Idaho legislators are using our money to attack our rights for citizen initiatives
You probably heard about Idaho’s anti-initiatives law, one of the most controversial and unpopular pieces of legislation in recent Idaho history.
The anti-initiatives law, enacted five weeks ago by our governor and legislature, makes it virtually impossible for grassroots campaigns to place an initiative on the Idaho ballot. It gives Idaho the most restrictive signature-gathering rules in the nation, requiring campaigns to collect signatures from 6% of registered voters in each of Idaho’s 35 districts — up from the 18 districts previously required.
From the time the proposal was first announced, it was deeply unpopular with Idaho voters. As the bill made its way through the legislature, public hearings attracted record-breaking numbers of people to testify in opposition.
An online petition calling on Gov. Brad Little to veto the bill received 16,000 signatures, including names from over 200 towns and all 44 of Idaho’s counties. Of the thousands and thousands of people who called the governor’s office about the bill, over 97% were opposed and asked for the governor’s veto.
Despite the fact that the bill was deeply unpopular, nearly every Republican legislator supported it. Just 2 out of 28 Republican senators and just 6 out of 57 Republican House members voted against the bill.
All of this was anticipated. Ever since 2018 when the vast majority of Idaho voters approved the Medicaid expansion initiative, Republican leaders have tried to restrict the process so that no initiative like Medicaid expansion ever happens again. It was no surprise that Republican leaders were determined to enact the new anti-initiatives law.
But last weekend, we learned Republican leaders had taken their assault on initiative rights to a new extreme. After learning that their new law would be challenged in the Idaho Supreme Court, Republican leaders decided to use Idaho tax dollars to defend it.
This use of our tax dollars is wasteful and completely unnecessary. It’s the job of Idaho’s Attorney General to provide legal defense for state laws. This is a taxpayer-funded process that is already in place, and the office of the Attorney General has already begun its defense of the anti-initiatives law.
But Republican legislators are determined to attack the initiative process with every resource at their disposal. Earlier this month, they tapped the Legislative Legal Defense Fund — paid for by taxpayers — to hire one of the most expensive law firms in the state.
A report by the Idaho Press revealed that Republican leaders are paying attorneys a rate of $470 per hour. This means that for just 80 hours of work, the legislature’s lead attorney will be paid $37,600 — far more than many Idaho taxpayers earn in a year.
It is no longer surprising to see Republican leaders attack our initiative rights. We’re accustomed to that by now. But even by their own standards, it is shocking to see our legislative leaders use our own tax dollars to fund their attack on our rights.
Maybe House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder thought they could hide the fact that they’re paying an outside attorney $470 an hour. After all, it took a public records request to reveal this information.
Now that they’ve been caught, Republican legislators should show the people of Idaho some respect and end their involvement in the court case immediately. If they’re going to attack our constitutional rights, they should pay for it with their own money — not ours.
Sam Sandmire is a volunteer organizer for Reclaim Idaho, the grassroots group that spearheaded the citizen ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in Idaho.
