Connecting Idaho Through Conversation with Matt Todd | Ever Onward Ep. 80

Matt moved up and relocated from California a few years ago and has really taken a spot in the Valley here to be the guy that is interviewing all the people in several areas of business and government and allowing conversations to happen that just weren't happening before .

I'm a huge fan , regular listener and it's going to be really fun to have Matt Todd on today . Again . Matt Todd , owner and podcaster of the Ranch Podcast . Matt , welcome man , thank you very much . I'm a huge fan , Reached out to you just because I've been . Well , you know who first called me and said you got to listen to this guy , he's awesome .

It was Bill Whitaker . Oh , Bill , yeah , he's great . So , Bill one year . So we've had several versions of this over the last six years , but one version was Bill was my co-host . Oh awesome , but Bill is like a madman , and having a guy that travels 92% of his time around the world riding a motorcycle as your co-host Makes it really hard to schedule things .

And then I'm like what ? But it's so authentic , you do a really great job . Oh , thank you .

People want I mean I like listening , because I want to listen to you and your takes on these things and and you're not shying away from having , you know , randos on there that are going to say some stuff that that are gonna say you know randos on there that are going to say some stuff that are going to say you know what I mean .

And what was really funny is it's kind of like look , you know you're not going to avoid paying for people one way or another , like you were going to pay for them in the education and training or you're going to pay for them in incarceration and social programs , but like there's no world where we don't pay for people .

And so I put out this clip saying like hey , look , you can either invest a little bit in education at the beginning of people's lives or you can invest 60 to 70,000 per year for the rest of their life .

Like I don't know why you would disagree , like I don't even take hard positions on things .

It's like I could do 10 to 20 a week still , yeah , and you have on .

am I interested in this thing ? Is there something that I could dig into ? Because people reach out and they're like , hey , here's this big , here's one that came up recently . This gal reached out and she's like I'm a Boise school district teacher .

We had this huge problem with cleanliness of my home , ec , all these things , and I got Lyme disease and it was like , okay , that's a relevant thing , but I don't really want to be like that guy who's like the crisis hub guy . So I passed her on to a friend of mine who had a great conversation with her . He essentially broke the story .

Channel 6 put out a story this morning and it's like okay , that's awesome and I think that's relevant , but it's also like I don't want to be a crisis hub .

You know what happened to him two years ago with his accident .

I mean you look at his injury , should have died and and had oh , he'll tell you I don't know how many 20 , 30 surgeries . Um , it was only two years ago . What incredible . What happened ?

Uh , I guess , doing the research on it , I guess they can vapor lock and get some , some , some gasoline fumes in where the ignition is , and I guess this is a known thing . But yeah , yeah , not a great thing and then that guy , he didn't complain uh , yeah his biggest complaint .

He used to play basketball like almost every day and I can't anyway , great guy . So tell me , the only thing that's weird about this is we don't really like Californians . Yeah , I don't either . That's why they're all coming here , but then they get here and then they're like hey , no more right .

You know the poor girl you meet next . You're just beating her up about you know , on all the she's like anxiety . Are you going beating her up about , you know , on all the she's like anxiety , or you're going to want me to , you know , hang out with your dumb friends , or like whatever it is . And she's like well , my friends are nice .

Like what do you mean ? And people bring , I think .

Like , where do you , where do you research ? Is there a website ? There's no source of information . So , in in trying to orient myself properly , it was like , okay , but I don't know who these people are , I don't know what the politics are , I don't know , like , the path of progress .

I didn't know that the the farm across the highway from where I was living was sold 20 years ago and they're just waiting Like I didn't know any of that and now , all of a sudden , the community is trying to stop the development . It's like , guys , this was in the works decades ago , like you just showed up 15 minutes ago .

We went to every town in this state a couple of times and uh , and then I kind of got it . I kind of got it . I mean , I think , uh , I think this place still has , uh , this heritage thing of , hey , this is our place and and you know , we love it because our heritage and we don't want it to change .

