By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports
The Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee put out a new budget for the Idaho Transportation Department on Tuesday. The new bill changes the appropriation by $100, and leaves in the controversial language regarding a State Street property sale.
JFAC co-chair Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, told Idaho Reports they were hoping to put out something that would pass both the House and the Senate.
“Where the majority of the Republican caucus is is clear, I just cannot predict how that will go forward,” Horman said.
After the joint budget committee put out the new ITD budget on Tuesday, Horman told reporters the hope is that some Senators have changed their minds and will reconsider their vote on the legislation.
The three Democrats on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted against the new bill.
The Legislature already passed agency skeleton budgets, the so-called maintenance budgets, but the bills in limbo include the enhanced budgets that must pass before lawmakers can head home.
After a 16-19 vote in the Senate last week to tank the Idaho Transportation Department’s enhanced budget, HB 723, the committee needed to rewrite the ITD budget. The original enhanced budget included $592 million with 53 funded positions for workforce planning. The House narrowly passed that budget bill in a 35-34 vote.
Senators who voted against it largely opposed language in the appropriation bill that would have forbid the sale of a former ITD site in Boise. The Idaho Transportation Board planned to sell the property at 3311 W. State Street, but the appropriation bill’s language would have revoked the Board’s authority to do that, instead allocating $32,500,000 for rehabilitation for the property.
The Idaho Department of Administration’s enhanced budget, H726, also went back to JFAC because it contained similar language to the original ITD budget forbidding the department from disposing of the property. That bill provided an additional $2.3 million that would go to the agency.
The Department of Administration budget JFAC approved Tuesday does not include language about the State Street property.
Both budget bills must be approved by both the Senate and the House.
Ruth Brown | Producer
Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She’s since moved on to Idaho lawmakers. Brown spent 10 years working in print journalism, including newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press, where she’s covered everything from the correctional system to health care issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policy can impact the lives of regular Idahoans.