Legislative Inertia Could Prove Costly

It’s official. The 1999 Legislature has failed Idaho’s children miserably by not addressing the state’s overriding issue: the huge backlog of school building needs.

Among other things, the overwhelmingly Republican body refused to let voters decide if the state should lower its two-thirds supermajority to pass school bonds. Legislators wouldn’t even consider a proposal to raise the sales tax to fund school construction. And last week the Idaho House shot down the last two major plans to deal with building needs, estimated to be as high as $700 million.

After the coup de grace Wednesday, lawmakers worried that their lack of accomplishment on this issue will haunt them. It should. By failing to act, the Legislature has exposed state taxpayers to a possible massive lawsuit payout.

A group of school districts have sued the Legislature, claiming that it has failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide safe, adequate schools. The suit should go to trial soon. Four years ago, in similar circumstances, a court in Arizona ordered the state to spend $400 million for school construction. Idaho easily could pay that price for poor legislative leadership.

It’s a shame that the courts have to decide such matters. In Idaho, however, it’s also a necessity.

“Every year the Legislature does nothing,” said Robert Huntley, the former Idaho Supreme Court justice who is representing the school districts in the lawsuit. “It makes it easier for me to convince a court that the only solution is for the court to provide leadership.”

Certainly, The Idaho Spokesman-Review is not saying every school construction bill proposed this session was a good one. But there were some that offered help, including one that called for property tax increases without a vote to fix specific critical safety problems in schools. The bill died on a 34-34 vote Wednesday. Legislative leaders didn’t like it, but they backed it in an effort to undercut the school districts’ lawsuit.

The North Idaho delegation has performed as poorly as the rest of the Legislature on the school construction issue. In fact, state Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, took the lead in shooting down a promising bill that would have tapped endowment fund earnings for school construction. In other words, the Legislature could have helped build schools without raising taxes.

Afterward, Clark made excuses by arguing it was too late in the session for a new bill to become law. Maybe he was right. However, North Idaho lawmakers, all of whom have served for at least one term, have no excuse for failing to use their clout earlier in the session to force the Legislature to act. The time for being seen and not heard is over.

If the inertia of the 1999 Legislature causes the courts to order a costly, wholesale school fix, these lawmakers should be held accountable.