And I think that you have the great state of Ada and a lot of the people you have come on are from Ada County and I really don't think you kind of fully get Idaho . I didn't , until I spent time . I spent 90% of my time on the road because I knew this place .

So I spent 90% of my time everywhere else in Idaho and then I'm like , okay , it's a different thing . And I understand now why people look at the great state of Ada and they're like , oh , that's not Idaho either . So there's another layer to all this , right , because most people are moving to the Treasure Valley and they're like , hey , this is our place .

If you got out of here and spent time in more rural Idaho , it's even more jarring . They're just just , they don't want to change People . Don't want to change People , hate change .

Hey , let's categorize like , let's play identity politics , but let's just play it with the Idaho conservative politics .

I remember well with Matt we would be in coffee shops in St Mary's , idaho , right , and we'd be sitting with guys that would just be freaking , hammering me because of my positions or what I thought about education whatever . And I would take it , man , I would just sit there and take it , and I was always good about listening to people .

I really like listening to people and learning from them , because I think that's why America is great , right ? I mean , you look at your show . You look at all the different people that come on with very strong opinions that are all over the place , by the way , you do a really good job of just kind of listening to them and respecting .

I love that , but then you have to just ask a couple of questions after they go . What do you think about this ? So I think , people , it's human nature to have tribalism and be part of a group that I love , and then it's also human nature to have a lot of blind spots . So , as much as you hate the government , you're the first one in line for Medicare .

As much as you hate the government , you'll bitch and moan about that road out front that they're not fixing . Or healthcare is the big one , right ?

Everyone hates the fact that people have the government's helping with healthcare until their wife gets cancer Right In St Mary's , right , right , and the only way they are going to get world-class treatment in St Mary's . Idaho Is government assistance Is government assistance , otherwise they would have died in six months .

Right Right have died in six months , right Right , and so you start asking , or loans on their homes or anything or anything .

And then you want to add an additional cursive writing requirement over here to the already overburdened , overregulated public . It's like okay , do we want requirements on education dollars or not ? Just pick one . And I'm good either way .

If you say , hey , give all 500 requirements to the private schools or remove all requirements from the public schools , just pick one . You got to pick it , just pick one , but they can't .

So when I ran , we went and visited 87 of the school districts and I sat with their superintendents and just asked them what's right about this place ? what's wrong about this place ?

They all got their own superintendents , they all have their own challenges and you sit and listen to people and you'd realize just how kind of messed up it is . We don't scale things well in education . We don't ask the right questions . You look at how we spend money and then you start asking about this local control and idea of who gets paid what .

But look at what Debbie tried to

do this year just changing the formula a little bit and got hammered , hammered so you almost can't win .

And generally you capitalize on it by saying it's the wrong thing to do , so say she's doing something positive , you've got to find a spin on it . It's like no , no , this is bad . She's doing something bad . And you're like , yes , this is bad .

So , no matter where you go , it's like there's an relativization structure to articulate a failed policy or failed attempt and you have to capitalize both ways . Very well said . I'm telling you it's hedge fund politics .

I made , uh , I make six eggs this morning that I'm gonna try to split with me and my wife and my eight-year-old eats all of them . And then'm going to try to split with me and my wife and my eight-year-old eats all of them . And then I make six more to split with me and my wife and he eats half of those . So I have an eight-year-old .

That's 135 pounds of man fury and he's like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast where he's , like I was a boy , I ate three dozen . So I have these big kids , a lot of giddy up , as you can imagine .

And the culture in California state that shall not be named , excuse me , the culture down there is more one of like look , the holy grail of that education and cultural system is like a very quiet six-year-old girl who will sit down and do everything she's told and not need anything else .

The holy grail is not some kid who's like vibrating at the table , as you could imagine , my kids do . So it wasn't working in that respect . There's also a very odd I was talking to somebody just yesterday about this .

