BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
The Idaho Supreme Court has agreed to expedite a lawsuit over the Legislature’s move to revoke a planned sale of the Idaho Transportation Department campus.
The highest bidders for the agency's vacant 44-acre State Street headquarters filed a lawsuit with the state’s high court on April 25, alleging this year's ITD budget bill was unconstitutional.
In an order entered Wednesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Bevan wrote that the court would expedite the case and ordered the state to respond within 14 days.
The group of developers — Hawkins Companies, the Pacific Companies and FJ Management — had previously agreed to pay around $52 million for the campus. The deal had not yet been finalized when the budget-writing Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee included intent language in the transportation agency budget that withdrew the state from the planned sale. The budget provided $32.5 million to renovate the old building, which had been vacant since a flood in 2022, and move the agency back into it.
The intent language was also included in the budget for the Department of Administration, which would oversee the sale.
The group is arguing that the budget bills violate the state’s constitutional requirement that legislation address only one subject.
The intent language was the matter of heated debate among lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session, with the House and Senate leaders on opposing sides of the issue. Those who supported the bill said that revoking the sale and returning the agency to the vacant campus would be more fiscally responsible. Those who opposed it argued that budget bills should not include policy changes.
Eventually, the budget narrowly passed both chambers and Gov. Brad Little let it become law without his signature; he expressed concerns over potential reputational damage that the state could face because of the move and that the bill would unwind statutory policy around how agencies handle surplus property.
Little said at a press event Thursday that he felt the rest of the $592 million ITD budget was too important to veto the bill, which is why he allowed it to go into effect despite his concerns.
“A veto might have been a little risky,” Little said.
The single-subject requirement in the state Constitution is frequently debated in the Statehouse, but it is rarely challenged in court.
In the 1946 case American Federation of Labor v Langley, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that legislation cannot “embrace two subjects diverse in their nature, and having no necessary connection.”
However, some members of Legislature have broadly interpreted the rule and what can be considered connective tissue between different elements in a bill. For instance, when the sweeping school facilities bill HB 521 was questioned regarding the single-subject rule, House Speaker Mike Moyle and others said the common thread was taxes; the bill did a number of things including providing sales tax revenue for school facility maintenance, cutting income taxes, changing how the State Board of Education leaders are chosen, removing an election date for school bonds and levies, and setting some requirements and restrictions around four-day school weeks.
The developers in the ITD budget lawsuit argue that the Legislature was heavy-handed in stepping in to stop the competitive bid process. They are asking for the court to declare part or all of the ITD and Department of Administration budget bills unconstitutional and require the state to go through with the sale.
Dates for oral arguments in the case will be set at the court’s discretion, the court order said.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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