The gift that keeps on taking

BOISE - It's the gift that keeps on taking.

The water-guzzling, electricity-devouring hilltop mansion donated by french fry mogul J.R. Simplot in 2004 to be used as Idaho's governor's mansion remains vacant but will still cost the state about $158,000 in the 12 months through June.

On Wednesday, lawmakers offered alarming new tidings about the home shunned by Gov. Butch Otter because he prefers his country ranch: A three-decade-old taxpayer-backed fund for its upkeep is down to just $1 million from a high of $1.5 million three years ago - and it's disappearing fast.

"We can only maintain the property and the home for the next five years before that fund will be depleted," Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, chairman of the five-member Governor's Housing Committee, warned.

Possible sale of the 7,400-square-foot home in north Boise faces many hurdles, among them the J.R. Simplot Co.'s ownership of more than 30 acres surrounding the house and its winding driveway.

The committee now plans to go hat-in-hand to neighbors down the hill, to see if the state might be able use their driveways to provide better access for a prospective new owner.

There's also the matters of irrigation, electricity and groundskeeping. J.R. Simplot Co. splits the cost, but Idaho's share of electricity bills skyrocketed to $28,000 through Jan. 31.

The pumps, which break down regularly from sending water uphill 20 hours a day in the summer, cost $38,000 this year to replace. When they failed while Simplot still owned the house, his groundskeeper switched from well to Boise water. Simplot saw the bill, then he delivered a terse order: "Let the grass die."

In weighing the state's next step, Idaho found seven positive aspects of the house, including its stunning view of the Boise valley and proximity to downtown. But state managers nearly ran out of room listing disadvantages: Poor access; $200,000 in annual costs; liability issues associated with sledders who flock to the steep slopes beneath the house, and the fact that the state doesn't foresee governors living there any time soon.

Although Idaho owns Boise Foothills property given by the federal government for a new governor's residence, Geddes said that's hardly a perfect site, either: Deep ravines block suitable building ground.

Before he died in 2008 at 99, J.R. Simplot was a fierce businessman who began amassing his $3.2 billion fortune by shooting wild horses during the winter of 1924 and using their meat to fatten up hogs for sale come spring.

He didn't become one of America's 100 richest men without a shrewd eye for a good deal - and it appears he got a pretty good one in 2004 with his gift to the state.