Anderson deserves praise for his stand

Recently I called Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, to tell him that I was proud of him for taking a public stand on the Legislature’s need to have some meaningful ethics review for Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol.

It is never easy to stand alone in the face of colleagues’ disapproval on a matter of principle, but there are several actions of Phil Hart that appear to be in stark conflict with his elected position as a state lawmaker.

I personally found it very disturbing that a state elected official would steal timber from Idaho endowment lands and be allowed to not answer for his actions. That is literally stealing from the public education funds of Idaho — something no one should do without recompense.

Not paying state income tax is a bit more personally convoluted, because I suspect none of us like to do that, but it seems an odd stance for the a member of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.

In a time when ethics seems such a missing ingredient in so many levels of elective politics, I found it refreshing to have a local legislator speak out for the principle of the matter and I thought I should, too.

STEVE KLATT

Sagle