Rating: –1

Bill Summary:

Senate Bill 1015 repeals Idaho Code §67-8901, which establishes the Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA). The IHFA is an independent, self-supporting statutory body tasked with facilitating housing development, infrastructure financing, and community investment throughout Idaho. Its enabling statute outlines the public interest in improving living conditions, expanding housing access, and fostering economic growth through market-driven financing tools such as bonds and loans.

The bill offers no replacement structure or transitional provisions. It simply eliminates the legal foundation for IHFA’s existence and operations, thereby dismantling the state’s primary non-taxpayer-funded mechanism for supporting housing and development initiatives.

Reason for Rating:

Although the Idaho Republican Party Platform supports reducing the size and scope of government, this repeal undermines other core platform principles. The IHFA operates without using taxpayer dollars, functions as a market facilitator rather than a regulator, and enables Idahoans—especially first-time buyers and working families—to secure private property and build generational stability. Its removal weakens support for property rights (Article I, Section 1(C)), diminishes tools that promote homeownership and family opportunity (Article XV), and eliminates a mechanism that helps private enterprise access capital (Article I, Section 1(F)).

While technically reducing a government-created entity, this bill does so without advancing liberty, saving public funds, or offering a privatized alternative. As a result, it reflects an unbalanced reduction in government that harms platform-aligned goals related to property, prosperity, and family stability—earning it a negative rating.