Plan clips Capitol’s wings

BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter and House and Senate lawmakers have reached a tentative compromise over the expansion of the Idaho Capitol.

Lawmakers said Friday the new package includes reducing two proposed 50,000-square-foot underground wings from two stories to a single story and using neighboring buildings the state owns to house government offices.

“He (Otter) is still not happy with the plan. And we’re not happy with the plan,” said House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, following a 60-minute meeting with the governor. “But it’s something we can both live with.”

Those critical of the deal say the two-story option is more economical.

According to an “agreement in principle,” the single-story wings would be used to increase space for hearings, but not to add offices for lawmakers. Otter feared the offices would be a recipe for expanding – or eventually professionalizing – Idaho’s part-time citizen Legislature, which now meets just three months a year.

The wings on both sides of the existing sandstone Capitol were approved last year by the Legislature to relieve cramped meeting space. Otter opposed them, saying the money would be better spent refurbishing the old Ada County Courthouse and the Borah Post Office, located across the street.

For two weeks, work on the $130 million Capitol renovation and expansion has been at a standstill, after Otter ordered work stopped Jan. 12.

Now, neither side must concede.

“There are still a lot of details to be worked out,” said Jon Hanian, Otter’s press secretary. “The governor wants to do that face to face.”

Otter and lawmakers will meet Tuesday with the state’s nine-member Capitol Commission, which is overseeing the project. The Legislature will also have to approve a new resolution on the changes for the plan to move forward.

Last year, the House voted 40-28 for the two-story plan, and the Senate backed it 33-2.

“We need to first get buy-in from the Capitol Commission,” said Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett.

On Wednesday, Capitol Commission chairman and former leader of the Idaho National Guard, Major Gen. Jack Kane, told Otter his delay of the project could cost Idaho millions of dollars and push back plans at least a year if action wasn’t taken quickly to resume work.

On Friday, he told the Associated Press he could likely live with the compromise.

“What they come up with, we will support,” Kane said. “It’s not what the commission wants to do. It’s what the governor and Legislature tell us they want to do, and that’s what we’re going to execute.”

Lawmakers didn’t say how much money the state might save by scaling back the project, if any.

By themselves, the two-story wings are estimated at about $45 million, with renovation on the 100-year-old Capitol due to run about $85 million.

Last year, there had been a $24 million estimate for one-story wings totaling 66,000 square feet. Lawmakers briefly considered it, but eventually chose the two-story plan on the argument the larger space would be more economical and would be prudent in planning for government growth.

Some lawmakers say the compromise fails to consider that.

“The bang for the buck in going to two stories was huge,” said Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise. “We were looking at our needs for 100 years from now. If you ask me to plan 100 years out, I’d say, you do just like you do with your house, and add an extra room.”

Some lawmakers argued last year that the single-story plan would provide ample space, in conjunction with using the 67-year-old Ada County Courthouse and the Borah building.

House Democrats who opposed last year’s plan said the compromise sounded good.

“Focusing on one story does make more sense,” said Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene.

Already, about $1.5 million has been spent on demolition at the Ada County Courthouse, where lawmakers are expected to hold the 2008 and 2009 legislative sessions while work is completed on the Capitol by 2010. The state wants to vacate the building by April so renovation and expansion work can begin.