Confusion in the Capitol
Idaho lawmakers try not to lose their way in revamped space
BOISE – Beneath Idaho’s Capitol dome, Bob Geddes lost his bearings. Not his political bearings; the Soda Springs Republican remains Senate president.
But in an underground hallway excavated during $122.5 million worth of expansion and renovations these past two years, Geddes recently became disoriented. Pointing toward Senate meeting rooms, he said, “This is the House side. I think.”
The eight-term lawmaker is to be forgiven: The century-old Capitol is now 50,000 square feet bigger.
While Geddes kept his office outside of the Senate’s third-floor chambers, other less-senior lawmakers face the task of acquainting themselves with the fastest route from new underground quarters to wherever they’re heading: Honduran mahogany-paneled hearing rooms, the basement gift shop or maybe “statuary hall,” a fourth-floor public area with barrel ceiling and beaux arts columns that mirrors its 1912 appearance – but with public Wi-Fi.
After two sessions in the cramped old Ada County Courthouse, there may still be a few hiccups.
“That is going to be one of the biggest challenges, people finding their way around,” said Robyn Lockett, Capitol services coordinator. “It’s a whole new world over here.”
Maps will be available at the visitor’s desk located in the basement – what Capitol officials call “the garden level.”
The Capitol won’t officially open until a Jan. 9 ceremony, though officials like Gov. Butch Otter have already reoccupied their traditional quarters. Otter’s are on the second floor.
Cigarette smokers are paying for the work.
Annually, $20.1 million of the roughly $44 million raised by Idaho’s 57-cent-per-pack tax goes to pay off $130 million in bonds sold in 2006. The final installment, about $12 million, will be made in 2014.
Smokers in surrounding states who make runs across the border to take advantage of Idaho’s lower cigarette prices are helping pick up the tab – at their own peril, it turns out. If Washington State Patrol troopers catch their residents with Idaho cigarettes in the trunk, there’s a smuggling penalty of $250, or $10 a pack, whichever is greater.
“Washingtonians that are breaking the law are helping pay the bill over there,” Mike Gowrylow, a Washington State Department of Revenue spokesman.