Construction on the Kootenai Technical Education Campus could start next year rather than 2012 as planned.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, will introduce a bill in the upcoming Legislature that would allow the professional-technical high school on the Rathdrum Prairie to open in 2012 rather than 2013.

“This would allow KTEC to be up and running a full school year ahead of time without additional cost to the taxpayer,” Goedde said.

Goedde co-sponsored a bill passed in 2009 that allows cooperative service agencies — in this case the Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Lakeland school districts — to run school plant facility levies to construct facilities.

“The bill passed (in 2009) said they could not break ground until all the money was in the bank,” Goedde said. “If we amend that, it would allow construction to start sooner as long as there’s no interest being paid on any kind of loan.”

As it stands, all preliminary work, including architectural and engineering, can be completed without all the property tax funding obtained.

“This just takes it one step further to allow construction to start,” Goedde said. “This gives KTEC flexibility to use money as it comes in before having to collect all of it. That advances the timetable by a school year.”

The bill, if passed, could also help the KTEC group take advantage of an optimal time to build when materials and labor are cheaper, Goedde said.

“School construction costs are at a very low point,” Goedde said. “If they can move this forward a year in advance, that could save on construction costs. And, at the very least, it will cost no more.”

Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane, head of the KTEC governing board, said passage of the bill would expedite the planning process, but he believes the committee would be willing to do its part to allow construction to start sooner. The need for such learning opportunities already exists and businesses are eager for the school to open, Keane said.

“If it becomes an option (to start building sooner), I think we will all be highly motivated to get going,” Keane said.

Voters in the three school districts in August approved financing to construct the $9.5 million school.

The school will offer classes in skilled trades such as health occupations, welding, construction and automotive to juniors and seniors in the three districts.

The tax dollars for the project will be received by the districts twice a year, in January and July of 2011, and in the same months in 2012. Those funds will be transferred to KTEC, and can be used only for the construction project. For taxpayers, the costs will be reflected in their property tax payments beginning this December, and in their December and June tax bills through the start of construction in 2012.

The owner of a $200,000 home in the Coeur d’Alene School District will see a property tax bill increase of about $35 per year for two years. That same home in the Post Falls district will not see an increase because an existing levy is expiring. In the Lakeland School District, that homeowner’s property tax bill will be roughly $50 more for each of the next two years.

The KTEC group selected the project’s architect, Longwell and Trapp Associates of Hayden, through a bid process last year.

North Idaho College is planning to build its own $35.4 million professional-technical facility in two phases on property it owns adjacent to the high school site.

The first $20.5 million phase has been submitted to Idaho’s Department of Public Works as a capital budget request for 2013, and is No. 2 on NIC’s building priority list behind the joint use building planned on the education corridor, adjacent to the Coeur d’Alene campus.

The second phase is on the college’s capital request list for 2017, although the first phase will be fully operational without the second phase.