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Eye On Boise

Amid conflicting amendments, Rep. Scott’s bill to limit bond, levy elections derailed; link to full story

The Idaho House chamber, where on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, one North Idaho representative’s competing amendments derailed another North Idaho representative’s bill. (Betsy Z. Russell / The Spokesman-Review)
The Idaho House chamber, where on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, one North Idaho representative’s competing amendments derailed another North Idaho representative’s bill. (Betsy Z. Russell / The Spokesman-Review)

Coeur d’Alene Rep. Paul Amador successfully blocked Rep. Heather Scott’s amendment to her own bill limiting bond and levy elections on Friday, offering his own instead, and the bill ended up sidelined and may be dead for the session; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com

Scott, R-Blanchard, proposed legislation to forbid school districts, cities, counties, or any other Idaho taxing district that has a bond issue or tax levy measure fail from trying again – even with reductions or changes – for a year. She said she wanted to target “aggressive taxing districts” that “don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Amador wrote an amendment to remove the word “levy” – so that the limit would apply only to bond issues, which typically are for big proposals funded by multi-year debt. The House, in a narrow, unrecorded vote in its amending order on Friday, rejected Scott’s own technical amendment to her bill in favor of Amador’s. Then, Scott requested to return the bill to committee, and all amendments were dropped.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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