Otter Lists Road Bill Criteria

As Idaho’s legislative session pushes into its home stretch, Gov. Butch Otter has laid out “parameters” on transportation funding, one big issue on which the House and Senate are at odds. Otter said he’d call transportation funding “the going-home bill.” The governor said he has these “parameters” in mind:

• 1) “We need to stay out of the general fund.”
• 2) It must include a “significant step toward revenue needs.”
• 3) “I’d like to keep it user-pay,” which Otter defined as “registration and gas tax.”

Otter said he’s hoping for a multiple-year solution to Idaho’s $262 million-a-year road and bridge maintenance backlog, just as lawmakers approved a five-year plan to boost teacher pay; he signed that bill into law last week/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here .