Booting may soon be recognized by the state as legal - East Idaho News
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Booting may soon be recognized by the state as legal

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BOISE — If a new bill passes the Idaho legislature, the booting debate in Rexburg may finally be over.

Senate Bill 1284, sponsored by Senate Pro Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, will allow local governments to include booting as a means of parking enforcement. It was introduced in the state legislature Friday.

“This was a product of what was going on in Rexburg but it does affect the whole state,” Hill told EastIdahoNews.com. “In light of that, it just gives municipalities the option of providing for booting within their jurisdictions if they so choose.”

The bill stipulates that parking enforcement companies must have a written contract with the property owner to boot or tow any vehicles on the property. Also, vehicles cannot be booted unless the parking facility has proper signage posted at every entrance.

The bill has language that would allow the owner of the vehicle to recover damages from parking enforcement companies if, by booting or towing, the vehicle is damaged.

“I have never been in favor of predatory booting and I am still not in favor of predatory booting,” Rexburg City Councilmember Chris Mann told EastIdahoNews.com. “I’m just as concerned about predatory towing, but when the state law was written about towing or immobilizing vehicles, booting wasn’t really around. So, in many ways, Sen. Hill’s bill is a cleanup bill of language.”

Mann explained that the bill does not allow for predatory booting and it just permits booting to be used as a form of parking enforcement.

“All it does is add to towing so that if property owners want to use the less invasive method of booting rather than towing and at less expense to the person, then they have that option,” Hill said.

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