After voting on ITD budget, Idaho House and Idaho Senate recess until April 10

The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise is pictured on May 5, 2021. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)

Without any debate, the Idaho House of Representatives and Idaho Senate passed a new transportation budget revoking the sale of the Idaho Transportation Department’s former Boise headquarters Wednesday and then promptly recessed until April 10.

Members of the Idaho House voted 37-31 on Wednesday afternoon to pass House Bill 770, a brand new version of the Idaho Transportation Department’s fiscal year 2025 transportation services budget that was written just hours earlier on Wednesday by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. 

Hours later, at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, the Idaho Senate voted 18-17 to pass the transportation budget – resolving perhaps the largest outstanding policy issue of the 2024 legislative session. Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, and Sen. Geoff Schroeder, R-Mountain Home, originally voted to kill an earlier version of the transportation budget, House Bill 723, and then voted in favor of the nearly identical new transportation budget, House Bill 770, on Wednesday.

After the Senate adjourned Wednesday, Sen. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls, said the state had three options:

• Moving the Idaho Transportation Department to a different state office park on Chinden Boulevard in Boise and selling the State Street property.

• Keeping the State Street property and renovating it.

• Keeping the property, tearing down the old headquarters building and rebuilding it.

“The best for the taxpayers was to keep the property and renovate the building,” Cook told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview on the Senate floor. 

The transportation budget now heads to Gov. Brad Little’s desk for final consideration. When it reaches his desk, Little has the option to sign House Bill 770 into law, allow it to become law without his signature or veto it. 

Recessing until April 10 allows legislators to come back in session to address any potential late session vetoes that Little issues. If legislators had voted to adjourn for the year instead of going at recess, legislators would not have the ability to override any potential late vetoes from Little. 

Like the two transportation budget bills before it, House Bill 770 also revokes the state’s authority to sell the Idaho Transportation Department’s former Boise headquarters. 

Since March 1, legislators have been fighting over whether to block the sale of the Idaho Transportation Department’s flooded former Boise headquarters located at 3311 State St. 

The building flooded in January 2022 and was contaminated with asbestos, the Idaho Press reported. That led the Idaho Transportation Department’s board to declare the State Street campus as surplus property and put it up for sale. 

In November, state officials told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the state sold the property to a group of developers including Hawkins Companies, the Pacific Companies and FJ Management for $51 million, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

“We’re obviously extremely disappointed by what happened to this deal. The Idaho Legislature sent a clear message to the free market: Don't do business with us. All of Idaho - citizens and businesses alike - should be concerned. We hope legislators and the media pay attention to how much money this decision costs the state over the next few years in terms of the millions already spent moving ITD, extensive renovation, remediation, missed job creation and lost revenues. We expect people will hold our lawmakers accountable. The governor can still do the right thing and honor this deal by authorizing the Department of Administration to sign the completed agreement that has been sitting on its desk since March 21.

– Brian Huffaker, CEO of Hawkins Companies on behalf of Hawkins, The Pacific Companies and FJ Management

But on March 1 the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee sought to block the sale of the property, saying it was more financially responsible to hold on to the State Street property and refurbish it rather than sell it. 

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, is a powerful legislative committee that sets each element of the state budget.

After JFAC sought to block the sale, the would-be buyers issued a series of written statements to the Idaho Capital Sun saying they thought they had a deal and are now weighing legal options. 

Ultimately, the dispute over whether to sell the State Street property held up adjournment of the 2024 Idaho legislative session, as the Idaho Senate killed a transportation budget blocking the State Street campus on March 28. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise, led a parliamentary effort Wednesday afternoon to have a rewritten transportation budget ruled out of order and thrown out, which prompted JFAC to write House Bill 770 on Wednesday.

The Idaho Transportation Department’s former headquarters on State Street in Boise on March 21, 2021. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)

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