Cda Legislator Pushes For Safer U.S. 95 “With My Background In Emergency Medicine, I See The People That Are Impacted”

Sen. Jack Riggs took his case for fixing U.S. Highway 95 to the governor and the state Transportation Board on Thursday.

Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, spoke calmly to the Transportation Board and answered board members’ questions. He met with Gov. Phil Batt for 30 minutes.

Riggs said both meetings “went well.” Riggs, a doctor, stressed that his main concern is safety.

“With my background in emergency medicine, I see the people that are impacted,” he said after the Transportation Board meeting. “I’ve got kids traveling the highway from Coeur d’Alene to the UofI. There are real human lives at risk. To me there is no question … if we don’t do this, people will die that wouldn’t have needed to die.”

Riggs said that thought is what keeps him going in his push to upgrade Idaho’s only north-south route. Since it involves a tax increase in an election year, the project isn’t necessarily an easy sell.

Riggs wants to raise $36 million a year for eight years through a combination of a 1-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase and a hike in car registration fees. If combined with regular road-fixing money the state spends each year on Highway 95, that should be enough to pack 20 years’ worth of repairs and upgrades into the next eight years, Riggs said.

The money would go toward a list of projects laid out in his legislation, including safety-oriented improvements on Highway 95, as well as along Highways 55, 30 and 93.

On Thursday, Riggs asked the Transportation Board to help fashion the list of projects.

“Really, the ultimate judge will be the public,” he told the board. “If we create a good list, I think the public will support it. You are the experts, you come from each part of the state, and you know what needs to be fixed.”

Riggs said he’d like input from the board to get the list made up over the next six weeks, so he can then include it in his legislation.

Board member Monte McClure noted that in past gas tax increases, half the money has gone to local highway districts and cities and counties. He wondered if Riggs had considered that for his program.

Riggs said no.

“We are trying to identify some specific needs on the state highway system, nothing more, nothing less,” he said.

John Goedde of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce told the board such a change would require raising twice as much money to accomplish the same road projects, and that wouldn’t fly.

When board member John X. Combo passed along eastern Idaho Sen. Robert Lee’s suggestion that communities along Highway 95 tax themselves to fix the route and leave his constituents out of it, Riggs offered several arguments about how the plan would benefit the whole state.

Then he added, “This may be a case where I simply have to disagree with Sen. Lee.

“Part of the legislative process is to see if we can get more than 50 percent of the Legislature to support it and the governor to sign it.”

Board Chairman Chuck Winder told Riggs the board will discuss his idea. “Any time anybody can do anything to help the roads and particularly Highway 95, I think that’s very, very important,” Winder said.

Last year, Rep. Hilde Kellogg’s legislation for a statewide vote on a giant bond issue to fix Highway 95 passed the House, but failed by one vote in a Senate committee.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Evan Frasure then conducted hearings around the state over the summer, and traveled up and down Highway 95. Riggs attended those hearings with Frasure, and said he found public support not only for fixing the road but for paying for it with user fees like gas tax and car registration.

Riggs said he would oppose a general tax increase, but believes the road-related taxes make sense for a project like this one. When the projects are completed, the new taxes would end.

Batt has said he doesn’t favor any general tax increases in the coming year.

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This sidebar appeared with the story: THE PLAN Sen. Jack Riggs wants to raise $36 million a year for eight years for safety improvements to U.S. Highway 95. He proposes a combination of a 1-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase and a hike in car registration fees.