, writing and arithmetic. And ultimately it boils down to, um, a culture machine. It’s a cultural education. That is not the culture that we grew up in.

Bob Neugebauer You know why this is happening? Let me tell you. I used to go to Board of education meetings. Every time they had one. This is down in the biggest school district in Idaho. And there would be one hundred chairs in this auditorium that people could sit in. I never counted more than eighteen people at a meeting. That’s how we run into the problems we run into today. Nobody goes and voices their opinion and the few who do get chastised for it.

Dylan Stocker What time were those meetings held, Bob?

Bob Neugebauer Most of the time they were sometime between six seven o’clock.

Dylan Stocker So that at least, was in a time where your regular working individual could go and participate.

Bob Neugebauer Yep.

Dylan Stocker Um, you know, because it man, I tell you, it’s, it’s tough to keep it all, keep it all together. Um. It’s it’s a I think I think the the evidence is all over the place. But how do we, how do we get the people to, to go out and vote for that difference? I mean, that’s always been the basis for, for what we’re dealing with here. And my, if any anybody’s listening, look at what’s happening in our gubernatorial gubernatorial race. And it’s bought, sold, it’s bought, sold, paid for or owned or you you really don’t have much that you can do unless you really pressure the existing entities to have basic civic engagements, like debates, like town halls, like those things to see the fact that you probably are going to find out that our current leadership is not the most articulate, can’t speak to the issue. And it’s because of what you’ve talked about. Bob, the the old guard of the Democratic machine, big AG of Idaho, has changed its name to a Republican. And all those good old boy ag leaders are just doing the same playbook with a different name.

Bob Neugebauer I ask you to do something someday. Go down to the legislature doing a regular session and meet a couple of our legislators in the hallway. Ask them to tell you what, uh, what the third article of our Constitution, our state Constitution says.

Dylan Stocker Of our state Constitution.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah, well, you could even ask them about our federal. But I doubt if they’d know that either.

Dylan Stocker Well. What unfortunately,

Bob Neugebauer I’ve I’ve

Dylan Stocker confirming

Bob Neugebauer done

Dylan Stocker the

Bob Neugebauer this.

Dylan Stocker results.

Bob Neugebauer I have I have done this. Okay. They don’t know. Most of them do not know.

Dylan Stocker Sure.

Bob Neugebauer So when you have a group of people who are actually making our laws and telling us what we can and can’t do. And they don’t understand the Constitution that they’re supposed to be doing it for. What do we wind up with? We wind up with the garbage we have today because nobody seems to care.

Dylan Stocker I. I one hundred percent agree. Honestly, Bob, since I’ve come into this, I don’t claim to be any special. I claim to be, um, a person that has lived and worked in Idaho in both in, in the corporate side with the big business and all those people I’ve, I’ve, I’ve worked in many industries and now have my own small business and am getting involved in politics. Uh, there are very few that I have listened to that are obviously guided by research and a voice and have got in there, and I’m sorry if this sounds like a me just, You know, glorifying you. But I’ve listened to you a lot, and I know that there’s a basis to it. And I’m thankful to be a part of the conversation with you. Bob, I know that you’ve been in there and swashbuckling with these people.

Bob Neugebauer The problem is, when you get to be my age, you want to be away from it as much as you can, but still have your finger in the pie. The problem is, every time I stick my finger in the pie, it gets very sticky. It

Dylan Stocker Well,

Bob Neugebauer doesn’t

Dylan Stocker and,

Bob Neugebauer feel good.

Dylan Stocker and that by that pie, you know, you, you don’t ever you don’t ever not eat the pie. So you don’t, you don’t get stop in there, but uh, yeah, it’ll, it’ll be some interesting things. This legislative session, I think has highlighted the great divide between, um, the Democratic Republican Republicans of Idaho and the real conservatives of Idaho. I have a little bit of hope that the real conservatives of Idaho are going to identify their resources, bind together and become an opposition, and we’ll see how it goes. I have some events that I’m participating in coming up, and I’ve been welcomed into one of those events. I think to see like, hey, there’s the problems. How can we all get together? What is your strength? What is your strength? What is your strength? And we’ll see if we can get something done.

Bob Neugebauer Well, you keep praying. I’ll keep praying. Uh, and maybe we might actually get somebody to hear us.

Dylan Stocker Yeah, absolutely. And there’s the only difference between those that do and those that don’t are those that do. Just did. Bob, you and I, I want to do it. I’m here. What? I don’t care if we have one listener and it turns out. Or if it ends up turning into a million, I’ll be. I’d be here with you any day, my friend.

Bob Neugebauer Say, I don’t have any listeners in my house because my wife happens to be liberal, but

Dylan Stocker Well.

Bob Neugebauer she does. She does say, what were you yelling about downstairs today? I says, I was yelling at the conservatives in our legislature.

Dylan Stocker The, the the non conservatives are Democratic

Bob Neugebauer And then?

Dylan Stocker Republicans.

Bob Neugebauer And then I get a cheer.

Dylan Stocker Because she wants you to yell at those conservatives.

Bob Neugebauer Uh. Oh, yeah. Uh, thank you very much for joining us today. I do appreciate it. Dylan. And I hope we’ll be able to be able to do this on a regular basis and maybe get some people to actually listen to us because, uh, it seems like nowadays everybody’s too busy to do anything but take the sound bites that come over social media. And until they get off of those sound bites and actually start doing some homework and research, nothing’s going to change.

Dylan Stocker Yep. You got to get out there. I’ll get out there. You keep getting out there. Thank you for this opportunity. I would I would be honored to be a part of your program any day. Good, sir.

Bob Neugebauer Thank you, my friend. I hope you have a great day.

Dylan Stocker Thank you. You too, Bob. Thank you.