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Idaho Transportation
Department

Public Affairs Office
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563
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Forum offers far-reaching view of options

Idaho’s transportation system has reached a crossroads, and the direction we take in building for the future will be determined by the decisions we make today.

For the past two years, an independent group of local policymakers, transportation officials and Idaho citizens has been engaged in discussions about how to move the present system into new era using the lessons of the past.

One thing has become clear from the Forum on Transportation Investment – we cannot use yesterday’s solutions to solve tomorrow’s needs. That is why the Forum set aside preconceptions, stepped outside the traditional box and looked for new solutions to meet new demands.

The forum produced 14 far-reaching recommendations that can be used to help us continue to improve a 21st century transportation system. Three specific revenue options that should be considered immediately are:

  1. Increase all fuel taxes and all vehicle registration fees as soon as possible
  2. Increase motor vehicle-imposed fees to cover the cost of providing those services, and
  3. Eliminate or replace the revenue impact of alternative fuels tax exemptions, such as ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen or electric fuels.

The third recommendation is based on the realization that the fuel of tomorrow likely will be much different than today’s. We must be positioned to make a revenue transition before those new fuel sources become readily available and commonly used.

Many of the recommendations will stretch our imagination and creativity. Among them are

  • Integration of land use decisions and transportation planning at all agency levels – local, regional and state
  • Introduce the concept of user-based fee funding, such as toll highways and/or fee-based high occupancy toll lanes, and congestion pricing
  • Creating new partnerships to help fund, build and operate the system
  • Consider the role public transportation can play in easing demand and providing revenue
  • Improve freight mobility
  • Provide local option taxing authority for transportation-related initiatives at local and regional levels
  • Establish index strategies for fuel taxes, vehicle registration and other transportation-related taxes and/or fees that reflect inflationary growth
  • Ask that new growth and development impact fees be assessed to help fund infrastructure and system demands generated by growth and expansion

We will have an opportunity in the next six months to explore those options with citizens throughout Idaho in a series of meetings. The first will be April 19 in Lewiston, followed by similar discussions in Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Boise and Pocatello.

We need the Forum’s progressive, far-sighted approach to take us past the present crossroads and prepare our transportation future.

Published 4-7-06