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Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, who sits next to Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, told the House, “I love my seatmate, but he’s misguided.” Smith, speaking against the GARVEE bonding bill, asked the House, “Should we be doing this huge GARVEE program, building highways with a credit card to the extent that we’re doing? … There are only three states in the union that have a higher debt” for GARVEE bonds, a special type of bond which allow states to borrow against their future federal highway allocations. They are Georgia, Colorado and Ohio, Smith said, states much larger than Idaho. “We are the highest leveraged.” Smith said, “We have become a borrowing state… We are asking our fellow Idahoans to tighten their belts, and yet we’re going to jump into the pool on an $82 million borrowing program.
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fortboise on April 10 at 9:32 a.m.
“With a credit card” sounds so awful… mostly because of the legalization of usury.
Whatever the faults of GARVEE, at least we don’t have to pay 23 or 32% interest on the loan.
Sisyphus on April 10 at 10:22 a.m.
Oh the hypocrisy. This body decries the use of federal stimulus funds obtained through the use of the creditworthiness of the federal government as wasteful and fiscally unsound yet they are going to finance highway funding based upon an unreliable and dwindling future asset.
OlBlue on April 10 at 11:33 a.m.
Three years ago the commissioners got through a similar scheme to fund improvements in the water system in Bonners Ferry. Projected revenues from water usage was to pay for it. Guess what…people here tend to conserve water…the revenues have not been met and we are facing in increase in our water bills by a third to pay for this. Our rates will be higher than my sisters rates in N. California!!