Mountains of legislation, out-of-state interests talked about in panel discussion

Shifting tides in the make-up of Idaho citizenry and its business community the past two decades are now more reflective in how the Idaho Legislature looks and operates on behalf of its constituents in 2025.

“Where we are right now, today, is very different from where we were in 2008,” said Bobbi-Jo Meuleman, CEO and president of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. “I take where we are now as a better situation than when we were begging businesses to come here and to expand.”

An advocate for the local business community, Meuleman shared her personal and professional views on this year’s Idaho legislative session, taking part as one of four panelists for the recent Business Views on Legislation panel discussion hosted by Idaho Business Review April 17 at the Boise Centre. The event was the second of five scheduled Breakfast Series events to be hosted by the publication this year.

“What we saw this past legislative session is the process has changed,” she said. “What we saw was a much more active legislature.”
Rounding out the panel were Ken Dey, director of Government and Public Affairs for the J.R. Simplot Company; Stephanie Camarillo, owner of Molly Maid of Boise and the Treasure Valley; and Corey Surber, director of State Advocacy, St. Alphonsus and Trinity Health.

For Dey, overseeing state government relations is a prime consideration in the role he has held at Simplot during the past decade. In his estimation, a “little complacent” is how he described the Idaho business community today compared to where it used to be.

“For years we enjoyed the luxury of working with a legislature that worked in lockstep with business and industry,” he said. “We have a lot of new people who have come in from out of state and may not know who Simplot or Micron is because they have not been here long enough.”

Having previously managed public relations for St. Luke’s prior to joining Simplot, Dey believes businesses must sell themselves publicly to help bring about progress with our elected officials and state lawmakers.

“We have to be less complacent and more aggressive in educating our legislators,” Dey said. “It’s a work in progress and will definitely take time moving forward.”

As a fourth-generation Idahoan, as well as a longtime owner of a highly successful local small business, Camarillo shared her appreciation for the state’s “citizen legislature,” those who come to Boise for three months to serve the state during the annual session before returning to their regular full-time careers.

“It reflects the dynamics of the world we live in with the chaotic changing environment,” she said. “What I go back to is that we are fortunate to live in a state of low regulation and taxes. From a business perspective, I think the Legislature has upheld our basic business values.”

Advocating for the health care industry, Surber has seen a lot of changes take place in the legislative process during the past three decades, including what she feels is as a “significant increase” in out-of-state dollars driving state legislation.

“There seems to be a shift from focusing on how legislation benefits the common good versus the individual,” she said. “Government should be about protecting my rights as an individual and stay out of everything else. And for St. Al’s to be a part of the faith-based community, we believe government should be about benefiting the common good.”

One critical area in which panelists agreed legislators are doing just that is in the state’s decision to again provide funding for the Idaho LAUNCH program. Helping Idaho kids find career paths assisted by funding from the state is a win-win for helping to maintain Idaho’s workforce today and into the future.

“Most businesses know your most precious resource is people, Meuleman said. “From a business perspective, making those investments into education to make sure you have that talent pipeline is critical. What LAUNCH has shown is that enrollment numbers in our institutions are up and that the program is working.”

“Finding employees is always a challenge for us” Dey said. “LAUNCH helps keep Idaho kids in Idaho for companies like Simplot, so another year of funding for the program is big.”

Plus, Dey said he likes the idea that many of the options available to students that can lead to a successful career do not require a four-year degree.

“They’re often two-year degrees, and many of the jobs in our modern factories pay more than a lot our jobs held by those with four-year degrees,” he said.

Workforce issues are also big for a small business owner such as Camarillo.

“COVID changed the dynamics for growth and staffing” she said. “It’s now a more transient workforce and more challenging for businesses.”

Along with LAUNCH, Surber understands the desperate need for filling jobs throughout the state’s medical workforce must include strong partnerships within the education community.

“We’re growing our own medical workforce by saying we can’t rely on others to solve this problem for us,” she said. “We’ll support them but we’re also going to develop our own programs.

Workforce in the health care sector is a critical priority for us. After COVID it became our No. 1 concern.”

Education funding in the state of Idaho remains a hot topic of concern for medical providers such as St. Alphonsus. From tuition reimbursement to loan paybacks, and even a new family medical residency for doctors in Nampa, Surber knows medical facilities must take matters into their own hands to deal with a shortage of qualified personnel.

“We’re the most rapidly growing area in the country, and we have to throw every strategy out there to recruit workforce,” Surber said. “One key has been very strong partnerships with our education partners and helping to fund nursing programs at schools such as Boise State and CWI.”

Another area of discussion pertaining to growth was the volume, or what panel moderator Tom Mortell referred to as the “mountain of legislation” lawmakers were tasked with sifting through this past session. According to Dey’s calculations, more than 1,000 pieces of legislation were introduced for lawmakers to consider.

“We even had several legislators who introduced hundreds of bills themselves,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for good bills to get lost in the shuffle.”

“What we saw was a much more active legislature,” Meuleman said. “When you have so many bills and you get to the end of the session, it makes it hard for the public to have the time to participate and for industry to participate. Processes that typically can take weeks have become one- to two-day processes.”

Despite the onslaught of numerous pieces of potential legislation, Meuleman said the chamber was happy to see income and corporate tax relief, as well as urban renewal reform and investments for child care for Idahoans.

“There were some really great things business-wise that did happen this session,” she said. “From a business perspective, it’s all about partnerships and relationships, being able to tell our stories. It’s an opportunity and I think we are all up for the challenge.”

A challenge Camarillo took up last July, testifying in front of a joint senate committee in Washington, D.C., about the deductions small businesses receive as part of President Trump’s 2017 tax plan, deductions that benefit both the company and its employees.

“I told them the story of how we take such tax savings to stay competitive and pour the savings back into our people,” she said. “We had one housecleaner who was promoted to an office job, which may not sound meaningful to most. But to take someone in this position and train them for a bigger position can change the trajectory of their life and that of their family. Stories matter.”

Without movement at the federal level, these deductions will sunset or go away this year if no changes are made to Trump’s initial tax plan, something local business leaders are keeping their eyes on.

“What this would mean for small businesses here and nationwide would be a 20% increase to our bottom line come next January,” Camarillo said.

“One thing we are watching from the chamber perspective is these 2017 tax cuts,” Meuleman said. “We’re interested to see the renewal of those and the process of that. From a federal level that is something we are engaged in and watching closely.”

“Tax relief is always big, always a help,” Dey said. “Anytime we can cut taxes it is positive across the board.”
And not just at the federal level.

“Idaho is still a great place to do business,” he said. “At the end of the day, we did pretty good this past legislative session, all things considered.”