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Eye On Boise

Legislative leaders offer varying visions on transportation funding, taxes

Legislative leaders address the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho on Wednesday (Melissa Davlin)
Legislative leaders address the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho on Wednesday (Melissa Davlin)

Idaho Reports co-host Melissa Davlin has this report on what legislative leaders had to say today in a lunchtime panel at the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho conference in Boise today, where they addressed transportation funding:

Gas tax, user fees and general fund money are among the options to fund repairs and maintenance to Idaho's roads and bridges, and legislative leaders on the panel disagreed (or expressed lukewarm support) on the suggestions. "Let's look at a balanced approach to see what we can come up with," said Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill. The panel, moderated by Lt. Gov. Brad Little, also included House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, and Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum.

Hill advocated increased transportation funding, showing a map that showed the locations of every bridge older than 50 years in Idaho. ("See all those little red dots? I was excited. I thought they were Republican strongholds," Hill quipped while showing off the map.) Hill told the audience that any proposals to increase funding would likely go through the tax committees and not the transportation committees.

Stennett agreed that transportation and infrastructure should be a priority, but said health care, mental health, and education need to stay on the legislature's radar as well. She also pointed to the appointment of Sen. Dean Mortimer to both the joint finance committee and as the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. The Senate rarely puts committee chairmen on JFAC; this year, there are two. "When you have a chairman who is going to oversee the largest budget on the budget committee.... we want to make sure we're really careful how we go forward with this new dynamic," Stennett said.

During the panel, Bedke also discussed reshaping urban renewal law to allow more flexibility for how tax increment financing is used. He said that urban renewal agencies stretched interpretation of current urban renewal law, and that the law needs to be revised to give the Department of Commerce and local agencies more tools. "I think this would be a nice tool for Director Sayer," Bedke said. Bedke also spoke in favor of lowering the corporate income tax to be more competitive with neighboring states. 

Rusche said this is the first ATI meeting he can recall where lowering taxes wasn't the main focus. "What I'm hearing instead is we need to stop borrowing from our future and start investing in our future," Rusche said.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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