Bill to offset U of I costs from student murders passes House

COEUR d’ALENE — A bill that would provide the University of Idaho with $1 million to help offset some of the costs resulting from the murder of four college students last November was passed Thursday by the Idaho House of Representatives and is headed for a Senate vote.

House Bill 222 passed the House by a vote of 56-14 and was opposed by North Idaho House members. It provides funds to partially reimburse the university for increased campus security and Idaho State Police patrols, student counseling, a vigil and other expenses in the wake of the murders of Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen.

Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen were from Kootenai County.

Gov. Brad Little’s office expressed gratitude Thursday for legislators’ support of the bill.

“As Idahoans across the state continue to mourn this devastating loss, Gov. Little sees this funding as a means to help rebuild feelings of trust, hope and security in the community,” said Madison Hardy, the governor's press secretary.

North Idaho legislators who voted against the bill include Reps. Joe Alfieri, R-Coeur d’Alene; Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens; Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene; Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene; Elaine Price, R-Coeur d’Alene; and Tony Wisniewski, R-Post Falls.

“I voted against the bill because of the nice, round figure of $1 million,” Alfieri told The Press. “I’m more than happy to support any bill that would reimburse for actual dollars spent, but the figure proposed seemed like a guesstimate, rather than actual costs.”

The $1 million request is “supplemental,” which means it’s meant to cover costs already incurred during the current budget year.

U of I President C. Scott Green told Idaho Education News in January that the university had already spent “well in excess” of $1 million on security after the murders.

“Our largest expenditure was for the Idaho State Police, who converged on Moscow in force,” Green told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee in January. “Their presence calmed and comforted our community.”

In general, Barbieri said, he doesn’t support supplemental budget requests for non-emergency funds.

“There was no representation that there is an ‘emergency’ justifying the expenditure to be included in the current fiscal year’s budget,” he said.

He said he believes the expenditure should be included in the 2023 budget.

“Including these amounts in next fiscal year’s budget will give a more accurate and straightforward way for citizens to gauge the amount of money being spent by the state in any given year,” Barbieri said.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation, in scoring this bill, wrote "Most of the services are truly unexpected and arguably necessary for the mitigation of the fallout from the incident."

The organization, which analyzes bills for lawmakers, said that a significant portion of the costs, according to the fiscal note provided to legislators on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, are for a physical security review and compliance and process review in the wake of the murders.

"It was not necessary for these internal reviews to be conducted before the new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2023," wrote the analyst for the Idaho Freedom Foundation. "Being that much of these expenses do not qualify as emergency expenditures, a supplemental of this size is not warranted."

Rep. Elaine Price emphasized that supplemental requests are for “urgently needed” funds.

“Many of these supplementals do have urgent items in them,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are also non-urgent items stuck in, bringing the total of supplemental way more than what the actual cost was for the urgent item.”

She said the House Education Committee requested the specific items the funds would cover.

“I have not seen them yet,” Price said.

The bill requires U of I to submit a report by Aug. 1 that includes an itemized list of all expenditures.