House Speaker Lawerence Denney said today that he supports an investigation into the actions of state Tax Commission Chairman Royce Chigbrow, amid allegations that he used his official position to help clients of his son's accounting firm and to help a friend in a business dispute. "Those are some very serious allegations against the chairman, and if he's found guilty I think the best he can hope for is to resign," Denney told Eye on Boise. "But again, they are allegations."  Click below for a full report from AP reporter John Miller.

daho House leader expects probe of tax chairman
By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho House Speaker Lawerence Denney said Thursday he supports an investigation into whether State Tax Commission Chairman Royce Chigbrow tried to use his official position to help clients of his son's accounting firm, as well as a political supporter.

Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower also said his office continues to look into Chigbrow's actions, including whether he violated Idaho laws that forbid disclosure of taxpayer information.

Denney, a Republican from Midvale, told reporters gathered at The Associated Press Legislative Preview at the Idaho Capitol that the allegations into Chigbrow's professional conduct are serious.

"We do need to be as open as we can possibly be. In all these cases, the public has a right to see the sun shine on some of these things," Denney said at the AP's annual event. "I think those allegations are serious enough that they will be investigated. If there is something there, it will come out in those investigations."

Last month, the AP obtained e-mails and other documents highlighting Tax Commission employees' concerns about Chigbrow's intervention in at least two tax cases, despite a possible conflict of interest.

The heavily redacted records were among those collected by the Idaho attorney general's office while representing the Tax Commission in a separate, pending lawsuit that alleges commissioners have given politically connected taxpayers secret sweetheart deals for years.

In one instance, employees say Chigbrow sought to assist Benton "Skip" Hofferber, an Idaho businessman who supported Chigbrow's unsuccessful 2006 run for state controller. Hofferber is fighting with his former employer, Boise Food Service, after being fired in October 2009.

Employees say Chigbrow summoned them to his office to provide details of collection actions against the company to Hofferber, even though Hofferber wasn't entitled to it; took checks from Hofferber at a private dining club in Boise; inappropriately handled the checks, resulting in a Boise Police investigation last spring; and sought to block a refund to the company last May, after it brought its tax payments current.

In another instance, employees say the chairman intervened in early 2010 on behalf of a client of his son's Boise-based accounting firm to reduce a payment plan to remedy delinquent taxes, despite objections of Tax Commission staff.

At the AP's legislative event Thursday, Otter also responded to a question about Chigbrow and whether he's asked for the chairman's resignation — with just two words.

"No comment," the governor told reporters.

Otter appointed Chigbrow to his current post in 2007, but the two men are longtime Republican allies: Chigbrow was Otter's campaign treasurer when he was elected to Congress; now, the chairman's son, Cordell Chigbrow, is Otter's gubernatorial campaign treasurer.

Bower told the AP Thursday that a Sept. 27 letter he wrote to the Idaho attorney general's office indicating there would be no criminal probe was focused solely on the lawsuit's allegations that commissioners had improperly settled tax protests.

But Tax Commission employees' questions about Chigbrow's conduct remain unresolved, he said. Bower this week received a new request for an investigation from Robert Huntley, the Boise lawyer who filed the lawsuit against the Tax Commission.

"The rest of the allegations, from the whistleblowers in the Tax Commission, will be studied by us," Bower said. "We continue to pay attention to this situation, and listen to what we're being told."

Huntley told the AP on Thursday he provided Bower with examples of laws he believes Chigbrow violated. Those include allowing Hofferber to question state employees about Boise Food Service's tax case, as well as instructing employees not to deposit checks from the company within 24 hours, as is required.

Tax commissioners who knowingly divulge confidential information face up to $5,000 in fines, five years in jail and forfeiture of their office if convicted, according to Idaho statute.

Royce Chigbrow declined to comment on Thursday on an investigation into his conduct.

Previously, the chairman said he sometimes receives requests for assistance from friends or his son's accounting firm, Chigbrow, Ryan & Co., but that he doesn't interfere with how the cases are resolved.

"On occasion, I receive questions from taxpayers or tax preparers I am acquainted with," Chigbrow wrote Dec. 15. "While I have forwarded these inquiries to employees of the Tax Commission, I have, in forwarding such items, never attempted to influence the final outcome or result."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.