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House Leaders Hijack Big Road Proposal: They Want Senate to Vote Their Way on Tax Measures

Posted on: Saturday, 1 April 2006, 12:00 CST

By Shawna Gamache, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Apr. 1--The final-hour chess match at the Statehouse has begun.

House leaders sent senators a message Friday in an effort to get their way in remaining battles, by moving the "Connecting Idaho" road-building program back to committee rather than letting representatives vote on it.

The decision comes one day after House Speaker Bruce Newcomb's water recharge bill died on the Senate floor and senators supported a "Truth in Taxation" bill that representatives say precludes real property tax relief for Idahoans.

Moving the bill to the House Transportation and Defense Committee forces senators to vote on remaining property tax bills knowing they might lose Connecting Idaho, also called GARVEE, if they don't do what the House wants.

"They want GARVEE, we want property tax relief and recharge of the aquifer," House Assistant Majority Leader Mike Moyle of Star said.

The Connecting Idaho bill has sat at the speaker's desk since passing the budget committee three weeks ago, and Newcomb said he was holding the bill as a possible bargaining chip for end-of-session politics.

"I'm just saying to the people in the Senate maybe they should open their hearts, open their minds and open their ears and maybe they could hear something," said Newcomb, of Burley, on Friday afternoon at a retirement party in his honor.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne introduced Connecting Idaho in last year's State of the State address. The plan lets the state build highways now by borrowing from future federal dollars.

Members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee cut the governor's requested $218 million to $200 million and limited the projects from 11 to six, saying the cuts were necessary to get the bill passed in the House.

The governor said Friday he thought the compromise would ultimately prevail.

But Rep. JoAn Wood, chairman of House transportation committee, said she plans to modify the bill to redistribute the projects more evenly across the state.

"If I had my way, it wouldn't come out of the committee at all," said Wood, R-Rigby. "It would save the people of this state a lot of debt."

JFAC member Rep. Darrell Bolz said he was concerned that the House might have overplayed its hand a bit. "Once it goes into committee, we don't know what kind of control we have over it," said Bolz, R-Caldwell.

JFAC co-chairman Sen. Dean Cameron of Rupert said if the house committee alters the bill, JFAC will reintroduce its bill that passed that committee with only one vote against.

Still in play are four property tax bills.

The Senate is working to advance two proposals that don't immediately give property tax relief. On Thursday, the Senate voted for a "Truth in Taxation" law that would force local governments to publicly explain all tax increases, and will soon decide on another that brings the property tax decision to the voters in the form of a constitutional amendment.

Members of the House are afraid the Senate has chosen this tack over endorsing the three remaining House bills that would take effect immediately, including an increase in the homeowner's exemption, additional aid to the elderly and the disabled and a shift of school construction costs from the property tax to the sales tax.

"We still want to have property tax relief," said House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney of Midvale. "We'll get it down to one issue, and it will be taken care of."

But Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes of Soda Springs said he wasn't clear on what exactly the House wants.

"I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think GARVEE is in trouble," Geddes said. "It's something the House needs to do to make a point. The problem is, we don't know what that point is."

Rep. Ken Roberts said the move was also to punish the senators who broke promises to support water recharge and the two chambers will likely spend all of next week sorting the mess out. "This is the part of the session I like the least because politics get involved in policy decisions," said Roberts, R-McCall, sponsor of the property tax relief bill that raises the sales tax by one and one-quarter cent.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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