With lawmakers pondering $300 million more in GARVEE bonding as part of a possible transportation package, it’s time for a refresher. GARVEE is something of an acronym (kind of) for Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, a mechanism created by Congress to allow states to borrow against a portion of their future federal highway allocations, in order to more quickly and efficiently build big projects. Idaho first used the mechanism under Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s 2005 “Connecting Idaho” plan, an ambitious $1.6 billion, multi-year bonding proposal to upgrade key transportation corridors around the state that lawmakers later reduced to less than $1 billion and then to $857 million.

Idaho’s last GARVEE bonded construction projects finished in 2015, with 59 projects completed statewide, including 35 new bridges, 14 new or improved interchanges, and 119 miles of highway expansion, all in six identified corridors. The funding has upgraded everything from accident-prone, twisting sections of Highway 95 in North Idaho to a vastly improved U.S. Highway 30 from McCammon to Lava Hot Springs to congestion-choked freeway stretches in the Treasure Valley.

Currently, Idaho has $564.2 million in outstanding GARVEE bonds, and 15 years left to pay it off, with full payoff scheduled for 2032. 

Idaho set a cap, determining that it wouldn’t exceed 30 percent of its annual federal highway allocations for GARVEE bond debt service. Currently, the state’s at around 17 percent. The new proposal for $300 million more in bonding would take it up to roughly 27 percent.

Research by Scott Stokes, ITD deputy director, shared with lawmakers in 2014 showed big drops in crashes on the transportation corridors that were targeted with the GARVEE-bonded upgrades. Among them: On the Worley-to-Setters stretch of U.S. Highway 95 south of Coeur d’Alene, crashes fell by 72 percent from 2007 to 2012, even as traffic volumes went up 36 percent. Stokes told lawmakers, “It is clear that when we invest in safety, the return on the investment is dramatic.”

Here's a Federal Highway Administration fact sheet on GARVEE bonds; here's ITD's rundown of the program thus far.

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