Data released today from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show personal income in Idaho hasn’t fully rebounded from the recession, though growth has been measured in the last two years.
The personal income data from 2007 through 2011 offers a closer look at real-time incomes in relation to the state-specific cost of goods and services during that same time period.
Idaho lawmakers have a new tool available to guide them in making tax policy decisions.
The Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations presented a 38-page report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee this morning. The study, a Guide to Comparing Business Tax Policies, was requested by the 2012 Legislature.
The report focuses on a couple of main ideas; tax rates are not the only thing (or most important thing) businesses consider when looking to expand or relocate in Idaho, and tax rate changes aren’t directly related to business investment.
“Although businesses generally seek to maximize their after-tax rate of return, the link between tax costs and a favorable business environment is not direct. Continue Reading →
Gov. Otter talks with lawmakers at his annual State of the State address, Jan. 10, 2013.
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is spending part of his week in Coeur d’Alene at Idaho’s largest business lobby’s annual convention. Gov. Otter’s spokesman says one of the administration’s main goals for the next legislative session is to pass a third-consecutive year of tax cuts.
In some cases, office supplies like this stapler are taxed under Idaho's personal property tax.
Idaho’s largest business lobby is hosting its annual policy meeting in Coeur d’Alene this week. According to the Coeur d’Alene Press, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is attending the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry retreat, along with about 60 legislators and 130 IACI members.
Sure to be on IACI’s 2014 legislative agenda is a complete repeal of Idaho’s business equipment tax. It was partially repealed this year, exempting the tax for about 90 percent of small businesses while keeping the bulk of the revenue stream in-tact. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s real gross domestic product inched up less than a percentage point from 2011 to 2012.
New data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show Idaho’s GDP grew four-tenths of a percent last year. Five states measured slower growth; Wyoming, New Mexico, South Dakota, Delaware, and Connecticut.
Connecticut was the only U.S. state that saw a decline in GDP last year. The state with the largest growth from 2011 to 2012 was North Dakota, with a whopping 13.4 percent increase. Continue Reading →
This Nampa neighborhood used to be dotted with foreclosures.
The Idaho Attorney General’s office says more than 6,000 Idahoans will receive checks under the historic national mortgage settlement this month.
As we reported last year, the $25 billion settlement was reached in February 2012. The borrowers who received “loan servicing errors” that may have led to foreclosures between 2008 and 2011, were eligible for these settlement payments. Continue Reading →
The number of Idahoans who don’t have enough work declined between 2011 and 2012, but the state’s underemployment rate is still well above pre-recession levels.
The Idaho Department of Labor writes in its latest newsletter the 2012 underemployment rate was 16.9 percent. That means nearly 17 percent of Idaho’s workforce had part-time or temporary jobs when they wanted full-time work. That measure also includes people with associate’s degrees or higher, who are registered with an unemployment office and are searching for a different job.
Idaho’s underemployment rate in 2007, the year before the recession, was 10.9 percent. As this chart from the Idaho Department of Labor shows, as the economy worsened, those rates increased.
JFAC co-chairs Dean Cameron (R-Rupert) and Maxine Bell (R-Jerome).
The lawmakers who shape Idaho’s annual budget will tour the northern part of the state this week to get a glimpse of their policy decisions in action.
Members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, will spend three days at north Idaho businesses, landmarks, and schools.
Legislative budget and policy analyst Keith Bybee says it’s a chance for lawmakers to see how budget policies and decisions are working, instead of just hearing about it when they’re in a committee room at the Capitol in Boise.
Bybee says it’s important for lawmakers to understand how staffers like him spend the legislative off-season. “We spend a lot of time writing reports and making sure they [legislators] have the best information possible,” says Bybee. Continue Reading →
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