Among the information about stimulus funding for local transportation projects that hadn't come out when JFAC first crafted SB 1222 was this, according to Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint: "Apparently there's a 1,500-page manual from OMB back in Washington, D.C. that requires extreme tracking of stimulus dollars, and on transportation projects, requires a sign on every project. For a lot of the money that would have gone to locals, the signing and the paperwork requirements would have outweighed the benefit that would have gone to locals." Keough had made the original motion to send all of the $17.5 million from the governor's pot of stimulus money that he wanted to direct to transportation to local highway districts, cities and counties, rather than to ITD. But she said her original vision - that perhaps a small, rural district might get enough to pay for a load of gravel - didn't work if a $300 sign had to be erected and multiple reports filed. The new version of the bill sends the money through the ITD's existing grant process for local highway projects. "What we have here is a compromise that uses the existing system," Keough said.

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