Archives for June 2009

From the Spokesman-Review

ITD director shelved 2007 research over validity concerns

Tags: Idaho Transportation Department

BOISE – As Idaho prepares to consider raising car or truck fees to address a huge shortfall in road funding, a 2007 state study that showed car and pickup owners pay more than their share and subsidize heavy trucks has languished.

A copy of the study, obtained Monday by The Spokesman-Review under the Idaho Public Records Law, shows that since the previous study in 2002, a rough balance between cars and heavy trucks has tilted. “Autos and pickup users are overpaying about 10 percent, while all trucks are underpaying about 10 percent,” the study found.

Draft results from the $20,000 study were presented to the Idaho Transportation Board in October 2007, but shortly after that, Pam Lowe, Idaho Transportation Department director, decided to scrap it.

Lowe said she didn’t hear from any interest groups objecting to it. Instead, she said she was concerned with statements in the study, prepared by Palouse Partners Inc. of Pullman, that suggested glitches between Idaho’s record-keeping system and the software used for the study could result in some inaccuracies.

“My own consultant was saying it might not be valid,” Lowe said.

State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said, “I was frustrated that they didn’t finalize that cost allocation study, because it really would have been helpful in the debate.” She added, “I have a lot of confidence in ITD’s economists, and I didn’t question the methodology or the work that had been done.”

But Kathy Fowers, president of the Idaho Trucking Association, said, “We never really approved of that study. … A cost allocation study is only as good as the people who participate in it. It can be very political.”

Steps suggested in the study to address the glitches would have been complex and time-consuming, Lowe said. “It was going to take too much time. We weren’t going to get it done for the legislative session, so I just scrapped it.”

Nevertheless, word of the study’s results circulated – they’d been discussed at a public Transportation Board meeting – and led to concern over just what the study did or didn’t show.

“We have no idea how they came to their conclusions or anything,” Fowers said.

She maintains that Idaho’s truck registration fees already are high compared to other states, but a separate study of truck fees by a Denver consultant commissioned by ITD in December 2007 found Idaho’s truck taxes and fees “comparable to or below the average of surrounding states.”

Meanwhile, proposals this year to substantially raise registration fees for cars and pickups while making only small or no adjustments to truck fees raised the ire of those who said the move would worsen the inequities already identified in the study.

“We are in a time when the little guy feels that he’s expected to pay to solve the problems created by the big guys,” said Keith Allred, head of the citizen group The Common Interest.

Dave Carlson, spokesman for AAA Idaho, said, “Fair-share budgeting is a must.”

Now, Idaho is looking at launching a new highway cost allocation study. This time, the state will follow models from Nevada and Oregon, rather than relying on the software used in the 2007 study.

From the Spokesman-Review

From the Idaho Statesman

Owyhee County has spent more than $162,000 on something so obviously wonderful, it just has to be kept secret from taxpayers. So the county took a black marker and diligently crossed out 56 entries on a 240-page check register provided to the Idaho Freedom Foundation. County Prosecutor Douglas Emery decided the recipients of the taxpayer dollars – of which he’s one – should remain anonymous.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation has spent months making a simple request of government agencies throughout Idaho: Send us an electronic record of your last 18 months of operating expenditures, line by line, check by check. The request to Owyhee County shouldn’t have come as a surprise; I met with the county commissioners and the county prosecutor, who doubles as the county’s legal counsel, in March to explain to them how the Idaho Freedom Foundation was working to boost the transparency of local and state government agencies, and how their spending records would be made part of a free online database.

But Owyhee County soon proved it wouldn’t do what was easily accomplished by Canyon County, Nampa, Pocatello, Boise, Ketchum, Hayden, Meridian, the Ada County Highway District, Pocatello School District, Meridian Development Corporation, College of Western Idaho, Greater Boise Auditorium District and the Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Pocatello school districts – all of whom had no problem responding to our request quickly and thoroughly.

Owyhee County initially dismissed my public records request, sent by e-mail on April 30.

“The Owyhee County departments are not to accept e-mail records requests,” Owyhee County Prosecutor Douglas D. Emery told me in an e-mail denying my e-mail request. “Owyhee County is within its right to require uniformity in the request process and that our form be used and signed.” So I took my same request, word for word, pasted it onto Owyhee County’s form, and e-mailed it back. Success.

“I will route the (request) to the necessary departments for an estimation of the total pages of copies which will need to be generated. If there is a cost anticipated, I will advise,” Emery told me.

Twenty days later, on May 30, Owyhee County’s 240-page response came in the mail, complete with a letter dated May 14 and a bill for $66.

But the pages contained blacked-out entries for more than $162,000 of non-payroll expenses. And for some of the entries, both the recipient of the money and the dollar amount were redacted. To justify his actions, Emery cited portions of the public records law that allows records to be withheld if they are of a personal nature, are medical records or are records belonging to the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. Emery declined to elaborate on his legal selections, which seem odd to me.

Fortunately, not everyone is excited about government secrets, and with a little bit of sleuthing, I was able to find out that the bulk of the secretive payments went to a consultant, likely working on the Owyhee Initiative. More than $6,000 went to Emery, when he was under contract with the county as a deputy prosecutor in 2007-2008.

What’s not clear to me are the reasons Owyhee County declared these entries secret. Emery offers few answers.

“There is no secret that I worked for the Owyhee County as a deputy prosecutor under Matt Faulks, the former (county prosecutor), at $50 per hour approximately one day per week and performed such work for a number of months,” Emery wrote in an e-mail Thursday. “My prior position with the county and rate of pay is a matter of public record and likewise published in the Owyhee Avalanche. Details of personal withholdings and personal payroll information, however, is not.”

But payments to Emery weren’t reported in the county’s accounting as payroll, which means either Emery was hired as a contractor, not an employee, or the county’s accounting system is flawed. And what of the payments to the lands consultant? Emery won’t answer.

“If you desire further records or additional followup, please complete and sign the proper written public records form and submit payment for the expenses incurred to date,” Emery wrote in his final e-mail transmission.

I suspect Owyhee County’s decision to hold these expenses secret violates Idaho’s public records law. In fairness, I can’t be entirely sure of anything because of Emery’s steadfast refusal to openly discuss the matter.

Regardless, the county’s froward response to the public’s right to know is maddening, and it illustrates how little these county officials respect the taxpayers who ultimately pay the bills and expect to know – with only extraordinary exceptions – who is getting their money and why.

Wayne Hoffman is the executive director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank. E-mail him at wayne@idahofreedom.net.

From the Idaho Statesman