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Idaho Transportation Department outlines budget, bonding and project delivery in annual report to committee
Summary
ITD Director Scott Stokes delivered the agency’s annual report to the Transportation Committee, reviewing project delivery, funding sources, staffing challenges and the governor’s budget recommendations — including a proposed $50 million augmentation to the existing bonding program and a 3% increase in strategic initiative transfers.
Scott Stokes, director of the Idaho Transportation Department, delivered the agency’s annual report to the Transportation Committee and reviewed recent project delivery, funding sources, staffing challenges and the governor’s budget recommendations. Stokes said the department maintains “over 12,000 lane miles of highways, over 1,800 bridges” and reported that ITD’s payout last year exceeded $966,000,000 for planning, design and construction work.
Why it matters: Stokes said recent bonding and strategic transfers have allowed ITD to accelerate a multi-year program of projects. Committee members pressed officials on the size and duration of bond programs, staffing retention, and local impacts of major projects.
Funding and the governor’s proposal Stokes described four primary revenue sources: federal funds (federal fuel and excise taxes apportioned by formula), state user fees (fuel tax and registration fees dedicated to roads), strategic initiative transfers (general-fund transfers for contract construction) and the TECM program (transportation expansion and congestion mitigation) backed by sales-tax–supported bonding. He said the TECM sales-tax transfer of $80 million per year has supported bond capacity and delivery; ITD expects to issue a final bond sale of roughly $340 million to $350 million that will complete current authorization, and the governor has proposed an additional $50 million transfer to authorize another round of bonding.
Project delivery and program scale Stokes said ITD has planned, designed and contracted just under $3 billion of highway and bridge projects since the TECM program began and noted the department’s 7-year project program is fully programmed through 2031 for strategic-initiative funds. He highlighted completed and in-progress projects including State Highway 16, the Hayburn interchange, the Pocatello interchange improvements and other corridor projects.
Operations, performance and workforce Stokes emphasized maintenance and operations, citing dashboard targets and recent performance: 86% of pavements in good or fair condition (exceeding an 80% target), 128 roadway sensors deployed and winter-storm response success of 88% for clearing roads during storms. He acknowledged workforce challenges: ITD employs roughly 1,645 staff, with about 400–450 maintenance workers; the department reported average maintenance turnover of about 80 employees per year over the past three years and an average tenure of roughly 2.5 years for staff engineers.
Budget and equipment requests The director outlined line-item requests in the FY26 program-maintenance budget (about $795 million) and highlighted equipment asks, including replacement of rotary snowplows (roughly $700,000 each) and targeted compensation adjustments to improve retention among maintenance staff. Stokes also summarized debt-service figures: TEChAM/TECM bonding provided $80 million per year in sales-tax transfers and the department continues to pay GARVEE debt service (current annual payment about $62 million), with remaining GARVEE principal in the hundreds of millions.
Committee questions and follow-up Members asked whether state funds were used on a casino-related Atway interchange; Stokes said he would follow up and that much of that project was funded by a federal Bureau of Indian Affairs grant but he would confirm specifics. Representatives also asked about the duration and cost of auxiliary-lane projects on I‑84 eastbound; Stokes estimated roughly $10 million per lane mile (approximate) and said a full corridor package could exceed $200 million. On federal grant freezes, Stokes said ITD was assessing the impact and did not expect large disruptions but was coordinating with the governor’s office.
What’s next Stokes said the department expects to continue project delivery if funding is available and will return to the committee with requested follow-up information on bond administrative fees, Atway interchange funding sources, and more detailed staffing and turnover data.
