Governor halts work on wings at Capitol
BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter made good Friday on his campaign promise to fight expansion of the state Capitol by issuing a stop-work order on the construction.
Workers who surrounded the building with high fences this week have completed several wells that would be needed to add two 50,000-square-foot underground wings, part of the $130 million project that includes a complete renovation of the existing 100-year-old Capitol. They had planned to move excavation equipment onto the site soon.
After receiving a letter from the state, however, they’ll halt work.
Otter has said he wants more time to negotiate with lawmakers in the 2007 Legislature over the plan approved last year 33-2 in the state Senate and 40-28 in the House.
He’s balked at the $45 million price tag of the wings, saying he’d rather move state employees and lawmakers who meet three months out of the year in Boise into the Borah Post Office and old Ada County Courthouse located nearby.
Otter first raised his concerns about the wings during his gubernatorial campaign last year.
“The governor is involved in negotiations with legislators and if the work had progressed too far, it would have eliminated the opportunity for those negotiations to continue,” said Mark Warbis, an Otter spokesman.
Although Otter didn’t mention the Capitol wings in his State of the State speech Monday, lawmakers had an inkling they were still an issue after he proposed in his budget plan that they be held in “abeyance” until the issue is resolved.
The change would pare the annual bond payments for the Capitol renovation project from $20.1 million to $17.6 million, according to Otter’s budget.
Lawmakers, who debated for seven years before settling on the “wings” approach, haven’t been happy about Otter’s proposal, and some have suggested it could cost the state more money than just proceeding with the plan that’s already in place. Bonds already have been sold for the renovation project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2010. It includes the addition of large hearing rooms to accommodate crowds that now spill out of legislative hearings.
Lawmakers said Otter didn’t warn them he was ordering work to end.
“It’s a bit of a surprise,” said Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, a supporter of the wings. “It would have been nice to have had some notice before the state terminates a contract which the state had negotiated in good faith.”
A letter signed by Tim Mason, the administrator of Idaho’s Division of Public Works, was sent Friday to construction companies including McAlvain Construction Inc., Lemley & Associates and 3Di ordering them to stop work by Thursday. There’s a clause in the contract that says the state can suspend work unilaterally with five days notice.
“Our new guidance is to suspend that work,” Mason told the Associated Press. “We’ll await further decisions.”
Lawmakers who backed the plan last year to increase meeting space in the Capitol say they’ll meet with Otter next week to discuss his concerns.
“It’s disappointing,” Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, said of Otter’s order. “It’s supposedly for a five-day cooling off period, is what we were told. We’re certainly willing to sit down with Gov. Otter and hear his perspective. We really feel like we’ve done our due diligence.”
A report completed last September by the state’s Legislative Services office concluded remodeling the vacant Ada County Courthouse and Borah building would cost at least $46.2 million, about $1 million more than the wings.
“We’re hopeful he’ll recognize the wisdom in our decision,” Cameron said.
Lawmakers say they’ll look into whether a governor should be able interrupt a project that was backed by the 2006 Legislature, with work contracts signed by then-Gov. Jim Risch.