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Appropriation, travel costs, public comments
will highlight August board meeting

The August meeting of the Idaho Transportation Board next week will feature an expanded appropriation request, a summary of ITIP comments, and FY19 travel expenses.

Tour
The District 1 board tour on August 21 will focus on Benewah County. The board will spend several hours in St. Maries visiting a bridge project, touring PotlatchDeltic (a timberland real estate trust that also manufactures lumber and wood products), and meeting with local officials.

Proposed Appropriation Request
At its meeting in Coeur d’Alene on August 22, the board will be asked to approve the proposed FY21 appropriation request. The request will then be submitted to the Division of Financial Management for the Governor’s consideration.

Staff presented the draft budget during a work session in June. Since then, the forecast has been updated and the appropriation request has been refined. The total proposed request is now $821 million, which is almost $62 million more than proposed in June. The majority of the additional funds are being directed to contract construction.

Public Comments
Also in June, the draft Idaho Transportation Investment Program (ITIP) was presented to the board, followed by a 30-day public comment period on the draft document.

The 26 comments received during this time will be presented to the board for its information. A number of comments were submitted in support of efforts to reduce vehicle/wildlife collisions. Some of the individual projects that received support were Thorn Creek Road to Moscow on US-95, safety improvements at the ID-7/US-95 intersection, improvements on Highway 16 from ID-44 to Emmett, a new bridge in the Twin Falls area, and safety improvements on US-91 between Blackfoot and Idaho Falls.

The final FY20-26 ITIP will be presented to the board for approval next month.

Travel Report
The annual in-state and out-of-state travel report will also be presented to the board for information purposes. The department spent $423,824 on out-of-state travel in FY19. This was higher than the prior four years, which ranged from $273,004 to $345,935. The in-state travel expenses were also higher in FY19, with $1,646,605 spent. From FY15-18, the expenses ranged from $1,107,086 to $1,538,724.