Teton County Road Levy Returns to May Ballot as State...

DRIGGS — Teton County voters will decide on May 19 whether to renew the Special Road & Bridge Levy, a two-year funding measure that has appeared on primary ballots every cycle since 2010. This year's request: $1.5 million per year, up from the $1.4 million approved in 2024.

The levy would cost property owners about $22 per year for every $100,000 of taxable property value, a $2 annual increase over the current rate.

But the levy lands on this ballot as state road funding collapses around it.

Levy funding breakdown

The Special Road Levy provides one-third of the county's entire Road & Bridge budget. The remaining two-thirds comes from state gas tax revenue, vehicle registration fees, and grant funding.

Of the $1.5 million, the county's Road & Bridge department would receive about $1.2 million. The rest goes to Victor, Driggs, and Tetonia's road departments, allocated in proportion to property taxes paid within each city.

County Public Works Director Darryl Johnson and Commission Chair Brad Wolfe outlined the levy's scope in a county fact sheet: road grading, five miles of gravel overlays annually, 50 miles of gravel stabilization, 12–15 miles of chip seal, one to two miles of full road reconstruction, and bridge and culvert repairs.

The county notes that many roads still don't meet current design standards: too narrow, insufficient wearing surface, or in severe disrepair. The levy also serves as the required local match for state and federal grants, meaning a failed levy would cut $1.5 million from the budget and disqualify the county from additional grant funding.

The state funding picture

The renewal arrives as the state Legislature and governor slash road funding at a scale Idaho hasn't seen in decades.

In January, Gov. Brad Little proposed pulling $275 million from the Idaho Transportation Department's Strategic Initiatives Fund, including $110 million earmarked for local road and bridge departments statewide, to help close a projected budget deficit. That followed a $45 million ITD cut already implemented in fiscal year 2026.

The Legislature then approved 4% across-the-board budget cuts for most state agencies in FY2026, with 5% permanent cuts beginning in FY2027. Five consecutive years of income tax reductions, combined with the cost of conforming with federal tax changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, drove the revenue shortfall behind those cuts.

State Sen. Jim Woodward, a Republican who serves as vice-chair of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, wrote in a recent column that the Legislature took $275 million from ITD and local road departments because of last year's income tax cut. The result: rougher, more congested roads.

For Teton County, where state statute already caps non-levy property tax increases at 3% per year regardless of actual growth, the county can't keep up. Teton County has been one of Idaho's fastest-growing for more than a decade, but the revenue tools available to match that growth are limited by design. The road levy is one of the few mechanisms voters can directly control.

History

The levy has passed every cycle since its inception in 2010. It started at $1 million per year, increased to $1.2 million in 2020, $1.3 million in 2022, and $1.4 million in 2024. The proposed $1.5 million continues a pattern of incremental increases that the county says still fall behind actual construction inflation.

The vote

The May 19 primary election. A simple majority is required for passage. The county is legally prohibited from advocating for or against the measure.