There's an odd lack of cultural grounding , meaning you can move here and people will say to you hey , I'm a fourth generation , I'm a fourth generation , I'm a fifth generation . Mayor Trevor Chadwick from STAR .

When he came on he was talking about the culture of STAR and he was like listen , every time bird season comes around , duck hunting season , people freak out . They see people within the city limits with shotguns . They hear gunshots Like , yeah , man , you're going to hear more of this . This is our culture .

And there's a self-awareness to Idaho that does not exist in California , because so many people are transient and the nature of the occupancy is transactional . People don't move there because the quality of life is great . They move there to make a lot of money or they were born there and this is all they know . Because of that , you don't have an actual culture .

You don't have a grounded California culture because it's whoever happens to be there at that moment , and so you have this fluidity where people are being told what to do and told what to think and told what the culture is .

So the BLM movement rolls around , that's the Black Lives Matter , not Bureau of Land Management that rolls around and everybody's like oh my gosh , I guess we're all racist . What do you do you mean ? Like , how do you like I'm Mexican ? Like what do you ? I have black adopted brothers . Like what do you mean ? I'm racist .

And they're like well , that's , you know , like what the news says . So you have this . You know cultural demoralization . You don't have any grounding , grounding reality there . You have a culture that's very much against you know . Know , high energy males you have . You have a number of problems there .

And then , of course , everything that happened around 2020 just solidified everything where it's like oh , this is like a failed state , but people can't exist here , but I don't know anybody who lives there that functions in the real world , that actually saying , hey , this is great yeah , it's horrible it's horrible it's got to be sad looking around your community .

We were happy that we got into it , but that was the most . That was the safest township in the state of California and , mind you , it was 25 minutes from Oakland and it was very similar to Eagle . There was a freeway running down the center of it .

So people would come from Oakland , jump off the freeway 30 seconds to somebody's house $2 million house , 1,800 square feet by the way Kick in , smash and grab 60 seconds they're out . They jump on the freeway and then they transition . It's like they're gone .

So you have this constant anxiety of , oh my gosh , people are like you know , we're 20 minutes away from a real crime , not like we're talking like severed heads and ballpark crime , like cartel style action . Yeah , it's very sad . So that's why you left a little bit . That's one of the reasons why , why , why , oh , okay , well , look man , where are you going ?

You're not going to the coastal states . You're not going to Oregon , you're not going to Washington , all right , so take those out . What you want to go to Arizona , you don't want to be there because you're here and you were there .

You're just going to be in a giant subdivision . That's like 100 miles by 100 miles . Right , that's an even bigger problem . So you have all of that . And then , if you push any farther east , all of our family my wife and I both left our entire family back in California . So it's like , okay , 60 minute plane flight , no problem , right , a hundred bucks .

If you get it cheap , no problem . And I knew one person who had moved up here , this dear friend of mine from jujitsu . We'd been training partners for over a decade and he moved up here in 2020 and he said , man , it is different here . It is great for raising kids , this is a great area . And I was like done , done , we're there .

there's another school built Now . That will be good for people that exist there right now because you won't continue to overburden the systems , but it will also drive up the cost of housing because you're going to limit the stock . Caldwell is taking a slightly different tact . You're the developer . What's the right answer ?

But what happens is , if you look , whether it's the legislature or local jurisdictions , they can't help themselves by getting involved and they're very well-intentioned , they really are . They're trying to do the right thing , but it's not the right thing . So anytime they make it harder to have any type of housing , it's going to cost more .

But I do think , like , how does growth pay for growth ? And how do we as developers do that ? We have some of the greatest housing developers in the country . If you look at their sub—David Turnbull Look at Brighton , look at any subdivision he's done . It's got a school in the middle of it . It's got a school in the middle of it . It's community focused .

