Road to recovery?

Posted: Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 - 10:42:24 pm PDT
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By RYAN SHELTON
Staff writer 

SHAWN GUST/Press Idaho Governor Butch Otter looks on as Pamela Lowe of Idaho Transportation Department uses a stack of audits to illustrate her point Wednesday during Idaho's Transportation Funding Conference in Coeur d'Alene.

Gov. Otter: Transit system facing crisis without funding increase

COEUR d'ALENE -- Gov. Butch Otter spoke to a lively crowd Wednesday night, asking them for input on how to pay for Idaho's road "crisis" and defended his administration's efforts to cut operating costs.

Joined by members of the Idaho Transportation Department, Otter made his second stop on a six-city tour of Idaho to meet with the public to discuss possible methods for increasing state infrastructure funding by $240 million a year -- a necessity, he said.

"We need to build and repair roads and bridges," Otter said. "But first, we need to build consensus. We're harvesting today a problem that began many years ago and that problem can no longer be ignored."

But not everyone at the meeting was receptive to the proposed funding increase, which would likely include an increase in vehicle registration and state fuel taxes.

"We're already stretched too thin," said Post Falls resident Andy Dryer. "We taxpayers are sick and tired of being hit up time and time again. Gas is already too expensive and I can't afford to make any more sacrifices until the state government makes some of their own."

ITD director Pam Lowe said an additional $240 million is needed each year to combat rising construction prices, deteriorating roads and highways and an expected drop in federal funding. If approved by the Legislature, Lowe said that 58 percent of the funding would go to ITD, with 28 percent going to city and county road and highway divisions and Idaho State Police receiving the remainder.

"We're rapidly approaching a time when we won't be able to maintain our roads and highways," Lowe said.

Left unchanged since the late 1990s, Idaho enjoys some of the lowest state fuel taxes and car registration rates in the country. An ITD study estimates that increasing state fuel tax one penny -- now $.25 -- would equate to $9 million a year. The same study estimated that a $10 increase in vehicle registration fees would add up to $12 million a year.

Intermountain Forest Association spokesperson Serena Carlson applauded the governor's support of infrastructure improvements in Idaho, and said that state's roads are the lifeline for forest products industry in North Idaho.

"I know that proposed tax and fee increases are not popular," she said. "No one wants to pay more taxes. But our infrastructure is crumbling and we have to step up to the plate and invest in our future."

Gov. Otter stressed that all options are on the table and that once he and the ITD decide on a plan of action for getting the funding increase approved by the Legislature, that it would not consist solely of a fuel tax increase.

More than 2,200 miles of pavement and 343 bridges have been deemed insufficient by the ITD, which, in addition to skyrocketing asphalt prices and a flat revenue stream have combined to make a "perfect storm" for state officials, according to ITD Transportation Board chairman Darrell Manning.

Gov. Otter, who failed to convince the Legislature to approve more transportation money during the 2008 legislative session, said he will use the public's feedback in a report aimed at garnering concensus among state legislators during the season leading up the next general session in early 2009.

"Raising fees and taxes is the last and most desperate choice I like to make," Otter said. "If I had done this a year ago, we would be in a better position. I was wrong not to do so, and I'm willing to admit it."