Friday, July 12, 1996
Post Register 
Members of the Post Register editorial board are Jerry M. Brady, publisher; 
Gene Fadness, J. Robb Brady, Bill Hathaway and Mei-Mei Chan.
Fox fights against school funding

On Tuesday, State Schools Superintendent Anne Fox voted to take less rather than more money for schools under a state land lease. A strange position for someone responsible for improving education. Fox voted with Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa and against the position of Gov. Phil Batt, Attorney General Al Lance and Controller J. D. Williams who prevailed on a 3-2 vote. At issue was whether the board should accept a bid by rancher Eldon Ward for the right to use 960 acres north of Island Park Reservoir for 10 years, a bid which included a $12,050 premium. Ward claimed he added the premium only to outbid the Idaho Watershed Project and shouldn't be required to actually pay the money. 

You read that right. Ward said his bid didn't count. He had his fingers crossed. The devil made him do it. And so on. Amazingly, that wacky proposition got two votes, one from the superintendent of education of all people. Cenarrusa - long an advocate of less-is-better when it comes to collecting money from grazing leases - reasoned the highest and best use of the land has been grazing for 90 years and "you can't change that." Right. As we all know, Island Park is a place where land use never changes and never will. Fox figured the Idaho Watersheds Project should be disqualified from bidding because it's trying to take over land to improve habitat along streams, not graze the land, thereby disrupting the cattle industry. But the Idaho Constitution says state lands should be managed to maintain the schools, not the cattle industry. Fox has got it all backwards. Gov. Phil Batt, Attorney General Al Lance and Controller J.D. Williams did the right thing. The Watersheds Project is helping finance the schools of Idaho by introducing competition into bidding for state lands. The board majority will let them continue to do so.

Ranchers are so accustomed to getting state land with ease that, earlier in the year, one even claimed he didn't have to bid because he was the incumbent and he would have bid if he thought he had to. Fortunately he lost, sending a signal that business will no longer be conducted with the usual coziness. After the vote Batt said the Legislature needs to clarify whether a non-grazer can bid on state land normally used for grazing. Last year the Legislature did vote to give grazers an edge but Batt's legal adviser says the Watershed Projects and others like them can still bid. That's as it should be. The project can never bid on more than a small fraction of state leases but it can keep everyone honest and can maximize revenue for the schools. And, by the way, what's so rotten about paying more money so state land can be rested and repaired? Isn't that in the best long-term interest of the state and its young people? - Jerry M. Brady