Darrell Manning, chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board, told JFAC this morning that the transportation department is working to implement the performance audit the Legislature conducted last year and the governor's executive order that followed it. "We'll try our best to be good stewards of any appropriation that you make to us," Manning told lawmakers. "We need to improve, and hopefully through Director Ness' leadership we will." New director Brian Ness, who's been on the job just a month, now is presenting his budget. "Good things are happening in our department," he told lawmakers. "We will be accountable for our actions. ... I will review every expense to make sure decisions are appropriate." Ness said, "We cannot ask the Idaho taxpayer" to pay more for transportation until "they are convinced that we are good stewards."

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