Panel OKs road funding

BOISE – Two North Idaho legislators helped engineer Gov. Butch Otter’s first major transportation victory of the legislative session Friday, even though the new $134 million highway bonding plan is targeted to the southern part of the state.

“You’ve got to respond to need,” said state Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls. “We’re doing everything we can up north. Our judgment is you’ve got to do it down here.”

The Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted 18-1 on Friday to approve the bonding plan, which Otter has made a priority.

It’ll fund another round of GARVEE bonding, or Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle bonds, which allow states to borrow against their future federal highway allocations.

Henderson and Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, championed the measure in the joint committee, which also approved GARVEE bonding the past two years.

This time, most of the money will go to the Boise area, where traffic-choked freeways slow to gridlock morning and night between Boise and Caldwell.

The last big chunk of GARVEE bonding went largely to North Idaho for major improvements on U.S. Highway 95.

Henderson said that work is under way. “We didn’t lose anything,” he said. “That money’s there, and we’ll keep moving forward with the work.”

North Idaho bonded projects, which are part of the “Connecting Idaho” highway bonding program first proposed by then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, include 4.2 miles of four-lane divided highway from Worley north, and a 13-mile project to improve Highway 95 from Garwood to Sagle.

Otter said he was “very pleased” with the committee’s support for the plan, which still must pass both houses. Otter hasn’t fared as well with his proposal for a hefty vehicle registration fee increase, which he withdrew this week.

But he’s still pushing for several steps to improve transportation funding in Idaho this year, including possible local-option taxes for roads and transit.

Treasure Valley legislators said the Boise-area projects are crucial.

Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, said they include a new interchange on a heavily traveled freeway segment that now has no entrances or exits for six miles. “It presents not just congestion issues but some very real safety issues. I would urge your ‘aye’ vote,” he said.

The $134 million bonding plan refrains from specifying amounts to be spent on particular projects in an effort to avoid the political warfare that erupted in the past two years when lawmakers tried to shift funds from one part of the state to another.

But the Idaho Transportation Department indicated that it likely would devote $61 million of the bonding to Interstate 84 between Caldwell and Meridian, $47 million to I-84 from Orchard to Isaacs Canyon, and $26 million to U.S. Highway 30 from McCammon to Lava Hot Springs in eastern Idaho.

The following year, the Garwood-to-Sagle project in North Idaho would be up for another $89.4 million in bonding.