Big new transportation funding bill introduced
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.