Yahoo Finance Gov. Little vetoes bill that would allow state investment in gold, silver. Here’s why
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Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued his first veto of the legislative session Monday, denying a bill from becoming law that would allow the state treasurer to invest cash into gold and silver.
Senate Bill 1314, sponsored by Sen. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg, and Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, sailed through the Senate last month by a 25-9 vote, with two Republicans joining the upper chamber’s seven Democrats in opposition. The bill then narrowly passed by three votes in the House, where Republicans also maintain a supermajority.
The proposed law is premised on the idea that investing a portion of idle state funds into physical gold and silver helps offset the risks of inflation. However, compared to more traditional investments such as government bonds and money market accounts, the precious metals market can be less predictable and more prone to volatility, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
In addition, securely storing such assets comes with fees, as does trading them down the road. But the bill’s fiscal note identified little to no financial impacts, which Little cited.
“While the Legislature sought to provide additional flexibility for the state’s investment portfolio, we have a fiduciary responsibility to manage taxpayer dollars with the utmost care and caution,” the Republican governor wrote in a transmittal letter. “This legislation and its fiscal note fail to take into account the many additional costs that will be borne by taxpayers for the storage, safeguard and purchase of commodities such as gold or silver.”
A version of the same bill was introduced in the House in each of the three prior legislative sessions. It passed resoundingly in 2021 and again in 2022, both times sponsored by then-Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg. After he failed to win re-election, Ehardt took up the charge and it passed the House once more in 2023, but with less enthusiasm.
In each previous attempt, though, the bill never received a vote in the Senate. This session that finally changed, as the bill took steps forward on the fourth try with the upper chamber’s support before it landed for the first time on Little’s desk.
In a phone interview with the Statesman, Ehardt said she was disappointed Little declined to sign the bill. Going forward, she said she would explore more options, such as revising the bill or working with fellow lawmakers to find other ways to shore up the state’s investments.
“No one wants their legislation to be vetoed, but I also understand that without more consensus on the House side, it’s not as easy to sign legislation that’s not more fully supported,” Ehardt said. “Those of us who believe in protecting our assets with gold against the failure of the U.S. dollar need to do a better job of helping our colleagues to understand why this is of value to Idahoans.”
Bill backed by precious metals dealer
Stefan Gleason is president and CEO of Eagle-based precious metals dealer Money Metals Exchange and has promoted the bill. He founded the company in 2010 and it’s since expanded to include his brother and his brother-in-law, Clint Siegner, who each live in the Treasure Valley, as co-owners, Gleason said in an email to the Statesman.
If passed into law, the bill would require that gold and silver bought with public funds be kept in an approved storage facility in the state, or in a neighboring state if one cannot be found within Idaho’s boundaries.
As part of Gleason’s business, his company offers a secure local depository. He said the company is nearly finished constructing a “world-class facility,“ which BoiseDev reported is a 46,000-square-foot depository in the heart of the city at a cost of up to $26 million.
“We support sound money legislation all over the nation, and other states have been embracing sound money, even as Idaho sadly dithers,” Gleason told the Statesman. “In fact, Utah’s governor just signed a similar bill last month and the Utah State Treasurer is tasked with coming up with additional legislative proposals to further facilitate the use of precious metals to enhance the financial security of the state.”
Gleason said Little’s decision has no “practical impact” on his family’s business. But, as Idaho taxpayers, he said the business owners are “deeply concerned” about the harm it causes to the state because current public investments continue to lose value compared to those in precious metals.
The price of gold, he noted, is up about 30% since the bill was first introduced in Idaho. Gold was trading at about $2,344 per ounce Tuesday, compared to about $1,823 in February 2021, according to the website Trading Economics.
Hundreds of thousands in political donations
Gleason, a wealthy entrepreneur who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, also has a history of political donations in Idaho.
Since 2020, Gleason and Money Metals Exchange have together donated more than $100,000 to conservative Idaho politicians and partisan groups that support them, secretary of state records showed. SMC Properties, another company owned by Gleason that shares a P.O. Box with Money Metals Exchange, has contributed $256,000 more, for a grand total of almost $360,000 in political donations in the state over four years.
