Idaho lawmaker panel: Delay gas tax shift
Thursday, October 1, 2009 11:17 AM PDT
BOISE (AP) — An interim lawmaker committee has recommended Idaho delay for at least a year its plan to shift about $20 million in gas taxes from the Idaho State Police and the Department of Parks and Recreation to road construction.
The group also aims to kill the portion of that plan calling to redirect $4.3 million from the parks department’s trail maintenance to highways. The tax shifts are now due to take place July 1, 2010, if the Legislature doesn’t intervene as the committee wants. Sen. Dean Cameron, a Republican from Rupert and chairman of the task force, conceded that the eight-lawmaker panel fell short of expectations after several meetings by not agreeing on how to pay for the proposed funding changes. The group’s recommendation to delay action until at least July 1, 2011, all but unravels the highway funding deal that Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter and the Idaho House struck.
‘‘I wish we had a more concrete answer, but we don’t,’’ Cameron told the Spokesman-Review. A couple of things conspired to make the delay recommendation easier to stomach.
First, the Idaho Transportation Department is getting a good deal from contractors as the slumping economy lowers construction prices, so it can do more projects with less money.
In addition, a group selected by Otter to come up with additional highway maintenance funding options has until well after the 2010 Legislature to make its recommendations.
Opposition from off-road vehicle riders who feared losing the trail maintenance cash was critical in souring lawmakers on Otter’s plan to give it instead to highway repairs. Boaters, snowmobilers and ATV riders bombarded the task force with pleas not to take away the 3 percent of Idaho’s gas taxes that now goes for trail and waterway improvements.
‘‘We have all learned that we made a mistake here,’’ said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle.
After the task force’s meeting this week, lobbyists for ORV enthusiasts stopped short of declaring victory, saying only that they reluctantly support a one-year delay — on the promise the 2011 Legislature will dump plans to shift trails money outright.
‘‘We trust that you are going to do the right thing, and the right thing is to give us back our gas tax,’’ said Sandra Mitchell, an advocate for motorized backcountry access.
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow and a task force member, hopes the Idaho Legislature eventually agrees to a permanent funding source for the state police’s share of the gas tax it stands to lose. The panel looked at several proposals, including a $1 monthly surcharge on car insurance, which would raise $19.4 million a year, and a $3 fee on tire sales, to raise $4.8 million a year.
She opposes any plan to raid the general fund to come up with the money, on grounds that tax receipts from existing sources are scarce enough without adding more agencies to fight for a share of the dwindling proceeds.
‘‘The political reality was, ’Let’s put things off a year, let them cook, and then see where we want to go,’’’ Ringo said.
