State Workers’ United Way Time Challenged Rankin Threatens Court Action Over Practice Expanded By Andrus

Anti-tax activist Ron Rankin told Gov. Phil Batt on Monday to terminate full-time work on an annual charity drive by three state employees or face justifying the practice in court.

Batt spokeswoman Amy Kleiner said the governor has questions about the propriety of the practice and is reviewing it. But she said the new campaign was already under way when Batt took office in January and he decided to let it go ahead for this year, although he made some changes.

Rankin, in a letter to the governor, said the use of state employees as full-time workers for two months each year on the United Way campaign in Boise amounts to an illegal donation of tax money to charities.

“Legality notwithstanding, this is a poor public policy precedent for a new administration, which promised a change from the liberal practices of the Andrus administration,” wrote Rankin, whose independent gubernatorial campaign last year failed to achieve his goal of denying Batt the election victory. Rankin polled less than 4 percent.

At issue is the use of three workers this year for two months to promote the United Way charity campaign among the thousands of state employees working in the capital city. The policy has been in place for years on a limited basis and was expanded four years ago by then-Gov. Cecil Andrus to all of state government.

Although he allowed the practice to continue this year, Batt changed it so that state employees could designate their contributions to statewide charities as opposed to just those represented by the Ada County United Way organization.

“The governor is concerned about whether this is a proper role,” Kleiner said, “and it’s something we’re going to look at.”

Kleiner said Batt was advising Rankin of that position by letter.

Rankin contended that if the three state employees could give their attention fulltime for two months to the charity drive, possibly there is no need to have them on the state payroll to begin with. But Transportation Director Dwight Bower, whose supervisor for the Adopt-A-Highway Program is one of the three working on the charity drive, said the state work is not left undone. His manager, Wally Turk, has been attending to his state responsibilities by coming into work early each day and is being helped by a co-worker as well.

But Rankin was unswayed.

“Should there be a question in your mind as to the legality of this practice, we will be obliged to let the courts make the ultimate decision,” Rankin wrote.