Go , drive through any one of them . I mean it'd be the envy of the entire country . Look at what Corey Barton does , look at what Jim Hunter does . I mean , go down the list , don Hubble what they did for years . We create great places and those developers , if you look , they will tell you I have paid for my-oriented .

I mean , we couldn't have it any better , right ? So to blame development , not paying their way , that doesn't make any sense , right ? So then you got what I think needs to happen tonight .

You got the three-legged stool of taxes property , sales and income tax and I think , having really good ways to say are we planning forward a tax strategy which allows us to keep property taxes where they need to be for people . Sales tax where the consumer that's using is actually paying for growth ? Last thing is we don't bond .

Well , here , you probably have heard this a hundred times , but 20 years ago when I was looking , we had a group we put together 20 years ago and said , hey , one of the problems we're going to have in Idaho is we don't have the tools to bond that other states do .

So if you look at Utah and just the toolbox they have for bonding that allows people that are going to use services to pay for those services over time , it's a very conservative principle . We don't have that . We have urban renewal that gets misused all the time . So I'm the first to admit you go up to North Idaho and I remember the first time I saw it .

There's a booklet up there that has all of the cases of misused urban renewal for development and you look through them you're like yeah , yeah , yeah , but it's the only tool there is , so then jurisdictions push it and use it irresponsibly . So it's a big question .

I think we need to figure out how to bond better to pay for some of the big infrastructure projects transportation infrastructure so that it's paid for by people over time . I think we need to watch property taxes and everyone's you know Mike's really keen on getting those down but at the same time we need to fund the things that matter , I mean schools .

Can we do better ? I mean , I think there's a lot of things . I think Debbie I love Debbie . I love Debbie Critchfield . I think she's smart , I think she understands . I think she would do more if she could . There's just more work to be done to try to do school a little more efficiently , the way we spend our dollars .

I think higher ed we've got a lot of duplicative processes in how we do higher ed here . There's a lot of pressure on higher ed , but a lot of those systems are so old and antiquated in the way that the different universities work and do stuff . I think Gordon Jones I think you've had him on at CWI do an unbelievable thing .

So I think there's a lot of good things going on , but somehow we got to . We'll get through this . We have really good leadership . I just think it's going to take some big ideas to get through this and I think it's probably going to be some pain . We're going to probably have some gridlock on these freeways before something happens .

I think we're going to have pain . I think you're going to have people are going to keep coming here and then everyone's . There's going to be a reset and everyone's go . Okay , we got to figure something . It happened in Austin

.

And this is where the big problems were a lot of the growth not paying for growth . Come in , for instance , star . You have a new fire department , you have the physical building . You don't have the salaries for the nine firemen and women that you need .

So you have this problem with hey , yeah , we can get developers to give us this one-time money or give us this infrastructure , but the community has to agree to provide the long-term funding for it .

And as of right now in the Treasure Valley , people are getting obliterated or , excuse me , the taxing districts are getting obliterated when they're trying to say hey , we doubled in size , start , doubled in size in the last five years and they're not getting that cap on the on on their .

What we have is you actually have a lower property tax than you had before you doubled so now you have this distributed cost . That's only up roughly 32% compared to , but you have 200% of the houses .

That's the one thing everyone agrees on . So you want me to agree to lower the threshold of how you want to tax me ? That's not going to happen . Sure , local option tax there's been a lot of great like .

If you think about , chuck Winder had some great legislation 20 years ago where it was basically , hey , we're going to come to the community and do a vote and we're going to say , hey , we're going to use tax dollars for this purpose , is that okay ? Then we're going to allow the tax to be collected .

Then we're going to come back to you as voters and say , okay , now we've collected the money , is it okay if we spend it on the thing we expect ? I mean , that was a pretty friendly tax policy and that didn't pass .

Okay , whatever it's a taxing district , we have to , we have to accept , we vote and get those like .

