Otter vetoes at 35 after House dumps gas tax hike
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 10:19 AM PDT
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| House GOP Leader Mike Moyle (foreground), R-Star, answers questions during the House Leadership press conference at the Capitol Annex in Boise Tuesday. Also in attendance were House Assistant GOP Leader, Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, GOP House Speaker Lawrence Denney, R-Midvale, and House GOP Caucus Chair, Ken Roberts, R-McCall. |
BOISE — Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter vetoed 25 budget bills Tuesday, bringing his two-day total to 35, after the House voted 55-15 to reject gas tax and fee increases worth about $70 million a year.
Otter invited reporters to the ceremonial bill-killing in his Borah Post Office suite, where he reiterated plans to keep lawmakers in Boise until they provide more money to deal with a projected $240 million annual road maintenance shortfall.
The Republican governor had wanted the House to approve a two-year, 6-cent-per-gallon increase in Idaho’s 25-cent gas tax. That would be worth about $54 million annually after 2011.
He also sought $13 million in annual fee increases for the Idaho Transportation Department, including higher driver’s license fees. Both provisions were added Monday in the Senate to a House-passed measure that sought to dump a roughly $18 million tax exemption on ethanol.
Ethanol is now blended into 90 percent of Idaho gasoline.
‘‘I don’t know what else I can possibly do’’ but veto bills to get lawmakers’ attention, said Otter, who says not raising taxes and fees now will lead to higher future road construction costs.
‘‘If I don’t address that, it’s going to be 70 cents (per gallon) for my kids and my grandkids,’’ he said.
The 2009 Legislature, already the state’s second-longest, will mark its 101st day today.
Only four Republicans in the GOP-dominated House backed the gas tax and fee increases Tuesday, a sign representatives weren’t about to be told what to do. Eleven Democrats supported the measure.
The vote marked the sixth time this year representatives have dumped Otter’s plans to raise the gas tax. Proposals ranging from 2 cents to 7 cents per gallon have all gone down. House Majority Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, said his caucus is growing weary of repeated votes, but remains convinced that a recession and 7.1 percent unemployment make this a bad time to hike taxes.
‘‘The House is exhausted from voting on gas tax bills,’’ Roberts said. ‘‘It’s starting to wear on some of them — as it is the public.’’
During meetings following the House vote, lawmakers and Otter discussed possible compromises to end the impasse. One was pushing off a gas tax hike into the future, either by making it contingent on an economic trigger, such as a resumption in state revenue growth, or delaying collection until mid-2010.
‘‘I would be willing to entertain all offers,’’ Otter said, when asked about those proposals.
In what’s become a veto marathon, he vetoed a pair of bills Monday at 10 a.m. Hours later, after growing concerned lawmakers weren’t taking his threats seriously, he killed another eight. And just after 3 p.m. Tuesday, with the latest House rejection behind him, Otter decided to break out his red stamp again.
The bills he killed Tuesday were spending plans for government agencies covering fiscal year 2010, starting July 1. Lawmakers can’t leave town before passing them and winning Otter’s approval — or overriding his veto. Senators aren’t yet ready for that, said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.
‘‘We continue to work with the governor and the House in good faith on a resolution,’’ he said.
House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, said the vote wasn’t directed personally at the governor.
‘‘What has changed is the economy,’’ Denney said, noting the Idaho Transportation Department and local highway districts already are getting nearly $800 million for highway projects in the coming year, including money from the federal stimulus package.
Denney indicated the House might agree to resurrect the ethanol bill as well as the fee hikes.
‘‘If you put those two together, you have about $30 million,’’ he said.
Seven Democrats switched sides in Tuesday’s vote, joining four others who had voted for earlier transportation fee hike proposals.
Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, one of those who had a change of heart, said this resulted from discussions with the Senate and Otter about three bills that seek to cut public education funding by $12 million.
Senators did amend those bills, dumping a plan to end an early-retirement incentive for teachers; mitigating a projected $1.4 million hit to the Boise Independent School District’s transportation budget; opting not to cut state field trip bus funding; and putting limits on how school districts can shift teacher funding to Internet-based courses.
Rusche said many in his caucus opted to reciprocate on the gas-tax vote as a sign of good faith.
‘‘We felt our concerns had been addressed by some of the recent actions that had been taken,’’ he told The Associated Press.
