Judge Resurrects Idaho Ballot Measure Stopped by Covid-19

A federal judge has given new life to an Idaho ballot measure that would boost taxes on high earners and corporations to pay for schools that was presumed dead when proponents had to stop collecting signatures because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Grassroots advocacy group Reclaim Idaho was in the midst of collecting signatures in March for its initiative to increase revenue for schools when the pandemic hit. The group voluntarily pulled signature gatherers from the street a few days before the governor issued stay-at-home orders.

Reclaim Idaho—which sponsored a successful 2018 initiative to expand Medicaid in this overwhelmingly Republican state—was rebuffed by Gov. Brad Little (R) and Secretary of State Lawerence Denney (R) when the group asked for extra time and the ability to collect signatures online. So the group sued them seeking the same relief.

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The initiative calls for boosting tax rates by three percentage points on individuals with incomes over $250,000 or married couples with incomes over $500,000 and hikes the corporate tax rate from 6.925% to 8%. An estimated $170 million in new revenue generated by the tax increases would support K-12 education in a state Reclaim Idaho’s attorney told the court is dead last in school funding.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, ruling from the bench Tuesday, found that “tens of thousands” of Idaho students could be harmed and Reclaim Idaho’s First Amendment rights impaired if he allowed the initiative to die because it failed to meet the April 30 deadline to submit some 55,000 signatures.

State Has ‘Obligation’

“The state has an obligation when it is necessary to protect a First Amendment issue, which has been adversely affected by circumstances beyond anyone’s control, whether it’s a hurricane or pandemic,” Winmill said. “The state has a significant regulatory interest in how it conducts elections and what requirements it imposes on the initiative process. But those statutory requirements and regulatory interests have to give way when there’s a constitutional issue at stake.”

Winmill gave the state a choice that must be made by close of business Friday: either certify the initiative for the Nov. 3 ballot even though Reclaim Idaho has collected only about half the required number of signatures, or extend the deadline 48 days and allow the group to collect and certify the signatures through an online process.

The case is Reclaim Idaho v. Little, D. Idaho, 1:20-cv-00268, ruling from bench 6/23/20.