Three more transportation funding bills introduced…

After its knock-down, drag-out over gas taxes, the House Transportation Committee this afternoon voted to introduce three more bills: Two different versions of legislation to extend the “surplus eliminator” for another two years, and one measure from Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, to phase out, over five years, the $16 million a year in gas taxes that now goes to fund the Idaho State Police. It’s a move Palmer’s proposed before; as then, he’s not proposing any replacement funding for ISP, as that money gets shifted to road work. But, he said, “I believe JFAC will fully fund ISP.”

The two versions of the surplus-eliminator extension are:

One from Rep. Clark Kauffman, R-Filer, that would extend the expiring law, which now splits any unexpected surplus at the end of the state’s budget year 50-50 between road and bridge projects and the state savings account, for two more years, with one change: The road and bridge money would be split, 60-40, between the Idaho Transportation Department and local highway districts.

A second one from Rep. Terry Gestrin, R-Donnelly that would extend the expiring law as-is, without any share for local highway districts. Kauffman said he couldn’t support that without a share for local highway districts, given their current needs, and moved to return that proposal to Gestrin, but that motion failed on a tied, 8-8 vote. The panel then voted to introduce the bill.

The committee voted to introduce Kauffman’s version with just two recorded “no” votes, from Gestrin and Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay.

After the meeting, Palmer said, “I believe there’s going to be more funding mechanisms coming forward.”