Eye On Boise

Ways & Means introduces three new bills, including heavy-trucks ‘trailer’ bill

Posted by Betsy

March 19, 2013 11:47 a.m. • 0 comments

The House Ways & Means Committee met just after the House adjourned today, and approved introduction of three new bills: One from Reps. Monks and Moyle to require notification to parents when an autopsy is performed on a minor; one from Rep. Tom Loertscher regarding road widths; and one from lobbyist Ken McClure as a “trailer bill” to SB 1117, the statewide heavy-trucks bill that cleared the House Transportation Committee yesterday. The trailer bill was promoted as clarifying that local jurisdictions have discretion and wouldn’t be forced to let extra-heavy, 129,000 pound trucks run on their roads over their objections. However, it keeps a controversial clause from SB 1117 in place, saying that if a local jurisdiction designates a route for the extra-heavy trucks, it “shall” issue permits for 129,000 trucks on it.

The trailer bill adds a clause that local jurisdictions can modify or repeal routes that they’ve designated, adds language about discretion over making the designations, and adds a requirement for a public hearing on route designations for the extra-heavy trucks. It also requires local road jurisdictions to analyze the “safety and feasibility of adding such routes” if anyone requests to run the extra-heavy trucks, again saying they “shall analyze,” but doesn’t address highway districts’ concerns that they lack the funding to do such studies. The trailer bill also deletes a clause from SB 1117 requiring the state Department of Commerce to “assess economic development opportunities of such routes.”

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