Cda Lawmaker Lobbies Against Lobbyists Bill To End Taxpayer-Financed Lobbying Has Alltus In Hot Water Back Home

Local officials in North Idaho knew they’d have a tough time convincing the Legislature to go along with four law changes they see as vital, so they hired a lobbyist.

They certainly didn’t expect one of their own lawmakers to introduce legislation to make that kind of lobbying illegal.

Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, proposed legislation this week to ban all lobbying using public funds. He zeroed in on Idaho’s associations of cities and counties, but his bill came just as Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Kootenai County have, for the first time, paid lobbyists $30,000 to push local issues.

“It’s the lobbying against the taxpayers that I don’t like,” Alltus said. “They have people called state representatives and senators they can talk to, to get that stuff done, rather than having to hire a lobbyist with taxpayer dollars.”

Local officials contacted in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls were united against Alltus’ proposal.

“If he was able to get the job done, that’d be great,” said Post Falls Mayor Jim Hammond. “The north is still under-represented down there. I think his time could be better spent working on something that will help our needs.”

Alltus, who suffered through a barrage of angry questions from his fellow lawmakers when he brought the bill to a committee Tuesday, said Wednesday that local officials never asked him to carry their bills.

He also said he opposed one of the four and wasn’t enthusiastic about a second.

The cities and counties want a chance to impose a local tax other than property tax; they want authority to charge impact fees; and they want better shares for North Idaho of the state’s sales and liquor tax revenues.

“I’m not really in favor of opening up the window of local option taxes,” Alltus said. “You’re never going to get that out of here. There are too many people that believe the people are getting taxed enough.”

He said he might support a development impact fee bill if it was strictly limited, including a cash limit of roughly $1,200 per home.

He’s “100 percent in favor” of the other two ideas. “Nobody’s asked me to help,” he said.

Alltus said he opposes publicly funded lobbying on principle. He noted that the cities and counties associations opposed Idaho’s successful term-limits initiative, which he said showed they were out of touch with the voters.

And he said he was upset when he received a newsletter from a school administrators’ group that opposed charter schools, school vouchers and tax credits for private school students, all ideas he supports.

“Here we have taxpayers’ dollars going for lobbying against what the people want,” he told the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Committee members weren’t swayed by Alltus’ reasoning. Fellow Republican Rep. Twila Hornbeck, R-Grangeville, asked Alltus repeatedly to explain how he knows better than the associations what the people want.

Other lawmakers said they thought the cities and counties associations provided them with useful information about what Idaho communities need.

Alltus asked the committee to print and introduce his anti-lobbying bill, a preliminary step often extended as a courtesy to lawmakers. But a half-dozen members of the 20-member committee opposed even going that far.

Rep. Milt Erhart, R-Boise, said the state tells cities and counties what to do and provides part of their funding. Given that, they have to be able to lobby for changes, he said.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Al Hassell said Alltus’ bill does “exactly what he says we shouldn’t be doing.”

“Mr. Alltus is trying to have the state’s government decide what local government should be doing,” Hassell said. “Mr. Alltus and I do not agree on this issue.”

Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton said he wished Alltus had better researched his legislation.

“He has never come and talked with us,” Compton said. “We sponsored a pizza get-together to tell legislators what’s on our agenda. Jeff never stepped forward and said ‘give me that and I’ll carry the ball.”’

Alltus said the only local official he discussed his legislation with was Ada County Commissioner Gary Glenn.

He did, however, consult with Bill Denman, head of a Sandpoint-based taxpayers’ group.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo