Gold bill that would reward Idaho far-right political donor rises from the grave again | Opinion

On Wednesday, the Senate State Affairs Committee recommended passage of House Bill 180, which would allow idle state funds to be invested in gold and silver.

HB 180 is identical to last year’s HB 522, which was sponsored by then-Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg. That bill was, in turn, quite similar to HB 7, which Nate introduced in 2021.

The bill is so persistent it has outlasted its author. Nate lost his re-election in May.

Now, he’s a lobbyist for the Idaho Freedom Foundation. His old bill is being carried by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Rep. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg.

It’s striking that a bill that has been rejected repeatedly keeps being reintroduced every year. And it tells you something about how the Idaho Legislature functions.

On a substantive level, gold is not at all a good investment for state idle funds — cash that will be spent soon but hasn’t yet been. Idaho has a lot of money in idle funds. Hart claimed there are about $10 billion in public funds that the bill would allow to be invested in gold.

(The latest report from the State Treasurer’s Office shows only $5 billion in idle funds. You would think these are the kinds of facts the committee would want to nail down before recommending the legislation pass. But what’s $5 billion between friends?)

Contrary to Nate’s assertions to the committee, gold isn’t good protection against inflation. Over the last year, gold has increased in value by only 0.3%. That’s a fraction of the return taxpayers typically get on one-year treasuries, and if you include inflation, it means taxpayers would have faced a substantial loss on any of their funds that the state invested in gold if the bill passed last year.

And the thing about gold is that it isn’t like a bond that can be easily bought and sold quickly. It’s a really physical commodity that has to be moved around, stored and protected from people who want to steal it.

Rep. Joe Palmer asked an important question: Where could the physical gold be stored?

There is an old vault with a massive, heavy door in the garden level of the Capitol. Perhaps in there?

“I think the lobbyists are using the vault right now,” Hart replied.

Perhaps that’s a reference to the fact that an old vault has been converted into a room that lobbyists are allowed to use as their in-Capitol office space.

Or maybe something else.

Because should this bill become law, there would be clear beneficiaries — not taxpayers, but people who are in the gold brokering business. To them, it means lots and lots of fees. Fees for transporting gold. Fees for buying, selling and storing gold.

And with a multi-billion-dollar potential new market, you can see why gold brokers such as Stefan Gleason, president of Eagle-based Money Metals Exchange, would like this bill.

Since 2020, Gleason and his company have showered nearly $70,000 on Idaho’s far-right candidates and PACs

— and that only includes donations that have to be disclosed; donations to the Idaho Freedom Foundation and similar entities are often secret.

Several of the recipients were in the room. Gleason gave $1,000 to Ehardt in October. He gave $2,000 to vice-chair Rep. Julianne Young in 2020. He gave committee member Rep. Heather Scott $2,000 in 2020 and another $1,000 in 2021.

Nate was the largest recipient of all, getting a total of $5,000 between 2020 and 2021.

You could be forgiven for speculating that these folks have motives other than taxpayers’ interests at heart.

So, I think it’s worth hearing Hart’s words a second time: “I think the lobbyists are using the vault right now.”

Yes, indeed.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.