Spokane7
42°Quick links: 2012 graduating seniors • Summer camp guide • Jobs: The Road Ahead • Prep sports • News quiz
The House has begun debating HB 246, the governor’s bill to increase Idaho’s gas tax by 7 cents over the next three years, to raise money for road maintenance. The tax is now 25 cents per gallon. “This is a bill that you’ve all been waiting for,” House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, told the House. “I don’t present this bill lightly.” Before the measure was taken up, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, asked unanimous consent to return HB 247, the governor’s earlier vehicle registration fee increase bill, to the transportation committee, “due to an error in the bill.” No one objected.
Bedke told the House, “In Idaho we have got a little problem.” There are only 29.8 people per mile of road, he said, vs. 58 in Utah and more than 60 in Oregon. That makes it challenging for Idaho to fund adequate road maintenance. “We have fewer people per mile than most every other state.”
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2012, The Spokesman-Review
Terms of use • Privacy policy • Copyright policy
Shark on March 19 at 12:12 p.m.
House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, told the House. “I don’t present this bill lightly.” I am sure that’s true.. In fact I suspect that he would have much preferred to present it “secretly”……