School District Flier Called A Violation

Advocates of the property tax-cutting One Percent Initiative have formally accused the Idaho Falls School District of violating state campaign laws in distributing a flier laying out arguments against the proposition.

Idahoans for Tax Reform claimed that the group that acting School District Superintendent John Murdoch said paid for the flier had not complied with campaign finance disclosure laws.

It also charged that mailing the flier under the district’s bulk mailing permit amounts to illegally spending tax money to advocate a position on an initiative.

The school district and the organization have until Nov. 1 to respond to the complaint that was filed on Wednesday.

Murdoch said on Tuesday that the flier was printed by a group called Friends of District 91, which is financed by private donations. He said the flier was included in a mailing the district was already making for other purposes so there was no additional cost incurred by the district.

The complaint points out that the Friends of District 91 is not registered with the state as a political committee and has filed no campaign finance disclosure reports as political committees are required.

But under state law, any person, business or organization that has not registered a political committee and spends money on a ballot issue independently of the formal committees advocating and opposing the issue need only report that expenditure 30 days after the election. That law requires no registration or pre-election reports.