Taking questions from reporters after his State of the State speech today, Gov. Butch Otter was asked if his education proposals come because he’s concerned about his legacy as governor. “I don’t know if you’re going to believe this, but I haven’t spent five minutes thinking about my legacy,” he responded. Instead, he said, it’s: “What’s the right thing to do? What’s the best for the state of Idaho?” He added, “This is the first time that I felt like, since 2008, that I didn’t come to the Legislature with a State of the State apology for what we had to cut and what we couldn’t do and where we couldn’t do it.”

Otter said Idaho’s making the right moves at the right times. “I believe it’s because we stayed the course,” he said. “We recognized what was nice and what was necessary in government. ... We took a look at the resources we had.” He added, “Can you imagine what would’ve happened if I’d a suggested this in 2009?”