Consultants Back Higher Taxes To Fix Roads Deteriorating Highway System Needs $4.1 Billion In Maintenance

Consultants are supporting Gov. Phil Batt’s 6-month-old warning that state highway user fees - fuel taxes and vehicle registration charges - have to be raised to halt the deterioration of Idaho’s road system.

They told the special legislative committee assessing the state’s overall transportation network that $4.1 billion in road and bridge maintenance and repair is needed right now - an amount equal to more than half of the $8 billion value placed on the overall highway system.

And they said the backlog will hit $5.9 billion by the turn of the century.

“This is one of the worst situations I’ve seen in recent years,” said James Covil of South Carolina-based Wilbur Smith Associates. “The state of Idaho has underfunded projects longer than it should, and now it’s got a debt from past years that’s overwhelming.”

The Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce recently announced a campaign to spend upward of $300 million to improve U.S. Highway 95 in North Idaho. Raising fuel taxes would be one way to finance such a venture over a period of years, and the chamber will continue to explore other ways.

Swift Trucking Co. of Lewiston recently announced it will route its trucks out of state, rather than send them down Highway 95. The trucking firm cited the dangers of narrow, curvy sections of the road, particularly near Council.

The state is spending just more than $250 million a year on road projects.

Batt acknowledged the problem in his State of the State address to lawmakers a week after he took office on Jan. 2. He said then that inflationary pressures required raising fuel taxes and registration fees periodically and that he would be addressing the issue.

But in his budget message two days later, the governor put off endorsing any fee or tax hike until the Transportation Department trimmed any fat from its operations and showed it could be more responsive to citizens.

Within weeks, however, he had signaled his willingness to accept a deal that would either raise about $20 million a year in additional cash for highway projects with the cash split between the state and local governments.

That deal - which would have required raising the fuel tax from 21 to 24 cents a gallon - fell through, but Batt has repeatedly said since spring that he will formally propose a fee or tax hike next winter.

“Something has got to be done,” he said at one point.

Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs, R-Blackfoot, called the Covil report and assessment credible and well done.

“Now the question is, is the public ready to pay more in fuel taxes or registration fees to keep roads from deteriorating any further?” Twiggs said. “Personally, I think it’s going to be a tough sell.”

The House-Senate panel has scheduled a series of meetings around the state beginning in mid-August to gauge citizen support for higher fuel taxes, county-option sales taxes or higher registration fees. It hopes to have a recommendation by mid-November.

“We need to know if they’re willing to settle for less,” House Transportation Chairman JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, said. “If they want better roads, are they willing to pay for it?”

The state’s fuel tax is currently lower than all its border states but Utah and Wyoming, and its registration fee of $44 combined with no property taxes on vehicles is lower than all the states but Oregon.

, DataTimes