Huckleberries Online

Edit: Sali Specialty Plate Self Serving

Posted by DFO

Feb. 9, 2012 4:14 p.m. • 3 comments

There’s an old one-line joke: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.” If legislators bite on one of the most self-serving proposals entertained in the Capitol of late, the Idaho variant could soon be “In God we trust; now pay Bill Sali.” The former Idaho lawmaker and one-term Republican congressman has suggested Idaho offer license plates imprinted with “In God We Trust.” Several other states already offer such plates and, of course, every note of U.S. currency makes the same proclamation. And currency is very much on the mind of Sali, who never saw a government expenditure he couldn’t dislike. He, with his wife and nephew, have established an American Heritage Foundation that would take a fat cut off of every fee paid to purchase or renew one of the new plates. To wit: all but $13 out of the $35 for the plate, and the $25 for renewal/Spokesman-Review Editorial Board. More here.

Question: How can Sali or anyone else in the Idaho Legislature justify this specialty plate?

Three comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Sisyphus on February 09 at 4:23 p.m.
To paraphrase one of the best tweets I saw yesterday on the subject, leave it to Sali to make money on God AND the government at the same time.
Digger on February 09 at 4:30 p.m.
We could shut down these specialty plates in a hurry if we offered a Rainbow flag plate with all money going to the Pride Foundation of Idaho.
Ravenlady on February 10 at 6:50 a.m.
When I read of Sali forming a foundation with his wife and one of their financial schemes was to sell license plates with In God we Trust, I was apalled.
What the article didn’t say was that all of the license plates are produced in the prison in Boise. The proceeds go to the state. But, here comes a guy with a scheme to make money for himself. Then the bill is presented by our own schemer, Mr. Hart. Tell me this isn’t an ugly grab all you can from the public.

I don’t believe any of this situation is not clouded by dirty politics. Good old boys helping each other out. Who do I complain to in order to stop this one in the iinitial stage.

I also wondered why there weren’t more people upset by this under the table slide by the legislators.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.