Highway funding options scrutinized
ITD Deputy Director Scott Stokes (in foreground at left) and District 1 Engineer Ken Sorensen (pointing) updates members of the Idaho Transportation Board on Sand Creek Byway progress on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy IDAHO TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT)
SANDPOINT — Members of the Governor’s Task Force on Modernizing Transportation Funding will update the Bonner County Area Transportation Team on some of the recommendations it’s considering on Wednesday.
The meeting starts at 2 p.m. in the Transportation Information Office at 202 North Second Ave.
State Sens. Shawn Keough and John McGee, both of whom serve on the task force, will make the presentation.
“We’re just giving the local folks at BCATT an update about what we’ve been talking about and where the cost allocation study looks like it may be going,” said Keough, R-Sandpoint.
The cost allocation study, which is being developed by a task force subcommittee, identifies funding options and the equity of various fees for cars and trucks.
“We’re starting to sift through where those costs should be borne, either by cars or trucks or both,” Keough said. “We’re starting to come into focus.”
Recommendations being considered by the task force include bumping up the gas tax and registration fees, and reviving the state’s ton/mile tax for tractor-trailers.
The American Trucking Association sued the state a decade ago, arguing that Idaho haulers were getting a break because out-of-state haulers were having to pay higher rates.
The state agreed to a $27 million settlement in 2000 and restructured its trucking license fee system, according to the Idaho Statesman.
“There’s some talk of going back to that type of system of trucks in some format,” Keough said, adding that the new fee system, if implemented, would be uniform among all haulers.
There is even talk of developing a pay-by-mile system for non-commercial traffic.
“More and more states are starting to talk about a vehicle-miles-traveled tax for cars as well, but that requires a whole new mindset for folks and it certainly brings up questions of privacy and how do you track that in a way that might be palatable to people,” she said.
The task force is expected to finalize its recommendations to Gov. Butch Otter by the end of the year. Otter will decide which concepts will be advanced and which won’t.