Rebuffed again by House, Otter vetoes 25 more budget bills

Idaho Statesman, April 21, 2009 By: Brian Murphy

The Idaho House thumbed its collective nose at Gov. Butch Otter and the on Tuesday, rejecting a Senate-passed increase in the gasoline tax on a 55-15 vote. Otter thumbed back, vetoing 25 more budget bills Tuesday afternoon.

The bill, House Bill 96, would have raised gasoline taxes by 3 cents a gallon on July 1 and another 3 cents on July 1, 2010. The Senate on Monday appended the gas-tax increase, which Otter has championed, to a bill that would end Idaho's tax break on ethanol fuel. The bill also would raise driver's license fees and other fees for the Division of Motor Vehicles.

It was the sixth time this legislative session the House has rejected a fuel tax increase.

Shawn Raecke / Idaho Statesman House GOP Leader , from Star, answers questions Tuesday afternoon during the House Leadership press conference at the Capitol Annex in Boise.

House Republican leaders said Tuesday afternoon, after meeting with Otter, that their vote was not a repudiation of the governor. They said they would continue to meet with the governor to come to a compromise over transportation funding.

“Negotiations are ongoing,” said Speaker of the House Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale.

Among the items being negotiated is an economic trigger that would institute the tax once the economy improved.

House leaders said they were comfortable with just the ethanol bill and DMV fee increase. That offer was made two weeks ago — and rejected — said Otter's chief of staff, Jason Kreizenbeck.

"We need something long term and significant," Kreizenbeck said.

Otter met with Senate Republican leaders Tuesday afternoon, as well. Republican leaders from the House and Senate were expected to meet later Tuesday, said Sen. Russ Fulcher, R- Meridian.

Otter vetoed 10 bills just a day earlier to drive home to legislators his determination to secure more money to maintain roads and bridges. He said he wouldn’t let the Legislature adjourn without approving more money to address a projected $240 million annual road-maintenance shortfall. But only four Republicans (Eric Anderson, Priest Lake; , Boise; , Dover; Leon Smith, Twin Falls) backed the bill Tuesday, a sign the House wasn’t keen on being told what to do. Eleven of 18 Democrats backed it.

The seven Democrats who voted against the bill are: Liz Chavez, Lewiston; , Boise; Brian Cronin, Boise; Branden Durst, Boise; , Boise; Phyllis King, Boise; James Ruchti, Pocatello.

Assistant Majority Leader said the House had enough votes to pass a $68.5 million package last year — a package Otter belittled as wholly inadequate.

“I don’t think the underlying understanding has changed. What has changed since then is the economy,” Bedke said.

Denney said the case has been made that Idaho’s roads are in need of repair — something the governor has said and the Senate concurred with when they passed House Bill 96.

When asked who would bear the blame if a bridge collapsed or children drove off a bad road into a river, Denney said: “We’d probably all share in that blame."