Capitol revamp delay could cost millions

BOISE – The head of the panel overseeing the derailed Capitol renovation and expansion has told Gov. Butch Otter his delay of the project could cost Idaho millions of dollars and push back plans at least a year if action isn’t taken quickly to resume work.

The comments by Major Gen. Jack Kane, Capitol Commission chairman and former leader of the Idaho National Guard, raise the ante in the battle over what’s to become of Idaho’s 100-year-old statehouse.

On Jan. 12, Otter ordered a halt to work on the $130 million dollar project. He’s opposed to adding two underground, 50,000-square-foot wings on both sides of the existing Capitol, saying the money would be better spent refurbishing two state-owned buildings nearby.

Since then, Otter has met with lawmakers who support the wings, though nothing has been resolved.

The wings are meant to relieve cramped meeting space in the Capitol.

“If action is not taken quickly to get the project back on track, we risk wasting not only the millions of dollars already spent on the project, but the very real possibility of another year’s delay – a delay that would add millions more in costs,” Kane wrote in a one-page letter to Otter on Tuesday.

The Capitol Commission was created in 1998 under former Gov. Phil Batt, a Republican, to guide the renovation. Kane contends the commission is the “sole authority to develop a comprehensive master plan for long-range modifications and improvements to the Capitol building and its grounds.”

Last year, the House voted 40-28 for the current plan, while the Senate backed it 33-2.

In September, two months before Otter was elected governor, he made public his dissatisfaction with the wings – unhappiness that continued with campaign commercials and now a formal fight.

“The governor received General Kane’s letter,” Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said Wednesday. “He appreciates the commission’s offer of assistance. The process is continuing.”

The narrow window lawmakers have to resolve the impasse before a crisis emerges was underscored Wednesday as the House voted 68-1 to approve a $1.75 million payment for the next phase of remodeling on the old Ada County Courthouse. The work is so state employees and lawmakers have a place to move for the 2008 and 2009 legislative sessions while work on the Capitol is completed.

Already, about $1.5 million has been spent on demolition at the courthouse.

Freshman Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, said he feared approval of this latest installment might be premature, considering the Capitol’s uncertain future.

But Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome and sponsor of the appropriation, said money to prepare the courthouse for lawmakers next year must be paid, regardless of how the Capitol standoff is resolved.

She pointed out Otter doesn’t oppose restoration, only the wings. Eventually, lawmakers must move into the courthouse for the Capitol to be restored, she said.

“This has nothing to do with wings. There’s no fight in this at all,” Bell told Durst. “The restoration here (in the Capitol) cannot begin until we get out, and we cannot go anywhere until this (the Ada County Courthouse) is completed.”

The latest appropriation still must clear the Senate.

The Capitol Commission will meet next week to discuss the standoff, which some lawmakers openly say is sucking the oxygen out of the Legislature. Just 388 potential new laws were drafted by Monday, the fewest in five years.

Republican House and Senate leaders have often been occupied by meetings about the Capitol, robbing time from other business, House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, told the Associated Press this week.