Legislative Roadblocks Loom For Highway Funding Coeur D’Alene Senator Pushes Fee Hikes To Improve U.S. 95
A state transportation board member says Idaho Sen. Jack Riggs faces long odds in his campaign to hurry improvements along U.S. Highway 95.
“It is an election year,” Mike Mitchell said Monday. “Raising taxes to voters is not a popular item.”
But another transportation board member, John McHugh of Coeur d’Alene, said it is too early to predict how the Legislature will react.
“If he can get Sen. (Evan) Frasure’s endorsement, I think that would go a long way.”
Frasure, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, says he will wait to see a specific proposal before making decisions. But he adds he is not excited about the prospect of raising the fuel tax again.
Nine months ago, Frasure was the deciding vote in killing a bill that would have let voters decide whether to increase the gasoline tax by 4 cents a gallon and vehicle registration fees by $12. The revenue would have paid off nearly $400 million worth of bonds to improve Highway 95.
This fall, Frasure and Riggs, a Coeur d’Alene Republican, held 12 public hearings in communities along the highway to solicit the public’s opinions about the road and options for improving it.
Riggs said an average vehicle registration fee hike of $36 per year would create about $36 million annually for projects on U.S. Highways 95, 93, 30, 20 and state Highway 55. A 1 cent fuel tax hike would create $7 million per year.
“One approach may be to revise and expand the current $24-$36-$48 registration system, which is based on the age of the vehicle, to include a higher bracket for new cars and increase the lowest bracket by $6 to $12,” Riggs wrote the transportation board.
The money generated through a registration fee hike would be restricted to projects on those five highways over eight years, he said. Then the increase would expire.
Riggs is scheduled to meet with the transportation board Thursday in Boise.
xxxx Raising funds According to state Sen. Jack Riggs, an average vehicle registration fee hike of $36 per year would create about $36 million annually for highway projects. A 1 cent fuel tax hike would create $7 million per year.