He Sued the Governor With Your Tax Money, Then Called it His Own.

Scott Herndon has spent years telling North Idaho that businesses who took COVID money were part of the problem. So it's a little awkward that Herndon Inc. of Sagle took a $10,000 Idaho Rebound cash grant in 2020, and it's on the state transparency portal for anyone to see. Pressed about it on Speak Up North Idaho, he explained that he used the money to sue Governor Little, reasoning that "I'm going to use the Governor's money, it was state money." It was not state money. It was federal CARES Act money, the exact program he's been clutching his pearls about, passed through a state program whose stated purpose was reimbursing businesses hurt by closures. Herndon Inc. certified it needed help staying afloat. Then the owner spent it on a lawsuit. Those are both fine stories. They are not the same story.

Which brings us to his April 8 post, where he says he filed that lawsuit "at my own expense." Not quite. He filed it at your expense, with a grant he condemns other people for taking, against the governor who signed the check. And the lawsuit itself? Filed April 30, 2020, the same day the stay-at-home order expired on its own. A federal judge tossed it as moot nine months later without ruling on a single claim. So the record is: took the money he says is poison, called it his own, and used it to sue over an order that was already gone by the time the clerk stamped the complaint. Call it a bailout. He would, if it were anyone else's name on the grant.