Progress in statehouse renovation
BOISE – State lawmakers earmarked millions last year for future renovation and expansion of the state Capitol and nearby state buildings, but they still can’t agree how to do it.
On Friday, a special committee of House and Senate leaders from both parties debated various proposals for three hours before finally splitting down the middle – the House members favored one plan, the senators disagreed, and the speaker of the House broke the tie, siding with House members.
The plan calls for fixing up the old Ada County Courthouse across the street enough to allow the Legislature to move there while the Capitol is renovated in 2007 and 2008, and building a 30,000-square-foot underground addition to the south side of the Capitol building.
The disagreement was about the addition. Senators favored larger underground additions to the east and west ends of the statehouse, which would add more than twice the square footage at a small additional cost.
House Speaker Bruce Newcomb said he supported the plan just to get a recommendation to the full Legislature. “It’s a long ways from being over,” he said.
Lawmakers voted five years ago to set aside more than $60 million from a huge state budget surplus to renovate the aging state Capitol, but the money disappeared in a state budget downturn that eventually led to a temporary tax increase.
Then, last year, they agreed again to set aside money for Capitol renovation, earmarking a portion of state cigarette taxes. That money can be spent to renovate or expand the Capitol and surrounding buildings, including the old county courthouse – which the state purchased, then boarded up and left vacant as lawmakers debated whether to renovate it or tear it down and replace it. They’ve never reached a final decision on that issue.
Meanwhile, state legislative committee hearings have overflowed the Capitol’s small meeting rooms – often leaving members of the public standing in the hallways, straining to hear. Large hearings last year on a Nez Perce water rights agreement had to be moved to a ballroom at Boise State University to accommodate the crowds.
Plus, inflation pushes up the cost of the statehouse renovation each year.
“Every year we postpone fixing the Capitol, we spend more money and we jeopardize the health of the building,” said House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum.
Said Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, “It will never be cheaper than it is today for us to build this.”
Stegner called for building 33,000-square-foot underground additions at each end of the Capitol, plus a 30,000-square-foot underground addition on the south side. That would cost a total of about $34 million and add 96,000 square feet. It would also leave just a short distance to the old courthouse, which could be connected to the Capitol with a tunnel under the street.
Jaquet and Rep. Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, favored building just the small addition to the south side, at a cost of about $15 million; and Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, called for building just the east and west underground wings, at a cost of about $22 million.
Newcomb said, “This is nothing more than a recommendation to the Legislature, and the Legislature will do what they can, with a little bit of guidance from leadership.”
Senate President Pro-tem Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs, couldn’t make Friday’s meeting, but he sent an e-mail advising the group that he’d favor either a southern addition or the east and west end additions. “The House has never really wrestled with any of these issues yet and the Senate is tired of making no progress,” Geddes wrote. “Let’s start this in the House, to see if we can get them on board or at least moving in one direction.”