Rev & Tax kills port districts bill

Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho — House lawmakers sank a proposal to expand port districts from Idaho’s rivers to the state’s other transportation thoroughfares. The Revenue and Taxation Committee voted 15-3 Monday against Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde’s measure to allow port districts along highways, rail lines or airports. Goedde is a Republican, but won backing from only the panel’s three Democrats. He’d hoped permission to erect port districts beyond the Snake River near Lewiston would create jobs and economic growth. The districts can levy taxes and use revenue to acquire land and build facilities to accommodate shipping from Idaho to the rest of the nation and world. But skeptics complained this expansion put too much taxing authority outside traditional government, with House Majority Leader Mike Moyle of Star complaining this was “urban renewal on steroids.”