For ITD, it's all about infrastructure

ITD says bridges and roads in Idaho need attention.

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Story Published: Jul 18, 2008 at 11:05 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 11:22 PM PDT

By Stephanie Smith

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LEWISTON - The Idaho Transportation Department held a public meeting in Lewiston Thursday night, as part of a statewide Transportation Conference.

Attended by Governor Butch Otter, the meeting focused on the issue of the state’s roads and bridges not keeping up with growth.

"We had a fantastic meeting,” said Pamela Lowe, ITD Director/ “We went through our deteriorating infrastructure and our funding needs and revenue needs for both state and local."

Lowe said the governor will use the information from the meetings to come up with a plan of action.

"They came with all kinds of ideas as to ways that we could be looking at raising revenue for transportation,” said Lowe. “I could say that this is a group that really is aware that the infrastructure is falling apart, and by infrastructure I mean our roads and bridges."

Lowe said one idea is to raise the gas tax in stages to pay for improvements, similar to the tax in Washington.

"We think that all aspects of the system need to work at maximum compactly,” she said. “Especially since the rise in gas prices, we have seen a drop in our revenue and people are driving somewhat less and so our revenue has dropped and that has forced us to make some cuts in needed programs.”

Lowe said ITD recognizes that alternatives to more vehicles on the road needs promotion, but that even mass transit expansion requires that infrastructure gets the attention it needs.

“I would like to specifically address, the short to midterm role for mass transit in Idaho is, I'm convinced, is in busses, and vans and carpools and ride sharing so we think that is a huge role but all those systems need roads and bridges," Lowe said.

The state is seeing a reduction in revenue from the 25-cent-per-gallon fuel tax. Officials for ITD said whether gas is a $1.50 or $5.00, the state fuel tax is still a quarter.

The state already faces a projected $240 million annual shortfall in transportation infrastructure funding. Attempts in the last legislative session to raise the state's gas tax and increase vehicle registration fees to pay for repairing roads failed.

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