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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Loertscher pitches modest financial disclosure law for Idaho

Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, presented the Idaho Legislature’s campaign finance and ethics reform work group today with a draft bill to require Idaho’s first-ever financial disclosure from elected officials and candidates. “It’s pretty basic, and as you can see from the form it’s pretty simple, it’s not a complicated thing,” Loertscher told the panel. “And that was my desire at least, that it be pretty easy to do and not a complicated mess.”

Loertscher said he based his proposal on Utah’s disclosure requirements. It would require listing of the official or candidate’s employer and occupation, entities in which they’re an officer, income sources of more than $5,000 a year, stocks or bonds with a value of more than $5,000 a year, organizations or entities on which the official or candidate serves on the board or in another formal advisory capacity, real property holdings, and name of spouse and spouse’s occupation. That’s similar to the financial information GOP gubernatorial hopeful Tommy Ahlquist recently released.

Unlike federal financial disclosure forms for members of Congress, neither Utah’s law nor Loertscher’s proposal requires officials or candidates to specify their total income within ranges or list their liabilities, so it wouldn’t shine a line on their net worth.  

Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, co-chairman of the legislative panel, told Loertscher, “Good work. I read through this and I thought it was fairly simple and straightforward.” He advised lawmakers on the panel to review Loertscher’s proposal for consideration at the group’s next meeting.

Idaho is one of just two states with no financial disclosure requirements for any of its elected or appointed public officials, which often causes the state to earn poor grades when state ethics and transparency laws are compared.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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