Idaho legislators want to call their own special sessions. Here’s what voters said
In addition to electing candidates, Idaho voters were asked two key questions on their November ballot this year.
The bigger of the two involved an amendment to the Idaho Constitution around legislative special sessions. The other asked about this year’s special session and was meant to provide guidance to the Legislature.
Legislative power to call special session
Senate Joint Resolution 102 was a proposed amendment to give the Legislature the power to call itself back in for a special session — something only the governor may do as it stands now.
If a simple majority of Idahoans voted yes, legislators would be able to call themselves back into session 15 days after submitting a written request with approval from 60% of the House of Representatives and 60% of the Senate.
With all but one county reporting full results Wednesday, 52% had voted yes to affording legislators the chance to call a session for themselves. The vote was tight much of the night, and the lead swapped several times when updated results came in. The measure led by more than 14,000 votes with results still incomplete from Kootenai County, home of Coeur d’Alene and the state’s third-largest county, with 178,000 residents.
Republican lawmakers had been working on the bill that put the resolution on the ballot since 2020, after they fought to get Gov. Brad Little to call a special session in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their party’s supermajority in the Legislature would make it easy for them to clear the 60% threshold if the measure passes.
“Give us a fighting chance, as a Legislature, to do the things that we need to do … particularly when it comes to appropriating funds and dealing with extreme, long-term emergencies,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said during a 2021 debate, before lawmakers approved the resolution putting the question to voters.
Leading up the election, powerful voices in Idaho spoke out against the constitutional amendment. Former Idaho Gov. Butch Otter warned in a column that the amendment would be costly — the Legislature racks up about $30,000 per day when in session — and could lead to “a full-time Legislature like California and other left-leaning states.”
“The least regulated states — like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota — have truly part-time citizen legislators,” Otter wrote.
The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, Idaho’s largest business lobbying group, said giving legislators the ability to call special sessions whenever they wanted would lead to bigger, more expensive and less predictable state government, according to an interview its president had with Idaho Statesman opinion editor Scott McIntosh.
Alex LaBeau pointed to Republican-dominated Utah, which gave its Legislature that power four years ago, as a cautionary tale. LaBeau noted the Idaho’s neighbor called itself into session six times last year.
Legislature tax guidance
Also on the ballot was an advisory question asking voters whether they approved of the Legislature spending an extra $410 million in sales tax revenue on education programs and public schools, creating a flat-rate income tax of 5.8% and issuing $500 million in income tax rebates.
The Legislature approved these items in a bill passed during a special session called by Little in September. Legislators may use the results of the ballot question when deciding whether to move forward with the bill. However, the question was not binding, meaning its results carry no requirement.
With all but one county fully reporting, a resounding 79.9% of voters said they approved.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 8:34 PM.
