Judge hears arguments in Oneida funding lawsuit

BOISE (Idaho Ed News) — An Ada County judge took no action Thursday on a multimillion-dollar legal dispute between an Eastern Idaho school district and the state.

The Oneida School District says a 2024 change in state law stripped away at least $7.8 million that the district expected to put toward a $29 million elementary school project.

“Those rules were changed,” Tyler Anderson, an attorney representing the district, said during a Thursday afternoon hearing.

The state’s attorneys are arguing to dismiss Oneida’s lawsuit. They say the district committed in 2023 to use bonds to pay for the school — and the 2024 law doesn’t change that.

“There’s no new liability that has been created,” said James E.M. Craig, Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s civil litigation and constitutional defense chief.

The case centers on House Bill 521 — the complicated 2024 law that put $1.5 billion of state money into school buildings. The law eliminated a bond levy equalization program, and that’s where Oneida had hoped to collect the $7.8 million.

A follow up 2024 law muddled the matter further. It would allow schools to collect what they expected from the equalization program, but only if they had collected property taxes in 2023 to pay off a bond. Oneida collected no such taxes in 2023.

District Judge Jason Scott said he will issue a ruling “in the not-too-distant future.”

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