Gleason and his companies’ contributions have mostly gone to the far-right faction of Idaho lawmakers, several of whom have sponsored the gold and silver investment bill over the past four legislative sessions, the Statesman previously reported. The two companies’ combined donations across four political action committees, including the Idaho Freedom PAC and the Idaho Freedom Caucus PAC, have approached $209,000, the records showed.
Siegner manages SMC Properties, an Eagle-based commercial real estate firm, Gleason told the Statesman. Siegner has personally donated more than $14,600 to PACs and far-right political candidates since 2021, the records showed. Of that total, $4,000 went to the Idaho Freedom PAC.
Nate, now president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation after his departure from the Legislature, is among the lawmakers to receive the largest amount in political donations from Gleason and his companies. He took in three maximum $1,000 contributions from Gleason and another three maximum $1,000 donations between Money Metals Exchange and SMC Properties — a total of $6,000. Siegner gave Nate another $1,500 in contributions.
Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, who cosponsored the bill last year after initially doing so the first year it was introduced while a representative, has received a total of $6,000 from Gleason and the two companies as well, the records showed. Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, another bill cosponsor, has received $5,000.
SMC Properties also donated $3,000 to Ehardt, and Gleason personally gave her another $1,000. SMC Properties has given Hart $2,000, the records showed.
Money Metals Exchange recently affirmed its commitment to Idaho’s right-wing political ideology in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Big gov't leftists like to trash Idaho family-owned businesses like ours, with our 100 amazing employees here in Eagle, stupidly thinking we'll stop supporting liberty-minded candidates & groups. FYI: the more they do it, the more we will give. In fact, we'll give another $1 for… https://t.co/XNka1HVBo4
— Money Metals Exchange (@MoneyMetals) February 18, 2024
“Big government leftists like to trash Idaho family-owned businesses like ours, with our 100 amazing employees here in Eagle, stupidly thinking we’ll stop supporting liberty-minded candidates & groups,” the company wrote in February. “FYI: The more they do it, the more we will give.”
Other prior gold and silver bill cosponsors included former Reps. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, and Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird. When both ran but failed in their bids for statewide office in 2022, Gleason and SMC Properties gave them each maximum donations totaling $10,000, the records showed. Earlier, he gave Moon — now chairwoman of the Idaho Republican Party — $1,000 on top of another $1,000 from Money Metals Exchange in 2020. Siegner chipped in another $1,500 for Moon and $500 for Giddings.
“It’s amusing but also a bit alarming to see the left in Idaho so viciously seek to delegitimize political participation by upstanding Idaho small business owners and taxpayers,” Gleason told the Statesman. “My brothers and I support conservatives proudly and we care deeply about promoting limited government, individual liberty, and low taxes. And frankly we will not be deterred from trying to help move the state toward those ideals, no matter what recriminations are leveled against our family, our business, and our 100 amazing employees.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a four-term Republican congressman and founding member of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus during that time, also is a recipient of Gleason and SMC Properties’ political donations. In his campaign for AG in 2022, Labrador received a combined $10,000 from Gleason in two $5,000 maximum contributions for the primary and general elections, and the company contributed another $10,000 as well, the records showed. Siegner supported Labrador with $1,000 of his own, the records showed.
Following Monday’s veto, a group that goes by the Sound Money Defense League and advocates for public investments in gold and silver, denounced the governor’s decision. The group, based in Charlotte, claims Gleason as its chairman.
“Little today vetoed legislation that would have enabled the Idaho State Treasurer to protect state reserve funds with an allocation to physical gold and silver, sending an ominous message to the state’s mining industry and investors,” the advocacy group said in a news release.
“Idaho is known as the Gem State and was first settled by miners,” Hart said in a statement included in the group’s news release. “Historically, a reliance on gold and silver is part of our state’s DNA.”
The Legislature, which is on a weeklong recess until Wednesday, can still override Little’s veto with a two-thirds vote in support of the bill from both chambers to make SB 1314 law.
Tuesday, April 9, at 8:09 p.m.: This story was updated to include comment from Rep. Barbara Ehardt.
