SB 1159: One rotten bill

Fellow Idahoans, if you are concerned about your right to be represented and have your voice heard, I call upon you to contact Representatives Addis and Amador to vote no and reject the misrepresented and misguided Senate Bill 1159. The bill was presented as a way to protect the equal representation of voters in rural areas. That claim has been refuted by state representatives of at least two of those rural areas.

In reality, SB 1159 is a response to the voter-passed initiative to expand Medicaid, and to protect the interests of the payday loan industry. That industry, which charges outrageous interest to their vulnerable clientele, has long resisted regulations that would make their interest rates less burdensome. It is interesting that the sponsor of Senate Bill 1159, Scott Grow, is being lobbied by the payroll lending industry, which was recently subject to more regulation by a voter-approved initiative in Colorado.

If the intent were to protect voters in rural areas, there would be no need to shorten the time allowed for signature gathering from 18 months to six months, nor to raise the number required from 6 percent to 10 percent, which would certainly result in more signatures from higher populated districts. SB 1159 is simply a blatant attempt to thwart the will of the people by making it nearly impossible to pass any initiative.

For more than 40 years, I have observed and followed the course of the Legislature, and for eight years, I was a member. To me, SB 1159 is one of the single most damaging bills ever considered in terms of what it does to the right of the people to have a voice in their government.

Abraham Lincoln called democracy “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” When those in power abuse the power entrusted to them by the people, we do not have democracy, we have tyranny.

GEORGE and KATHLEEN SAYLER

Coeur d’Alene