Bill killed that would shift funds from Idaho State Police to roads

BOISE - The Idaho House on Tuesday killed legislation that sought to shift $17 million in state highway funds from the Idaho State Police to roads.

The move would have been phased in over five years at roughly $3 million a year.

House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, argued that the shift would mean more money for sorely needed road funding, and lawmakers could replace the ISP funding from the state general fund when they set budgets each year.

But in response to a question from Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, Palmer said the bill didn’t specify where that replacement money would come from.

Noted Redman, “Up in northern Idaho, I’ve had conversations with ISP there and they’ve gone from four cars to two cars in Kootenai County there, because they’ve lost funding. What we don’t need is more lost funding for the ISP. I will vote against the bill.”

More than half the House agreed; the bill died on a 33-37 vote.

House Appropriations Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, told the House that HB 157 would put a “Band-Aid” on transportation funding but leave a “gaping wound in another part of the budget.”

Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, said, “To me it’s fairly easy to understand that the troopers should get some of that money, because that’s who’s out there working our highways.”

The $17 million in question is 42 percent of ISP’s patrol budget. The remainder of the state police agency’s funding comes from the state general fund, which also supports schools, health and welfare, prisons and more.

Rep. Patrick McDonald, former U.S. marshal for Idaho and a longtime state trooper, argued at length against the bill, saying ISP needs the money. “This is not a positive thing for the state police, it’s not a positive thing for the general fund,” he told the House. “You can’t take that chance. You don’t know what’s going to happen in that general fund.”

Rep. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, spoke in favor of the bill. He said he agreed that there “should be a better way to do this.” But he said state highway funds, which come from gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, are shrinking, while the state general fund is growing.

House Republicans have been pushing to tap the state’s general fund for road work, but both the Senate and Gov. Butch Otter have been resistant; more than half the general fund goes to education, from public schools to universities.