So they're like hey , we're going to have other people that come to our town pay more . We're going to pay more in our town too , but we're going to use those dollars . Very similar to an auditorium district concept . Auditorium district is great because it's a room tax .

I think a local option tax would be a really good way for local communities to use dollars for things they need , whether that be be we need to fix our sewer treatment plant in Preston , idaho , or whether that be we need to fix a road in Canyon County . It would give local government .

And then one irony of this is , if you notice , we're all about the federal government staying out of our way as a state . Hey , leave us alone , but we're not about the legislature staying out of the way of local government . Somehow that principle does not pass Well .

I can't live that life where it's like you make 10 bucks an hour plus like a teacher appreciation card , anyway . So I was , I was privately , privately employed through to do education and , along the way , in the end of 2019 , my students I had a classroom . My students were like , hey , you should start a podcast .

I don't know anything about that Like , yeah , it'd be great . What would I say ? They're like , essentially , just record what you say to us in class and publish that . I was like , well , that's a bad idea . But so I just again , I don't know , I have any background in audio video engineering , so go on to you know YouTube .

It's like , listen , somebody can learn this , I can learn this . And it's start with like iMovies and GarageBand , and so I started down there and that's really where I could . Originally it was just kind of like these little thought bubble gums for my students going to school . It's like 10 minute episodes on like do you like ketchup , right ?

Or like whatever it might be , and that transitioned into this community hub where you know , obviously , over the over the the pandemic , with communities ripping each other apart , I became this hub for , okay , look , can you just tell me what your position ? Like I'm not even going to argue with you , just come and talk to me .

So you had , you know , like the president , the teachers union , the superintendent , then you had city council people . So I kind of cut my teeth on these interviews that were people were coming in ready for a fight and realized like I'm really just interested in talking to you and understanding your position . Like we don't even have to agree , isn't ?

So I move up here in the beginning of 22 and kind of kiss that goodbye . I learned a lot from it . But move up here and I realized really quickly like , oh , the problems that were plaguing our community there , I can see them . Exactly the same thing , they're on the other side .

But you really start realizing , oh , there's no way for people to properly orient their worldview here , because , again , people spend what eight to ten hours a day on their cell phones looking at social media .

Here's an interesting problem and you could understand this , I'm sure Twenty years ago if you were part of an association or department or office or something , you engaged in passive communication transfer , right . So you would update a website . You'd essentially set a buffet of information and the end consumer , that's the active user .

They could come and grab that information and that was how you did it . So the offices and departments are like , hey , let's just set the table and when people want to come eat , this is the information . So you have active and passive . Now that actually has flipped . So the end consumer of information is the passive actor .

I sit on my couch and just scroll infinitely , no problem , and that's how I get my worldview . I'm never going to a website , I'm never picking a pamphlet .

So I developed my opinion about the governor , I developed my opinion about the superintendent of ed , not based on them , it's based on whoever is telling me about them . Well , you go down that road long enough . It's over , man , because you have no actual connection to reality . So figuring this out in 22 , it's like , oh my God , this is it .

If somebody doesn't step up and create a platform where you could integrate the actual leaders and reality of Idaho , the narrative and worldview that people have of Idaho will be taken over by whoever is talking to them . And you saw this last year multiple times . But remember the water call . Remember the cobalt mines in Idaho ?

Nationally , people thought the federal government was shutting down Idaho farmers and farming out the water resource to cobalt miners for the Ukraine defense , whatever , total lie . But where was the water board ? I didn't even know there was a water board until I invited them on .

These are the problems that will absolutely destroy the state as they have other places , unless people show up where the individuals consuming information are . Amen .

But these people aren't asked by anyone else . Has that shocked you ? I don't think so . I mean , you look at the list of people you've had on and they aren't being interviewed by a newspaper . They aren't being interviewed by local TV stations . They don't have a venue through their organizations to get out there .

