Our View: Idaho legislators must find transportation funding
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter isn’t taking a “my way or the highway” approach to transportation funding, but he is demanding that a substantive bill on road maintenance be passed this session. And he has the worn out veto stamp to prove it. It’s an impressive display of backbone in a state where tax increases are about as welcome as milfoil.
Otter nixed 25 bills Tuesday and 10 on Monday to protest the Legislature’s failure to come up with transportation dollars. He said, “I think the public ought to start calling the Legislature tonight and say, ‘Pass those transportation bills, and get out of town.’ ”
The House has rejected six gas-tax-increase bills this session, but if it wants the money it needs to run state vital agencies, it had better find some transportation dollars. Among the victims have been budget bills for the Department of Water Resources, the Industrial Commission, the Commerce Department, the Military Division, the Arts Commission, the Division of Human Resources, Idaho Public TV and the Blind Commission.
Idaho is trying to finance today’s road maintenance with 1996 dollars. It’s been 13 years since the state gas tax was raised, but time and inflation haven’t cooperated. The roads have taken on more traffic. The cost of materials and labor has risen significantly.
The Legislature needs to find a comprehensive approach, and it made the wise decision to pass another GARVEE bill, which means the state can borrow against future federal highway dollars for large projects. But that won’t be enough to whittle the $250 million maintenance backlog. To keep roads and bridges in good repair, it will need to raise taxes and motor vehicle fees. But lawmakers have turned down every plan proposed. They won’t even give local governments the authority to raise taxes in their jurisdictions.
Lawmakers realize they can’t adjourn without their budget bills. So they’re pondering a plan that would raise transportation funds with a combination of higher motor-vehicle and car-registration fees, a repeal of the tax exemption for ethanol, and a scheme that shifts part of the growth in general funds to roadwork. That could be financed, in part, with taxes on tires, auto parts and other items.
It’s not certain that a gas-tax increase is off the table, but lawmakers seem intent on avoiding that at all costs. A mere 2-cent bump per gallon, which would have kept the tax 10.5 cents lower than Washington state’s, was even shot down.
The Legislature has displayed an irrational fear of gas-tax hikes for several years. Perhaps lawmakers can tap some of the courage Otter has shown and do the right thing.