Abortion, property taxes, and more

Plus record consumer refunds, and why Idaho keeps getting praised for clean voter rolls

I hope you’re having a great summer. Time is flying far too quickly—my children return to school in just over a month, so I’m trying to enjoy the moments we all have together. We’re still waiting on baby #6—that little guy has teased us three or four times, but has yet to make his appearance.

I’ve been doing more behind-the-scenes work on the Chronicle, including adding the 2026 interim committees. My hope is that this platform will be the best one-stop shop for legislative information in the state, and everything I do is geared toward that goal.

One thing I accomplished this that week was small, but meaningful to me: for some reason, press release and newsletter thumbnails on the Chronicle homepage were being shifted downward by 28 pixels. I plugged Claude into the problem and after quite a bit of research it found the issue and fixed it. Thumbnails now appear centered, as they should.

Here’s what’s been going on in the meantime:

Prop 1 fight heats up, and the property tax debate gets going

Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon is out with a sharp op-ed making the case against Proposition 1, the abortion initiative headed to the November ballot. Her core argument: this isn’t a return to pre-Roe law, it’s something far more permissive:

Supporters of Prop 1 also want you to believe this initiative is about compassion. It is not. Current Idaho law requires doctors to do everything possible to save both patients, including delivering a baby prematurely if necessary when serious health complications arise. Prop 1, by contrast, authorizes abortion up to birth if a provider determines that continuing the pregnancy threatens the health of the mother.

Prop 1 also threatens parental rights. If this initiative passes, a minor girl could obtain an abortion six months into her pregnancy and her parents would never be told.

On a very different note, Art da Rosa from Jefferson County has a different take on propery taxes:

Jefferson County does not have the commercial activity to generate sufficient sales tax revenue to replace property tax… This means that any sales tax replacement must be collected at the state level and distributed to counties by formula. And that is where we move from a tax problem to a governance problem.

He draws on Tocqueville, the Federalist Papers, and California’s Prop 13 experience to lay out what genuine reform—as opposed to elimination—could look like.

From the Attorney General and Secretary of State

Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s latest newsletter has some numbers worth noting: his Consumer Protection Division returned nearly $1 million to Idaho consumers in just the first half of 2026, without a single lawsuit:

In the first six months of 2026, my Consumer Protection Division returned $956,000 to Idaho consumers, without a single lawsuit or court order. That pace puts this year on track to beat 2025, when the division recovered a record $1.1 million through the same voluntary process.

Secretary of State Phil McGrane writes on why Idaho keeps getting held up as a model for election security—including recent recognition from the Trump administration on the state’s voter roll maintenance:

Following Governor Little’s Only Citizens Can Vote Act, we worked with the Department of Homeland Security to compare Idaho’s voter registration records against federal citizenship data. That review reinforced what I’ve said for years: Idaho’s voter rolls are among the cleanest in the nation because maintaining them is a year-round responsibility.

Of course, the DoJ is still suing Idaho over our refusal to turn over full voter data, so the federal government is praising with one hand while chastising with the other. We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out, but this is generally positive news. I’ll have more on Idaho’s election systems soon.

Two pieces of news from Boise

The Parental Choice Tax Credit program has officially closed its application window after hitting its nearly $50 million cap for the year:

The Idaho State Tax Commission has closed the application period for the Parental Choice Tax Credit program because the program has reached the nearly $50 million limit allowed for this year.

And Gov. Brad Little announced Idaho closed out Fiscal Year 2026 well ahead of forecast, while keeping its AAA credit rating from Moody’s:

Final General Fund collections finished approximately $171.9 million above DFM’s revised forecast… The state’s financial strength was further validated this month when Moody’s Ratings reaffirmed Idaho’s AAA credit rating with a Stable Outlook.

Video of the day:

Chris Rufo and Jonathan Keeperman, two of the most astute conservative commentators working today, examined the passing of Lindsey Graham, the data center debate, and some identity politics in this week’s Rufo & Lomez:

As always, thank you to sponsors Lynn Bradescu’s Boise Realty, Money Metals, and New Saint Andrews College. Thank you also to all the paid subscribers who make it possible for me to do what I do, as well as all the readers who are constantly encouraging me to keep it up. I appreciate you!