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Last year I did a pod on Montana’s surprising burst of bipartisan housing legislation. Turns out Idaho was watching. This year its legislature passed six housing bills of its own (two others failed). Republican state Sen. Ben Toews and Democratic state Rep. Megan Egbert join me to walk through what passed, what didn’t, and what they gave away to get it done — plus the property tax cap that quietly works against all of it, and why duplexes turned out to be the red line.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction and the Idaho housing package
02:43 – How each guest came to the housing issue
06:39 – Inside the interim housing study committee
09:05 – SB 1354, ADUs by right, and Dillon’s Rule
12:52 – The 5,000 to 10,000 compromise, and HOAs
15:03 – SB 1352 starter homes, manufactured homes, lot splits
16:28 – HB 706 and single-stair buildings
18:11 – The permitting shot clock and the 6-day rule
19:48 – Living with the compromises, and why counties were left out
22:54 – The two bills that died: duplexes and YIGBY
28:41 – HB 389, the property tax cap, and the growth undertow
34:41 – What the public understands about growth
37:23 – Regulatory reform on supply side vs. incentives for housing
43:59 – The February deadline and city resistance
48:52 – Horizontal vs. vertical density
56:03 – What comes next for the committee & Idaho housing
