Otter outlines Idaho highway bills for 2009
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
Thursday, December 4, 2008 10:43 AM PST
BOISE — Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter will ask the 2009 Legislature to boost the 25-cent-per-gallon state gas tax, increase registration fees for trucks and cars and pass a state rental car tax to help fix Idaho roads and bridges, an aide said Wednesday.
After failing to muster lawmaker support in 2008, Otter has renewed efforts to raise new highway money, concerned that Idaho Transportation Department funding has stagnated and can’t keep pace with repairs or new projects. Jason Kreizenbeck, Otter’s chief of staff, gave the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho business group a first glimpse of the governor’s plans.
Though specifics won’t emerge until January, Kreizenbeck said the car registration fee hike would raise an extra $15 million initially. Additional registration-fee and gas-tax increases would be phased in over five years, he said.
‘‘This plan is achievable and will begin digging us out of the hole,’’ Kreizenbeck told the group.
To win support from critics in the Legislature who believe the Idaho Transportation Department is inefficient, the governor has also ordered the state’s highway agency to immediately cut administrative expenses by 6 percent.
The agency hasn’t been subject to 4 percent, $130 million budget cuts Otter has ordered since September at most state agencies amid an economic downturn because the department doesn’t get money from the state general fund.
Otter will also ask several still-undisclosed executives from Idaho businesses to advise the Transportation Department on best practices and new performance standards.
‘‘The financial resources we already have and the new revenue we generate must be put to work as efficiently as possible,’’ Kreizenbeck said.
Department spokesman Jeff Stratten said a plan for administrative savings will be ready next week.
He said his agency hopes to eventually raise an additional $240 million annually, $136 million of which would go to the Transportation Department and the rest to local governments for their road projects and Idaho State Police. The state agency would use $45 million for rebuilding bridges and roads; $42 million to add lanes and improve safety; $40 million for preservation; and $10 million for operations.
The money does ‘‘not need to be generated in a single year, but is a target,’’ Stratten said. ‘‘Savings from our efficiency measures will be used to address the needs.’’
As the 2008 Legislature wound to a close, Otter withdrew an ambitious plan to raise $202 million annually for roads by 2011 through registration fee hikes after nearly all legislators scorned it. He then chastised them for a $68 million counteroffer, saying it was too puny to consider.
Clete Edmunson, one of Otter’s transportation advisers, declined to say how much money Otter plans to raise in 2009. Edmunson said a key difference this time around has been the governor’s efforts to keep lawmakers involved, including through seven recent meetings across Idaho to promote the plan.
‘‘The governor really is trying to work with the Legislature to craft a solution to the problem,’’ he said.
State Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell and chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, backed Otter’s plans a year ago. McGee praised Otter again Wednesday, saying he’s showing leadership — even in the face of tough economic times.
McGee is optimistic a federal stimulus plan now being debated in Washington, D.C., could send transportation dollars to Idaho, but he wants Idaho lawmakers to pass Otter’s measures because state-funded projects must undergo less regulatory scrutiny, potentially reducing costs.
‘‘When you use Idaho dollars, you can avoid some of the unnecessary federal environmental reviews,’’ McGee said.
