Zito for Idaho

Your voice in the Idaho legislature

Hello, dear friends!

Welcome to my return to Substack.

I am honored to lead the Gang of Eight, a group of eight Idaho legislators, working together to serve Idaho.

For the past several months, the Gang of 8 has been messaging through my Substack, but a few weeks ago, we started our own. You can read the Gang of 8 messages here.

It is such a pleasure for me to serve with these fantastic people, who, except for Senator Zuiderveld and me, are freshmen legislators.

We stood strong as representatives of the people. We took a budget pledge that would have saved Idaho taxpayers nearly $1,000,000,000, demonstrating our commitment to responsible spending. Now the state of Idaho has a $58,000,000 (million) budget shortfall, and it is continuing to grow.

It didn’t have to be this way.

To quote Fred Birmbaum of the Idaho Freedom Foundation: “This means, in FY26, had the state restrained spending — not actually cut spending, but restrained its growth — state appropriations would have been just over $7 billion instead of the over $8.5 billion that it actually was. That difference equates to essentially eliminating property taxes on homeowners ($1.1 billion) and all other residential property ($500 million) — about $1.6 billion. (https://idahofreedom.org/how-to-get-idahos-state-spending-back-on-track/)

We could have ELIMINATED property taxes on homeowners and all other residential property.

Please check out this link to the 2025 Idaho Fiscal Facts Handbook. This is important information that every Idahoan should know.

Inflation continues to rise; unfortunately, many legislators find it easy to spend money without regard for the challenges Idaho families face.

I opposed accepting a pay increase. This raise was approved by the Citizens’ Committee on Legislative Compensation and accepted by a majority of the legislature. My constituents did not receive a 25% pay increase.

I feel a moral obligation to eliminate the food tax. I have served since 2017, and every year this has been a tax burden on Idaho families, which I have worked to repeal.

Rejecting a pay increase for the legislature and repealing the food tax are issues sent to the legislature through the Idaho Republican Party Platform. The platform is a bottom-up, grassroots direction to elected officials from elected committee persons from every voting precinct across the state.

A poll last year showed that 87% of the people of this state supported repeal. It is immoral for the government to take your money, hold it, and expect you to file a tax return to get it back. Even worse, last year, many legislators voted for a law that says that if you want a pittance more refund of the food tax money they take from you, you can save your receipts, itemize your expenditures, and turn them in to the tax commission.

Many legislators obviously feel you have nothing better to do with your time.

Looking forward, there are many issues that you have shared with me that are important to you.

Our preborn children are being killed through mail-order chemical abortions using drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol. These pills are sent through the mail, taken in private, and then the remains of our children—along with powerful drug residues—are flushed into our sewer and water systems.

This is not just a tragedy for the babies who lose their lives. It is a moral, medical, and environmental crisis. Our water is being contaminated with “abortion pill” chemicals that were never meant to be part of God’s creation or our communities’ drinking water.

For the sake of our children, our families, and future generations, we can no longer look away. It is time to protect both human life and the world we share.

Protecting our God given right to self-defense continues to be a priority for Idahoans. Working with you and members of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, I have dedicated my time in office to doing that. There is more work to be done.

Last year, a highly decorated young service member was forced to spend approximately $30,000 in legal fees to defend himself in court — simply for exercising his Second Amendment right to protect his family. The charges were ultimately dismissed, but he was never made whole.

No American should face financial ruin to prove their constitutional rights in court.

That’s why I’m working on new legislation to:

• Protect law-abiding citizens from frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions related to their Second Amendment rights, and

• Ensure that anyone found not guilty or whose case is dismissed receives full reimbursement for their legal defense costs.

If the government brings a baseless case against you for exercising a constitutional right, the government — not you — should pay the price.

There are more issues, but I will save them for another day.

WE have many challenges ahead. It will take the involvement of all of us to meet those challenges, ensuring that the future for our children offers the same freedoms and opportunities we have enjoyed.

I promised you almost 10 years ago to be your voice; that promise continues today. Thank you for placing your trust in me, for supporting me, and for being actively engaged in the governing process.

Until next time!

God bless,

Senator Christy Zito, District 8 (CZito@senate.idaho.gov)

PS: The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance is holding a raffle to help us defend the 2A. Find the details by clicking on the image below:

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