At ITD budget hearing, plans for next year include more snowplows, new DMV location in Kootenai County

Legislative budget writers this morning are opening the week with a hearing on the Idaho Transportation Department budget, for which Gov. Butch Otter is proposing a 1.5 percent increase. ITD gets no state general tax funds; instead, it’s funded by dedicated state funds, largely from gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, that make up 53.2 percent of its budget; and federal highway funds, which make up 46.7 percent. All told, the governor’s recommended budget for next year totals $665.8 million.

ITD Director Brian Ness told the joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the budget “really reflects the direction of ITD.” Ness, who’s headed the department since 2010, said it’s in the midst of a staffing reorganization that will be complete in 2020. By then, he said, “We will have a workforce that’s a smaller workforce, fewer employees, but those employees will have a higher skillset. … We also realize that we will have to pay for those skills. So we‘ve been setting ourselves up in the budget to be able to do that.”

Already, he said, “We have cut our staff 8.5 percent. I think that’s notable,” particularly because two years ago, lawmakers approved an increase in transportation funding, through a 7-cent hike in the gas tax, increases in registration fees and a two-year “surplus eliminator” that added $54 million for specific road and bridge projects. Ness said the money didn’t go to add people; instead, he said, we “put it on the street.”

He said the shrinking workforce came with eliminating every other layer of management and giving front-line workers more responsibility and ability to bring forward their ideas for doing things better. “Our employees are actually more satisfied and more secure in their jobs than they were eight years ago,” Ness said. “I do attribute that to giving them ownership … to find different ways to improve what they do. Over the last couple years, we saved $4 million just in new ideas that our employees have come up with, and 75,000 hours. That’s our front-line staff coming up with those things. We’re using that money to pay our employees a little bit more and also to put that money back out on the street.”

Ness said the various line items included the ITD’s budget request for next year “really reflect three different areas: How we are updating our facilities and our equipment so our staff can be more efficient and more productive in what they do,” upgrading of information technology; and efforts to provide a higher level of customer service, particularly at the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Among those proposals are a new DMV county office in Kootenai County, at $20,900 for equipment, supplies and connectivity; the new location, to be located on Railroad Avenue in Post Falls, will issue driver’s licenses and ID cards. A project that’s moving forward in partnership with the county and has been approved by county commissioners, the new office will provide a second location for people to get licenses in Kootenai County, and help alleviate extreme crowding at the current Government Way location; the county is responsible for the remaining costs.

“The wait times are often three hours,” said Alan Frew, state motor vehicle administrator. “They have people lining up about an hour before they open. It’s probably the longest wait time in the state.” Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger has been urging the county commissioners to open a second location for several years. “I applaud them for moving forward with that,” Frew said.

Also among the ITD budget requests for next year: $768,300 in one-time capital outlay funds to buy additional snowplows and other winter road equipment.

Other agencies scheduled to go before JFAC for budget hearings this morning include the Idaho Lottery Commission; the state Liquor Division; and the Department of Juvenile Corrections.