Proclamation to tap state fund to repay ranchers for stockwater lawsuit legal fees passes House
House Speaker Scott Bedke left the speaker’s chair this morning to debate in favor of HP 1, a proclamation calling for Idaho’s Constitutional Defense Fund to be tapped to reimburse ranchers for legal fees in their successful private lawsuit in 2007 over stockwater rights. “They on their own dime by their own private volition perfected a public right for everyone,” Bedke told the House.
“I’ve got all the things we’ve used the money for over the years, and that’s mostly to pay for lawsuits that we’ve lost. Well, this is a lawsuit for private entities. … It maybe doesn’t actually fit here, but we have precedent where private interests that perfect public rights are paid back for their efforts.”
Bedke said, “I think there’s wrong out there that needed to be righted.”
Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, co-chair of the Legislature’s joint budget committee, told the House, “I agree with everything that’s been placed on my desk, I agree with the problem that’s here.” However, she said, “The constitutional defense fund was put in place for the governor’s use,” along with the House speaker and the Senate president pro-tem, “for a judgment against the state of Idaho.”
Bell said, “It troubles me a little bit that they need the help, but it troubles me more a little bit that we might be stepping out in a place where we would continue to have to go, and continue to find funding for the constitutional defense fund. Thank you.”
Bedke noted that an Idaho Attorney General’s opinion says such a move would be unconstitutional – amounting to using public funds for a private purpose. Saying he disagreed, he asked House members to “vote your conscience.”
Rep. Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, the measure’s House sponsor, urged support. “This is the right way to encourage the righting of an injustice,” she said.
The House then took a voice vote on the proclamation – and while it was divided, with a number of “nays” audible, the majority clearly voted “aye” and the proclamation passed. As a proclamation, under joint rules of the House and Senate, it now moves directly to the floor of the Senate, with no Senate committee hearing.
