After much debate this morning, the Senate has voted 15-20 against the amended version of SB 1188, the big transportation funding bill. Here's the vote:

Voting yes: Sens. Agenbroad, Anthon, Brackett, Davis, Hagedorn, Heider, Johnson, Lakey, Lee, Lodge, Martin, Patrick, Rice, Ward-Engelking, and Winder.

Voting no: Sens. Bair, Bayer, Buckner-Webb, Burgoyne, Crabtree, DenHartog, Foreman, Guthrie, Harris, Hill, Jordan, Keough, Mortimer, Nonini, Nye, Siddoway, Souza, Stennett, Thayn, and Vick.

The demise of SB 1188 still leaves SB 1162, GARVEE-only bill for $300 million in GARVEE bonding for road work, pending; however, many of the objections to SB 1188 this morning were to the idea of bonding against future federal highway allocations, which is what SB 1162 is all about. SB 1188 included that along with other measures, including shifting the Idaho State Police from highway funds to a dedicated share of the state sales tax, and a five-year extension of the "surplus eliminator" that expires this spring, splitting any unanticipated surplus from the state budget at the end of each year between road work and the state's rainy-day savings fund.

Asked if the session is still on track to end by Friday, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said, "I don't know. This could impact our adjournment."

Here are some of the comments from the Senate debate:

Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon: “This time we’re seeking to borrow the money, money not necessarily for maintenance but for new construction, more lane miles to maintain when we can’t maintain the miles we have now.” He said compared to raising the gas tax, “It’s the path of least resistance, but not necessarily the best path and certainly not the only path.” He asked, “We argue all the time we have a balanced budget, but do we really, when we borrow to this extent?”

Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian: “I live in a nice house because I borrowed the money to buy that. … I build it into my budget every month, on how to pay that service debt for that house, because my family likes that house. … Unfortunately, our infrastructure costs a lot of money, and we have to borrow to build that infrastructure.” But he noted that the GARVEE bonding program includes sideboards and caps. “We’ve got to expand our infrastructure to react to the growth of our population and the growth of our businesses and economy. It’s just something we have to face. Using this program is the best way that I can see to face that issue before us.”

Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow: “I’d like to see this go to a popular vote. … I think we’re digging ourselves into a financial hole. We’re talking about a lot of money. … We could pay as we go if we would just trim some of the fat from the budget.”

Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell: “when you have a hole in your roof, and you look at the budget and you don’t have the funds to fix it and you have to borrow, you do it. And the reason you borrow to fix the hole in your roof is because if you don’t fix it, you get a whole bunch of far more expensive problems – that’s what we have already started.” Those, he said, include “rot, decay and mold.”

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said, “If you let your fence fall over, guess what, your cows get out. … I know none of us like the debt part of it.” But, he said, “You’d actually have to double our registration fees and the gas tax to have enough money to take care of not only maintenance but capacity expansion. I don’t think anybody on this floor is willing to do that. … I support better roads for our economy, and guess why: They’ve saved, I think, dozens and dozens of lives.”

Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls: “That money would be coming to the state anyway, and so if we’re not using it to pay debt, we can use it to build our roads and do the other things that are so critical in our infrastructure. … If we need $300 million for building critical infrastructure, I believe we have the ability to get that money if we’ll make the hard decisions.”

Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston: “If you can’t support this, help us find something. But we cannot wait any longer to protect the public, and I ask that you at least give us a chance by supporting the GARVEE bonds.”

Sen. Abby Lee, R-Fruitland: “If we kick the can down the road for these important infrastructure needs, we are saddling our children and grandchildren with debts.”

Sen. Jeff Agenbroad, R-Nampa: “I drive that (I-84 in Canyon County) every single day. … It is a safety issue. We don’t fund our roads, our transportation systems in Idaho, either appropriately or effectively. So today we’re faced with the results of those decisions, and how do we change that.”

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene: “I’ve learned a little bit about the budget and the way that we use our finances in the state this year. And … we have a hole in the roof, yes, we do. But we’ve been buying new furniture and we’ve been putting in new carpet and we’ve been doing a lot with bells and whistles to make everyone happy and make everyone comfortable, and we still have the hole in the roof, partly because of our policy of not using general funds. … I think one of the places I think we have fallen down is in prioritizing and planning how we’re going to use our budget for the overall needs of the state, and this priority for transportation should have been right up there at the top. But it isn’t, because it’s been kept separate. … I can’t support this kind of borrowing.”

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