Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett’s new transportation funding bill, SB 1184, has been introduced in the Senate after every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to sign a “buck-slip” to allow the bill to be printed and introduced. You can see it online here.

It includes numerous boosts to transportation funding, including $300 million in new GARVEE bonding; $200 million in new general obligation bonds to be paid off with sales taxes; extending a surplus eliminator for five years; exempting materials used in constructing public roads from sales tax; shifting the Idaho State Police off the highway fund, and replacing its lost funding from that source with a dedicated share of state sales tax revenues; making several other funding shifts; calling for an independent evaluation of the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council; and allowing counties the option of levying a local-option sales tax of up to 1 percent for specific transportation projects, if a majority of the county’s voters approve.