February 24, 1995
The Idaho Statesman
Special interests protected

An Idaho Senate committee this week took the first step toward sanctioning a ranching cartel and giving it control over the state's grazing leases. The bill granting ranchers preference for the leases deserves short shrift when the full Senate takes it up next week. Clearly, the backers of this ill-conceived measure intend to demonstrate that they won't be bound by the Idaho Constitution. That document requires state lands to be managed for maximum, long-term financial return. Yet the bill's supporters are more interested in making sure that one special interest group is protected from competition for the leases.

What effrontery. What utter, arrogant disregard for their constitutional duty. The bill voted out to the full Senate by the Resources and Environment Committee is designed to prevent environmentalists from bidding on state grazing leases. In an apparent sop to environmental concerns, the bill requires ranchers to adopt environmentally sound range-management plans.

But this is not an environmental issue. It isn't even about ranching. It is about whether the state government jumps at the beck and call of special interests or whether it works for the general good of the people. In this case, the special interest just happens to be the ranching industry. But on another day it could be some other industry. This bespeaks of a standard operating procedure that seeks to protect the status quo instead of letting contending economic forces compete. Moreover, it keeps Idaho in the embrace of political cronyism.

Idahoans deserve better. They deserve a state government that keeps special interests at arm's length rather than rigs the system for the benefit of any single group.