Gregory (Greg) Lanting

Crane said any money for defending lawsuits would come from the state’s constitutional defense fund. Rep. Greg Lanting, R-Twin Falls, then asked Crane for an estimate of how much it would cost to defend the bill in court.

“I believe it to be constitutionally sound, and I think we are going to be just fine – so zero,” Crane told Lanting.

Often, it takes a week or more for a bill to be introduced, scheduled for a full public hearing and then sent back to the floor and taken up for a vote. However, Crane and other Republican legislators worked together to finish that entire process in just over 48 hours.

But three Idaho House Republican legislators voted against a bare-bones education budget. Some worried that separating basic funds from other budget areas like new spending requests — which the new process calls for — could result in cuts if additional budget bills aren’t passed.

“If they don’t pass, we’ve just cut education by quite a bit,” said Rep. Greg Lanting, R-Twin Falls, who voted against the bare-bones public schools budget.

The following day, the House voted 46-24 to override Little’s veto, falling a vote short of the two-thirds majority needed for override.

The no-confidence vote covers the 14 House Republicans who sided with Little and opposed the override: Reps. Matthew Bundy of Mountain Home; Richard Cheatum of Pocatello; Chenele Dixon of Kimberly; Rod Furniss of Rigby; Dan Garner of Clifton; Greg Lanting of Twin Falls; Lori McCann of Lewiston; Stephanie Mickelsen of Idaho Falls; Jack Nelsen of Jerome; James Petzke of Meridian; Jerald Raymond of Menan; Mark Sauter of Sandpoint; Kenny Wroten of Nampa; and Julie Yamamoto of Caldwell.