BOISE -- Efforts to boost state highway repair and maintenance funding dominated the 2009 Legislature but are likely to be absent from the coming session, as lawmakers concentrate on setting the state budget during the deepest recession in three decades.
State Sen. John McGee, a Caldwell Republican who heads that chamber's transportation committee, told the Idaho Press-Tribune, "We know we have to do something about the infrastructure in this state, but the poor economy is making it difficult."
The 2009 Legislature was pushed to the second-longest session history as Gov. Butch Otter and the House sparred over roads funding.
Otter wanted to raise the gas tax; the House, which didn't, won the argument.
In response, Otter created a transportation funding task force, which is due to meet again Wednesday.
The Republican governor has given the group until December 2010 to give him its recommendations.
