Committee advances House Bill 25 to boost Techum program road funding

The House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Feb. 20 voted to send House Bill 25 to the full House with a due-pass recommendation. The measure, introduced by Representative Joe Palmer, would increase annual sales-tax-derived contributions used to bond major road projects under the Techum program by staged amounts over three years.

Representative Joe Palmer, R.-Dist. 20 of Meridian, told the committee the Techum program—created in 2017 to use a portion of sales tax revenue for roads and expanded in 2021 to allow bonding for large projects—has funded highway work across the state. "The program has turned out to work very well," Palmer said, and the bill would add $20 million in the first year, $40 million in the second year and $60 million in the third year to the existing roughly $80 million contribution that currently helps service bonds.

The bill also sets a per-locality cap of $45,000,000, Palmer said, which he described as providing predictability for local…