Legislature Needs To Represent Every Citizen

Much has been said about Highway 95 to date, but not much has been done. It seems that when we talk of the Goat Trail with the Legislature, it is “Politics as Usual.” Or is it “the North against the South,” or the “Tax vs. Don’t Tax group.” Is it an economic windfall to improve the highway, or is it a costly boondoggle?

It seems that each politician has a different story or reason to look the other way. But what about the human toll? What about those who will never be able to join in the debate? Their families will never be the same. We need only to travel up or down Highway 95 from Coeur d’Alene to focus our attention on the real story.

White crosses litter the shoulders of the road. Those people never will be with us again. All of those who died had mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. Each cross represents five, 10 or more people, whose lives were decimated by the loss.

While people die, politicians argue about the best way to correct the problem, as if it were a pothole that needed to be patched or a traffic sign that needed to be moved. So far this year, the Department of Transportation has reported 15 deaths on Highway 95 - exactly the same number as this time last year.

Who has to die to create the need? Does it take 20, 50 or 250 more deaths? Or does it take busloads all at one time to get attention? Or a chemical truck explosion with massive death toll? Or does it take the death of a powerful political figure, head of state, or other dignitary?

Just how many of us common people must die or lose a loved one to get the needed attention? Maybe if all of the vehicles that were damaged and destroyed on Highway 95 were stacked in one place on a Boise freeway, someone would notice!

About six years ago, a proposal was made to the legislature (I know because I made several trips to Boise to help present the proposals) for a very small increase in the state gas tax dedicated to repaying a bond. The money raised would rebuild and repair the entire roadway at once.

The proposal was made with all of the accompanying estimates, bond costs and tax revenue projections (patterned after the very successful Coeur d’Alene city street bond program). Such a bond would cost much less than the piecemeal approach and allow for the improvements to begin paying for themselves more rapidly.

The Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided to give it more thought. If a small town like Coeur d’Alene could put together such a bond issue, why can’t the state? Those improvements would make Highway 95 into a major north-south freeway. The added revenue from the traveling public and international freight traffic could prove to be a great new source of revenue to the state and all of the towns along this new trade route.

Those people who work for the Transportation Department and live in the north try their best to get our share of money for these improvements. But to date, the amount spent here doesn’t even keep pace with the growth of tax dollars generated from the north for the state of Idaho.

It is time for all Legislators to quit being a representative of farming or business, or cities, or north or south or southeast. What will it take for us to remember that we are all Idaho citizens? It is Idaho citizens who are dying on the goat trail known as Highway 95. It is the Idaho economy that suffers while the traffic goes through Washington or Montana to get from Canada or North Idaho to any other part of Idaho or any other points.

Sure, the price tag is large. And the Legislature hates to deal in large numbers. But I firmly believe that if all of the political maneuvering was set aside, a solution and a long-range plan could be agreed upon very quickly, perhaps in only one legislative session. But that takes determination and fortitude. We know it can be done, because it has been done in other places. Are our elected officials up to the task?

It is time Idaho legislators think about it a little more quickly. Or maybe even decide to start some construction. What will it take? Who is death calling for next?