By Ruth Brown and Logan Finney, Idaho Reports
After an unsuccessful vote Thursday to overturn Gov. Brad Little’s veto on the obscene library content bill, the Idaho Legislature adjourned sine die.
The House of Representatives voted 46-24 to override the governor and pass House Bill 314, falling one vote short of the two-thirds support needed to overturn a veto. There was no debate on the veto override vote.
Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, later asked to change her vote to a “no,” which would have made the vote 45-25, but another House member objected to Green’s request.
In Little’s veto letter, he took issue with the civil enforcement mechanism in the bill.
“Allowing any parent, regardless of intention, to collect $2,500 in automatic fines creates a library bounty system that will only increase the costs local libraries incur, particularly rural libraries,” he wrote. “These costs will be forced onto property taxpayers of Idaho or cause the libraries to close to minors altogether.”
It was a quiet day in the Senate while members waited for the outcome of the House override vote and processed their final paperwork to wrap up the session.
“I was hoping to protect kids,” HB 314 co-sponsor Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, told Idaho Reports of the House vote. “It was just disappointing.”
Adjournment came on the 88th day of the legislative session, after several major bills passed through the statehouse this year. There was a property tax relief bill that initially saw a veto, but lawmakers overruled the governor and passed another bill to address some of his concerns. The governor did sign another bill, HB 71, prohibiting all gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.
Neither chamber took up concerns from the Secretary of State’s Office regarding the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Secretary Phil McGrane told Idaho Reports that without legislative action, there will be no legal mechanism for political parties to request a presidential primary or for candidates to file for president in Idaho. The issue arose due to unaddressed details in HB 138, which eliminates Idaho’s standalone presidential primary in March and merges it with the primary for all other offices in May.
Idaho’s next regular legislative session is scheduled for January 2024. The governor has the power to call lawmakers back for an extraordinary session, or 60% of lawmakers can call the branch into a special session.
Ruth Brown | Producer
Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She’s since moved on to Idaho lawmakers. Brown spent 10 years working in print journalism, including newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press, where she’s covered everything from the correctional system to health care issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policy can impact the lives of regular Idahoans.
Logan Finney | Associate Producer
Logan Finney is a North Idaho native with a passion for media production and boring government meetings. He grew up skiing, hunting and hiking in the mountains of Bonner County and has maintained a lifelong interest in the state’s geography, history and politics. Logan joined the Idaho Reports team in 2020 as a legislative session intern and stayed to cover the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hired as an associate producer in 2021 and they haven’t been able to get rid of him since.
