For the ninth year running, Boise State University’s annual Public Policy Survey has demonstrated that Idaho’s government does not represent the will of the people well at all.
As Ian Max Stevenson reported , it’s the first time in the history of the poll that more Idahoans say the state is on the wrong track than the right track.
This isn’t a sudden development or the side-effect of the recent bout of inflation (which seems now to be mostly in the rearview mirror , though it remains an issue of high concern). Rather, this is simply the natural development of a slide in confidence about the future of the Gem State that began around 2020 and has continued steadily ever since.
From 2016 to 2019, about six in 10 Idahoans consistently said the state was headed in the right direction. Now, that’s down to four in 10, and about an equal number say things are getting worse.
This corresponds with a period in which state policy has consistently drifted further and further away from the policy preferences Idahoans express.