Legislative drafting error shorts Idaho $27.5M for road projects

idaho-legislature

A legislative drafting error will cost the Idaho Transportation Department $27.5 million in funding for road projects, and Governor Butch Otter’s budget proposal doesn’t seek to mend the error.

Idaho lawmakers passed a “surplus-eliminator” bill last year to split year-end surplus between the state’s rainy-day savings and the department’s road projects.  A drafting error caused half of the amount intended for the department to not be transferred, so the department’s Strategic Initiatives Fund didn’t receive the $27.5 million.

Otter’s budget director Jani Revier briefed the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday and told lawmakers that the governor is not going to recommend the transfer.  Under questioning from both co-chairs of JFAC, Senator Shawn Keough and Representative Maxine Bell, Revier said the governor does not support general fund for roads, and won’t recommend a general fund transfer.

Keough had expressed concern about the transfer Monday.  She said that because the bill passed, there’s a commitment in law that the surplus money is shared in the way that was envisioned by the measure, and lawmakers will have to account for that someplace else. (Spokesman-Review, AP)