The constitutional amendment on this year’s ballot needs to be understood in a more basic way than it has been previously explained. Most readers have a low opinion of the way rules are promulgated in Washington, D.C., and the amendment’s practical result will keep Idaho from running amuck the way Washington, D.C., has.

Most voters understand that there are three branches of government, each with its own duties and responsibilities, as well as limitations. While all three are elected in Idaho, the most responsive to the citizens is without a doubt the Legislature.

Some laws need no rules, like a law that makes it a crime to possess a firearm if a person is a felon. Some laws rely on rules that will need to be created in order for their intent to be implemented, because it can take far too much time for the Legislature to completely create all the nuanced portions of a complex regulation. For example, can you imagine the gridlock created if the Legislature needed to write the Idaho driver’s handbook and enact it as a state statute? Instead, the Legislature delegates an agency to author and negotiate the rules that will fill out the nuts and bolts of the law, subject to a review by the Legislature to ensure the rules are what the Legislature intended, before they become official.

The rules then become active unless both the House AND Senate move to block a rule. As a lobbyist, I can assure you that this almost never happens, and when it does, there are very good reasons.

A few years ago, the Idaho Associated Logging Contractors shamefully pushed a rule that would have given special plum logging contracts to a few large contractors, in part based on how many trucks they had and what organizations they belonged to, instead of leaving it as an open bid to all qualified contractors. Todd Hatfield, who once ran for State Controller, singlehandedly led a crusade to block the rule, and both the House and Senate agreed and blocked it from becoming law. If not for the process that is in use and will be guaranteed under HJR 5, the rule would have become law.

In Idaho, the executive branch is easily swayed by lobbyists, and a rule being created is extremely difficult for a citizen to block. Many citizens tried to stop the Associated Loggers’ “crony-capitalism” rule during the rulemaking process, including myself, but it wasn’t until it horrified the Legislature that it was able to be stopped. Do we really want to allow some future court decision to remove this important safeguard?

Rules have the same effect as laws authored by the Legislature, and their creation should have a sign off process from the Legislature. The executive branch should enforce the laws, and not be allowed to create their own version of what they think the law should look like and then enforce their creation. Please vote yes on HJR5.

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Larry Spencer is Executive Director of the Idaho Property Owners Association.