OpinionFebruary 23, 2024

Cheers & Jeers: The Tribune’s Opinion

Raul Labrador
Raul Labrador
Brady Woodbury
Brady Woodbury
Bruce Skaug
Bruce Skaug
Phil McGrane
Phil McGrane
Judy Boye
Judy Boye

JEERS ... to Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador.

After wasting your tax dollars, he’s about to blow through some more.

Labrador sued the State Board of Education contending it violated the state’s open meeting law last year while reviewing the University of Idaho’s proposal to acquire the for-profit, online University of Phoenix for $685 million. That forced the State Board to hire its own attorney. As Idaho Education News’ Kevin Richert reported, the State Board’s legal bills so far amount to $275,000.

With the acquisition so controversial, the ever-opportunistic Labrador gained some headlines by challenging it. Standing in his way was this one fact: In going into executive session, the State Board was following the advice of Labrador’s own deputy. Ada County District Court Judge Jason Scott said as much when he ruled in the State Board’s favor.

Having prevailed, the State Board wants its legal bills paid. Regardless of which pot it comes from — the State Board’s budget or Labrador’s office — it’s still taxpayer money.

Labrador, however, wants to appeal Scott’s ruling to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Why?

Sponsored by the bipartisan pair of House State Affairs Committee Chairperson Brent Crane, R-Nampa, and Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, a measure calls on the State Board to reconsider. Legislative hearings are the proper forum for this policy dispute. This is, after all, a separate branch of government with oversight responsibilities. And the Crane-Gannon measure would empower legislative leadership to bring a legal challenge of its own.

Among the sources they could draw upon are former State Board President Rod Lewis, who, in a recent newspaper column, raised serious questions about the deal’s financial risks.

They could also bring in representatives of Moody’s Investors Service. As Richert reported this week, Moody’s said the University of Phoenix acquisition could provoke a “multi-notch downgrade” in the UI’s bond rating.

Against all that, what would Labrador accomplish by continuing a costly and redundant legal challenge along such narrow lines? Whether he wins or loses, you’ll end up paying for both sets of lawyers.

CHEERS ... to Asotin County Public Health Director Brady Woodbury.

In a matter of days, he provided unhoused people sleeping at Clarkston’s Foster Park with two portable toilets — a basic human service denied them for months while they were camped near Walmart. After the city determined the site was private property, the homeless were dispersed. Foster Park was presented as an alternative where those without housing could sleep.

By surmounting the liability issues that confronted the city of Clarkston during the Walmart encampment, Woodbury and his colleagues provided basic sanitation services. This is one community and everyone has a stake in that.

“This is a really simple step,” Woodbury told the Lewiston Tribune’s Rachel Sun. “But I think it actually kind of is some signal that there might be some walls coming down. People can work together.”

JEERS ... to Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa.

If the House Judiciary Committee chairperson would prefer to be a stand-up comic, he can be replaced in the Legislature.

Case in point: His attempt to subject anyone caught with small amounts of marijuana to a mandatory minimum $420 fine.

Get it? Four-twenty is slang for getting high.

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Tuesday, Skaug told the House State Affairs Committee that he had “smoked out” the problem in an earlier version of his bill and he double-checked the alterations with his assistant “Mary Jane.”

A regular Henny Youngman, isn’t he?

All joking aside, many Idahoans can obtain marijuana legally across the border in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Nevada. Unless someone goes out of his way to get caught or is engaged in more serious transgressions while in possession of small amounts, law enforcement has bigger problems to deal with.

Where is this coming from? Not public sentiment. In a 2022 Survey USA poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman, 68% of Idahoans supported legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Talk about the nanny state.

CHEERS ... to Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane.

For the second year in a row, he’s backing a plan to get more information about candidates to the voters — at no additional cost to the taxpayer.

Each election cycle, McGrane’s office prepares and distributes a pamphlet that outlines ballot measures and limited information about voting. To that, he wants to add a modest amount of information provided by the candidates at the local and state level.

That’s the norm in many states — and 78.2% of Idahoans told the Boise State University Public Policy Survey they support doing the same thing in their state. So do the free-market Mountain States Policy Center, the League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

But Crane’s plan potentially faces obstacles in the House — where the idea died last year — because, as the Lewiston Tribune’s Laura Guido noted, the Idaho Freedom Foundation opposes it.

JEERS ... to Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, and Sen. Chris Trakel, R-Caldwell.

They’re going one better than Skaug.

Their bill would impose misdemeanor penalties on anyone who “willfully publishes any notice or advertisement, in any medium, within the state of Idaho for a product or service that is illegal under the laws of the jurisdiction where the product or service is offered, including federal, state, or local laws. ...”

That’s supposed to discourage anyone from advertising in Idaho on behalf of dispensaries that operate legally in neighboring states.

What about the First Amendment? What’s the harm about telling people marijuana is legal across the state line?

And what’s the difference between advertising a pot shop in Ontario, Ore., and a casino in Jackpot, Nev.?

What about advertising national sports betting venues?

On the other hand, when Idahoans see such ads, they’re reminded their state is the outlier. Marijuana is legally available in more than 40 states — and in all but one of Idaho’s neighbors. Only a dozen states share Idaho’s prohibition on sports betting.

Are Boyle and Trakel protecting Idahoans — or are they afraid of what their own constituents would choose to do if given the chance? — M.T.

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