They probably had a newsletter at some point 20 years ago , but now they're out talking to people and you know you've got this viewership . It's a really cool way that people can now get connected to their community . That didn't exist .

If I interview you , and I interview you for 10 minutes or whatever , I'm asking my set of questions and I go home and write an article , there is an inherent filtration that happens . I select what I think is important , you know what that happened to me this morning .

I don't want to say who this was , but I got interviewed by a journalist this morning about the BSU president search and I don't like this guy . I love Andrew .

I think Matthew was in the room Looked at his computer the entire time he interviewed me . This is a big interview , that's great . Like never looked up one time and left and I thought , man , I did a pretty good job and then just hammered me .

It was nothing Because you know how it is right and I'm like that was my interaction and that's what you took away from it , so I've always been a little leery . Well , I did an interview with him this morning for half an hour on the president BSU search , because I'm on the committee and as soon as he hung up . I'm like man .

We'll see what this ends up turning Thursday , I'll know . But that's the problem . That's the problem . Yes , that is the problem . That story is going to be told through the lens of that guy about this whole thing and he already I could tell from his questions he already knows what he wants the narrative to be .

You know , within the first few minutes , hey , people come in , guarded sometimes , sure , but pretty soon you're like okay , now we're talking .

Yeah , just relax , listen , we're just having a conversation and it feels good to the listener to be able to say hey , I just authentically listened to someone about something and they're telling me the truth , versus me reading something that's been filtered through someone that has a bias , right ?

You don't know anything about the state , right ? So my play was essentially look , if I can't add value literally to my next door neighbor , I'm not going to do anything . So my first episode was with my buddy who literally lived like three houses down and we were talking about like the HOA meeting , right .

And then it's like a little bit bigger to the neighborhood elementary school . There was a problem with it . It's like pushing out more and more and focusing every second on can you bring value to this person ? Is the guest going to walk away and be like you know this was great and you know who you should talk to , and so again pushing out .

All of a sudden it became all right . You're valuable to the city of Eagle . Okay , you're valuable to a little bit more of Ada County . Okay , you're valuable to boom , boom , boom . And at this point they're like Congressman Simpson's comms people call . They're like hey , are you around next week ? Because there's value for him to have this .

Like what ? Because we're already talking for 49 minutes . Watch out , watch what's next . As far as like for you , my interview today . No , no , like what's ?

You're a smart guy like this , is you go back and look at how you're doing this and and how it's produced and who you've got on and where you're heading , and there's value here for for people , and I think people know it . Um , I'm I'm hearing from you about when you first started this .

I started hearing from you , from a lot of friends saying , hey , this guy , this is , this is really something unique . Where do you want this to go ?

We can focus on broader things , but that is going to betray the necessity of attention locally , idaho state leaders and Idaho prominent figures to Idaho in a way that is never done before . Like if you look at , if you look at , rogan's platform and connecting people worldwide , that's fantastic . Well , look what if we could just get him to be here ?

We'd be like , hey , could you just do only episodes about Idaho ? How great would that be ? Well , it'd be fantastic . Well , he's not going to do that , right , because there's not a large enough . Somebody has to , yeah , somebody has to .

I was happy to have that conversation because I thought it was relevant to have , but he , he's also a college of I , who's been the most surprising guest for you I had this guy by the name of Charlie Lyons Charlie Lyons , charlie Lyons it was back in January this year and he is a rancher , but he started the initial rangeland fire protection agencies in Idaho

and hearing his story of why he needed that as a rancher and what the problem was and it was this multi-decade long , such a classically Idaho story , because here you have individuals struggling for their existence and they're trying to defend their way of life and no solution that could be found and they figured out something to do on their own and it was a take

the problem , address the problem , don't look for the government for our solution . And that , to me , has become the most , the most classic Idaho story , which is there is no help coming and if we don't figure this out , it's over . And it was man . He took me through a journey , man . We were both like laughing and then crying and then laughing .

It was wild . I have to listen to it .