No exceptions on child safety, senator says
Idaho shouldn’t have exceptions from its child safety seat law for overcrowded cars without enough seat belts or for nursing infants, Sen. Joyce Broadsword told the Senate Transportation Committee last week.
“The children of our state are our most precious resource,” Broadsword, R-Sagle, told the committee.
She said the two exceptions included in Idaho’s child safety seat law are preventing the state from qualifying for federal grants that would help low-income Idaho families buy car seats. The issue was brought to her attention by pediatricians, she said. Broadsword said the exceptions pose a danger to young children.
“Allowing them to become pingpong balls in the back of a car is not, in my opinion, a good way to protect them,” she told the committee, which voted unanimously to introduce her bill.
Axle man
Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, led a lesson in truck axles for his fellow members of the transportation committee. Called “Axles 101,” the presentation included some huge props – giant trucks parked in front of the state Capitol – as well as glossy posters and fliers about how Idaho should allow heavier trucks on its roads because of various features of the axles.
Corder knows a lot about the subject; he owns a trucking company. With his colleagues looking on, Corder pointed out the different features of truck axles and how they work. The smell of new rubber was pungent as lawmakers and a few lobbyists milled around the trucks and their giant tires.
Time for toll roads?
Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, says that if Idaho needs ways to pay for transportation, “I’m wondering if we’re looking at something, and that’s toll roads.”
The senator recalled finding a beautiful road in the middle of nowhere near Cancun that was a privately built toll road.
Idaho Transportation Department Director Pamela Lowe responded that the Forum on Transportation Investment considered that among other options before making funding recommendations to the ITD board, but the toll road idea ranked low with the group.
Gas taxes in slow lane
Idaho’s funding for its transportation department, much of which comes from the state gas tax, has been relatively flat for years, Lowe warned legislative budget writers. Meanwhile, reliance on federal funding is growing. Next year, the budget for the department is estimated to come 57 percent from federal funds and just 42 percent from state-generated funds.
“There is a risk to Idaho to becoming increasingly reliant on the federal government to fund our transportation needs,” Lowe said.
Meanwhile, she noted, Idaho is growing – it’s the third fastest-growing state in the nation. Yet the state’s gas tax funds aren’t. That’s because people are driving more efficient cars, even as there are more cars and trucks on the road.
Plastic, not paper
Any family that’s had a teen go through driver training knows that a piece of paper serves as the teen’s driving permit – not exactly the easiest thing to keep intact, safe and secure. The transportation department, as part of its budget request for next year, is proposing to replace that slip of paper with a digitized plastic card that includes a photo.
The budget item requests spending authority for $50,000, and Gov. Butch Otter is recommending approval. The card, Lowe said, will be “more secure and more durable.”
Unlikely supporters
Interestingly, in the final vote in committee to reject Otter’s proposal to make it easier to form community college districts in Idaho, all five of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee’s Democrats voted for the governor’s plan along with three Republicans, while 10 Republicans, including three members of GOP leadership, voted against it.