Idaho legislators raise legitimate concerns, but crazy talk derails the message

With all of the passion and religious fervor of a good Sunday service, 15 Idaho state legislators met Tuesday morning to air their grievances and issue a proclamation opposing emergency orders and spending by Idaho Gov. Brad Little.

Although not officially a special session, the legislators met in House chambers, in front of a crowd of about 200 people in the gallery.

The legislators, all Republicans, in attendance were Reps. Heather Scott, Blanchard; Dorothy Moon, Stanley; Tammy Nichols, Middleton; Priscilla Giddings, White Bird; Tim Remington, Coeur d’Alene; Judy Boyle, Midvale; Christy Zito, Hammett; Vito Barbieri, Dalton Gardens; Ron Mendive, Coeur d’Alene; Mike Kingsley, Lewiston; Paul Shepherd, Riggins; Terry Gestrin, Donnelly; Brent Crane, Nampa; Chad Christensen, Ammon; and Tony Wisniewski, Post Falls.

Legislators made valid points and raised some legitimate concerns that should be addressed.

Namely, I think there’s a legitimate question of spending authority, as the Legislature is responsible for setting the state’s budget.

Mendive pointed out that he raised the alarm back in March that legislators probably were going to have to come back in June because COVID-19 and the shutdown were going to blow up the budget. He was right. Legislators Tuesday also pointed out that the governor established an advisory committee to spend $1.25 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money, without any legislative input. A legitimate criticism was raised that the state has hired 200 contact tracers, while only a fraction of that to handle unemployment claims, which the state has completely bungled.

The suggestion was made Tuesday morning to allow individual health districts to manage their stages of shutdown, which House Speaker Scott Bedke has suggested before. Wisniewski pointed to Washington’s phased county-by-county reopening plan. It might make sense to treat different districts in the state differently. We’re now doing that, with Central District Health Department taking Ada County back down to Stage 3 of reopening. It doesn’t make sense to make the whole state go back down a stage because of an outbreak in Boise.

All of these points are worth debate and discussion. Should all of these decisions be left to the governor? Perhaps not, and I’m sure some days Little wishes these decisions weren’t all on his plate.

Has he made mistakes? For sure.

But here’s the problem with the Republican-dominated Legislature: A lot of us have trouble trusting you. You come into the session every year and pass off-the-rails bills that end up costing our state hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

Your own meeting on Tuesday did not include any social distancing or masks. Your comments, while at times reasonable, veered into crazy territory with attacks on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci and, of course, “the media.”

In April, Scott tweeted a video, saying, “This is a great technical documentary tracking the source of the virus and explains some of the reason for fear.” The video, though, was false information and flagged as such. It was bunk. That’s not what we want legislators basing their decisions on.

At Tuesday’s meeting, contact tracing was framed as “the government taking babies away from their mamas.”

Good grief.

Scott, who once called Gov. Little “Little Hitler,” doubled down on Tuesday, calling him “a self-appointed tyrant.” She said we’re headed for a civil war.

Again, good grief.

Mendive used the Spanish flu as an example of how we didn’t “suspend the Constitution then,” failing to mention that we did enact restrictions at the time and even with those restrictions, 675,000 people died in the United States and 50 million worldwide.

Also, we’re not suspending the Constitution now, either.

Some of the legislators on Tuesday, notably Crane, Gestrin, Wisniewski and even Christensen, struck a more conciliatory tone and took a reasoned approach to making some valid points about spending, legislative authority and taking into account some of the “collateral damage” done by the shutdown orders.

All of these merit debate. But with all of the misinformation, disinformation, hyperbole and vitriol among some of the Republican legislators, you can understand why we’re hesitant to have the governor call you back in session.

Scott McIntosh

Opinion Contributor,

Idaho Statesman

208-377-6202

Scott McIntosh is the Idaho Statesman opinion editor. A graduate of Syracuse University, he joined the Statesman in August 2019. He previously was editor of the Idaho Press and the Argus Observer and was the owner and editor of the Kuna Melba News. He has been honored for his editorials and columns as well as his education, business and local government watchdog reporting by the Idaho Press Club and the National Newspaper Association. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, The Idaho Way. Support my work with a digital subscription