Transportation Board Seeking Higher User Fees

State transportation officials made their case for increased highway user fees Thursday, optimistic they can agree with local governments on details of the plan to raise millions of dollars in new cash.

“We think we’ll be able to work something out,” said new Transportation Board Chairman Leon Smith of Twin Falls.

The board splits the $220 million annual revenue from the fuel tax and vehicle registration fees with cities, counties and local highway districts. All are pressing for more money to combat Idaho’s deteriorating road network.

The highway construction and maintenance backlog is estimated at more than $1 billion.

“We’re not keeping up,” Transportation Department Director Dwight Bower told members of the House and Senate Transportation committees.

But they realize the only way any lawmakers can be convinced to increase the 21-cent-a-gallon fuel tax or the $44 registration is if the state and local agencies present a united front.

Republican Gov. Phil Batt indicated in his State of the State address that he would support a fuel tax or registration fee hike. But two days later in his budget message, the new governor backed away. Batt said he would consider an increase only after inefficiency and excess are stripped from the department.

The most pressing issue is resurfacing state roads. In 1986, 18 percent of the pavement was considered in poor condition. Today, 38 percent is considered in poor condition. And without an influx of cash - at least $10 million more each year - more than 50 percent of the road surfaces will be poor after the turn of the century.

The board wants immediate authority to spend $10 million now in a reserve on the repaving. A year ago, the Legislature voted to let local governments spend that $10 million rather than the state in a move that thenGov. Cecil Andrus vetoed.

This year, there is an attempt to resolve that flap. Under the proposal, the state would agree to give local governments a greater share than they normally would receive from a fuel tax or registration fee increase in return for the local governments releasing any claim on the reserve money.

The deal would leave the state with $10 million to spend immediately and the state and local governments with $10 million each every year from the user fee hike.

To generate that much additional cash, the fuel tax would have to be raised three cents a gallon or registration fees $20. A combination of a 1 1/2 cent increase in the fuel tax and a $10 registration fee increase would do the same.