Budget writers question costs of road program

BOISE – Legislative budget writers questioned the future financial impact of the state’s largest-ever highway initiative Thursday.

Called “Connecting Idaho,” the $1.2 billion project aims to do 30 years’ worth of upgrades to routes in every part of the state, including major work on U.S. Highway 95, in only 10 years by borrowing against federal government bonds called Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles, or GARVEE bonds.

Members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee are concerned that hidden costs and added inflation could push the project’s price tag too high.

“These projects are not self-contained,” said Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. “As we give authorization this year, are we headed down the highway of no return?”

David Ekern, director of the Idaho Transportation Department, said there’s always a chance of costs exceeding expectations but that there will be a discussion after each project phase about the viability of beginning a new one.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said it appeared the department was “missing part of the picture” by providing cost projections only through 2011. Yet even within that time frame, she said, the projections show debt repayment eating into regular transportation projects.

“We do have some other projects in addition to the GARVEE projects that are critically important to us across the state,” Keough said.

But Ekern said there’s room in the budget for additional projects and that the cost of inflation makes it necessary to get started immediately.

Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, asked about the possibility of speeding up the Interstate 84 widening project in southern Idaho. He and 15 other legislators wrote a letter to the Idaho Transportation Board asking that it begin the project as soon as possible to help ease growing Treasure Valley traffic congestion.

Transportation Board Chairman Chuck Winder said that if not for the Connecting Idaho project and the GARVEE bonds, the project would likely wait another 10 to 15 years.

“What we’re able to do with GARVEE is move it up into the five-year time frame,” Winder said.

McGee said he’s heard from other legislators who are concerned that the Transportation Department wasn’t being honest about the true cost of the project.

“There has been a lot of discussion both on the record and off the record around these halls that the department is hiding the ball when it comes to transportation funding for the GARVEE project,” McGee said.

Ekern said there was nothing to hide and that the department has been meeting publicly about transportation funding for more than a year.

“These have been done in open session for the past 18 months,” Ekern said.

JFAC Co-chairman Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, and Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, both expressed surprise at the level of legislative review Ekern outlined, saying they thought lawmakers would get a chance to OK each road project. Ekern said that was never the case.

Lawmakers are being asked to approve funding for the first phase of GARVEE bonding as part of next year’s Transportation Department budget.

Lawmakers said they still had more questions. “We need a little bit more comfort level before we start down this road,” said JFAC Co-chairwoman Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome.

Transportation Department officials will return to JFAC within the next two weeks for more questioning.