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Eye On Boise

Two ‘task forces’ would start work as session ends…

House Ways & Means Committee members, including, from right, Reps. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and Mike Moyle, R-Star, consider legislation Thursday morning creating two task forces to work on transportation funding issues after lawmakers leave town this year. (Betsy Russell / The Spokesman-Review)
House Ways & Means Committee members, including, from right, Reps. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and Mike Moyle, R-Star, consider legislation Thursday morning creating two task forces to work on transportation funding issues after lawmakers leave town this year. (Betsy Russell / The Spokesman-Review)

Two new task forces are created by the new bills introduced in Ways & Means this morning. The first, the governor's task force on modernizing transportation funding in Idaho, would have 15 members, including five from the House and five from the Senate. Its findings would go to next year's Legislature. The second is a task force to "identify alternative dedicated funding sources for the Idaho State Police and for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation on an ongoing basis to offset those funds shifted away from the Idaho State Police and the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation to fund transportation." It would include three House members appointed by the speaker, and three Senate members appointed by the Senate president pro-tem, plus the two co-chairs of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. The task force would report its findings to the Legislature by Feb. 1, 2010, and then disband.

The second task force is also cited in the bill that would shift parks and ISP funding off the gas tax in fiscal year 2011, which includes a "legislative intent" section stating, "The Legislature declares that every effort will be made to find appropriate alternative sources of moneys on an ongoing basis."



Eye On Boise

News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.