BOISE -- Is the Idaho Transportation Department getting enough funding to keep your roads and bridges smooth and safe? ITD Director Brian Ness says no.
"It is no secret that Idaho does not have enough funding to support the needs of an aging system," Ness said.
On Thursday, he spoke in front of a Joint Committee of both the House and Senate Transportation Committees. He says they recently realigned the agency, saving about $80 million in bonds and salaries, and still reduced fatalities on Idaho's highways.
However, Ness says the state's infrastructure is aging and crumbling. Idaho currently has almost 800 bridges that are beyond their designed life, and road quality is falling annually.
A Governor's Task Force says that Idaho is under-funding transportation by $543 million a year, and that $262 million of that is needed annually just to preserve the system as it is today.
"Idaho's economy is beginning to turn around. But to accelerate and sustain this improvement we must begin reinvesting in transportation," he said. "This will grow the economy, and put contractors back to work. It will also reduce crashes and fatalities."
Any increased ITD funding would likely have to come from a registration fee increase or a gas tax increase.
Idaho's conservative lawmakers rarely approve any sort of tax increase. The Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee says he's hearing a lot of support for those ideas, because committee members don't see it as a tax increase, rather, an elimination of deficit spending. According to a national study, every transportation dollar invested now will save $6 to $14 in repair or replacement costs in the future.
"Yes, we are conservative. We're a conservative state. But, failure to do maintenance, timely maintenance, is a form of deficit spending, because it's going to cost more," said Representative Bert Brackett. "If we don't do timely maintenance, then we're looking at reconstruction."
