Idaho Legislature kills ‘Too Great for Hate’ license plate on last days of ‘hateful session’

In its final vote of the session, the Republican-dominated Idaho House killed a bill to create an Idaho “Too Great for Hate” license plate. The vote took place on the bill sponsor’s final day in office.

The stunning vote happened while the Senate was in session across the rotunda and senators were making their farewell speeches and honoring retiring senators, including Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, who sponsored the “Too Great for Hate” license plate bill, which benefits the Anne Frank Memorial/Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise.

“Clearly (the House vote) wasn’t about license plates,” Buckner-Webb said during a Democratic caucus press conference on the session’s end.

Buckner-Webb, the Legislature’s only black lawmaker, is retiring after 10 in years in office.

Approving the license plate bill would not have cost taxpayers a dime. The additional cost to purchase the plate and annually renew it covers the Idaho Transportation Department’s manufacturing and administrative costs with the remaining money going to the Anne Frank Memorial in Boise.

“The failing vote on the final bill of the session — the Too Great for Hate license plate — is an exclamation point on a legislative session that was full of attacks on under-represented, under-served, marginalized, and vulnerable Idahoans,” Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, told the Statesman.

“After such a hateful session, this plate would have served as a nice reminder to some of the members of the body. The irony is painful,” she said.

Two Idaho bills, two outcomes

The Senate passed the “Too Great for Hate” bill on Feb. 24 in a 28-7 vote.

The next day the bill, Senate bill 1297, was transmitted to the House Transportation and Defense Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, for a public hearing. The bill languished there for three weeks without getting a committee hearing.

Last session, Buckner-Webb introduced an identical bill, which sailed through the Senate. When Palmer, then chairman of the House Transportation Committee, received it, he effectively put it in a drawer, never giving it a hearing, and the bill died.

This time, Palmer finally decided to give the bill a public hearing on March 16. The committee agreed to advance the bill and forwarded it immediately to the House floor where it was placed on the reading calendar, but nothing happened. Since Monday, dozens of other bills have been swiftly transmitted between the two chambers and quickly moved up the reading calendars in order to wrap the session, but nothing was done with the license plate bill.

Until late Thursday afternoon.

In a surprise move and what became the final vote of the session, the House took up the “Too Great for Hate” bill. It failed to pass.

No Republican House members spoke to debate against the bill.

The bill failed on a 30-32 vote. No Democrats voted to kill the bill.

Republican lawmakers made quick work, though, of passing a “Choose Life” license plate bill this session. The anti-abortion plate benefits Choose Life Idaho.

The Senate passed Senate bill 1249 in a 26-9 vote on Feb. 11. House Transportation Chairman Palmer promptly gave the bill a committee hearing in the House, which advanced to the House floor. The House on Feb. 24 passed the bill in 55-12 vote. Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law March 4.

Only two Republicans voted against the “Choose Life” bill, Sens. Abby Lee, Fruitland, and Jim Woodward, Sagle. Both have said they vote against all specialty license plate bills.

Coronavirus concerns played a role

The “Too Great for Hate” bill failed by two votes.

Five House Democrats were absent on Thursday because they did not want to be in the Capitol due to coronavirus concerns.

One of their concerns: Three Republican House members — Heather Scott, Blanchard; Tammy Nichols, Middleton; and Priscilla Giddings, White Bird — attended the Feb. 29 Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Maryland. At least one conference attendee has tested positive for coronavirus.

Central District Health spokeswoman Christine Myron confirmed to the Statesman on March 10 that it and two other Idaho health districts “were involved in follow up conversations with three legislators identified as having attended the conference where someone tested positive for COVID-19.”

“Two of the legislators were determined to be low-risk based on their responses to assessment questions asked by public health, they were given appropriate information for self-monitoring; while one legislator declined our requests to respond to public health risk assessment questions,” she said. She would not say which lawmaker declined.

Had those five Democrats been present — Reps. Ilana Rubel, Boise; Steve Berch, Boise; Sue Chew, Boise; Muffy Davis, Ketchum; and Chris Abernathy, Pocatello — they would have voted for the bill, and it would have passed.

“Clearly, there was a move afoot,” Buckner-Webb said during Thursday’s Democratic caucus news conference.

“I’m not going to throw labels and stuff around right this minute, but I will tell you that there’s a problem,” Buckner continued. “If we look at the legislation that has been passed over this entire session, over and over again, it seems somewhat discriminatory and directly focused on underserved and underrepresented populations and this would seem to be in line. Even though this is saying we all are too great.”

House GOP leadership — Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley; Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star; Minority Leader Jason Monks, R-Nampa; and Caucus Chairwoman Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett — also held a news conference late Thursday on the session’s end.

When asked why the House voted down the “Too Great for Hate” bill, the four leaders looked at each other and concurred they had voted for the bill.

“You are are asking the wrong crowd as to why people voted no,” Blanksma said.

She gave no other comment or explanation.

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 7:19 AM.