Budget earmarks state parks money

Legislative budget writers exceeded Gov. Butch Otter’s recommendations Monday by recommending a $5 million-plus investment in new or revamped state parks.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee set a budget for the state Department of Parks and Recreation that included $3 million for a bridge at Eagle Island State Park and $2.14 million to purchase land for a new park at Rising River in eastern Idaho.

Aside from those two major additions, the parks budget set by the committee reflects a modest 4.7 percent increase in funding.

The bridge at Eagle Island, west of Boise, will allow a major gravel-extraction project to go forward that’s expected to pay for most of an extensively revamped state park there.

The eastern Idaho park purchase is part of a plan set in motion by former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to add a park in that part of the state; both that and the Eagle Island upgrade were in Kempthorne’s “Experience Idaho” parks initiative. A committee spent the past year selecting the site in eastern Idaho, but Otter hadn’t recommended where to find money to buy the land.

“This is a choice piece of land,” Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, told JFAC. “I think if we’re going to get some parkland, we need to move and today needs to be the day.”

The committee voted 17-3 for the plan, with Reps. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls; Cliff Bayer, R-Boise; and Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, voting against it.

House supports energy plan

The House adopted a new state energy plan Monday despite some lawmakers’ concerns that it does not give the state authority over siting power plants. Legislators voted 54-14 to pass the policy, which calls for increased use of conservation and renewable energy sources but does not preclude nuclear and coal-fire power.

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, said he opposed the 63-page plan because he hadn’t read it and because it includes too many policies. “I just think it’s the wrong approach,” he said.

But sponsor Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, said legislators put the plan on the Web a month ago and listened to hours of public testimony about it.

“To not pass this is a step backwards,” he said. An interim energy committee can strengthen siting authority over the summer, supporters said.

Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, also voted against the resolution.

Compiled from

staff reports