In case you weren’t glued to your computer screen all week, here’s what you missed at StateImpact Idaho. These are the five most commented, clicked and shared stories of the week!
Idaho’s Food Stamp Rolls Nearly Triple in Four Years: Food stamp use in the state used to be cyclical. It waxed and waned according to the availability of seasonal jobs. “Use would go down in the spring and up in the fall,” Shanahan said. Now it only climbs. “There’s not any kind of cycle anymore except up,” he said.
Idaho in Top Ten for Cuts in Mental Health Spending: As advocates for people with mental illness will point out, Idaho hasn’t had a great track record of funding services for the state’s mentally ill. “I think the shocking part is we spend $44 per capita on mental health, and the national average is $122. So we’re about a third of the national average,” said Doug McKnight, president of the Idaho chapter of NAMI. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s legislative budget expert expects the state to end the fiscal year with $77 million in the bank. That’s if current projections hold.
Cathy Holland-Smith manages the Budget and Policy Analysis Division at the Legislative Services Office. She unveiled budget projections to a group of lawmakers and Idaho business leaders at the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho conference this week.
In response to our recent story about Idaho’s growing food stamp rolls, IdahoReporter.com sent this 2010 article about the suspension of the state’s asset test for food stamp eligibility. Like many other states, Idaho lifted the asset test in 2009. Previously, families could not qualify for assistance if they held more than $2,000 in assets, not counting resources like their home and house lot. According to the Department of Health and Welfare, the state’s food stamp rolls had ballooned prior to the decision to lift the asset limit, growing by 36 percent from 2008 to 2009.
Early this year, the Idaho Legislature amended the asset test, raising the limit to $5,000 and ending the temporary suspension. The new limit went into effect in June. Continue Reading →
Meridian-based Scentsy has landed a spot on Forbes Magazine’s list of America’s Most Promising Companies. The only other Idaho company to join the no-flame scented candle maker on this year’s list is Idaho Falls-based Deer Valley Trucking, which transports water and oil on North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation.
Scentsy stands out on the Forbes ranking for having the greatest revenue — $381.8 million in the most recent fiscal year. Like Tupperware, Scentsy relies on a direct-sales distribution model. Founded in 2004, the company boasts more than 140,000 home-based independent sales consultants worldwide. In September, Inc.com counted Scentsy among the fastest growing U.S. companies.
Kelly Barker, a single mother from Meridian, has been out of work since April.
Name: Kelly Barker
Age: 46
Unemployed since: April 2011
“Every day that I get in my car to go volunteer, I pray and cross my fingers that it starts, because I don’t have anything to fall back on.”
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates nearly 70,000 people in the state don’t have jobs. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work. This is the latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series, that follows several Idahoans in their search for work.
Kelly Barker remembers pleading for her first job. She was twelve years old, and she wanted to buy a Pentax camera. “It was very expensive, and I remember begging for that job at a Tastee-Freez,” she said. “Finally, when the owner got tired of me begging every day, he gave me the job. I’ve worked ever since.”
New data from the Idaho Department of Labor confirms what many people have suspected. The number of people who are underemployed continues to grow. In 2010, 14.2 percent of the workforce was underemployed, compared with 12.7 percent back in 2009. Statistics show most of the underemployed worked part-time or temporary jobs when they wanted and needed full-time work.
The Department reports 97,000 Idahos were considered underemployed in 2010, the official number of people without work hit a record 70,000 that same year. Labor Department spokesman Bob Fick says the underemployment number could be even higher because the recession has forced some workers to take part-time jobs for longer than five months because they can’t find anything better.
This chart breaks up the data by regions. Notice Southwestern Idaho saw a decrease in the official underemployment rate:
The Idaho Department of Commerce has named Gynii Gilliam as its new chief economic development officer. Here’s the press release from the Department:
Gilliam will lead the agency’s economic development team and will be responsible for creating economic growth, across all industry sectors, for the state of Idaho.
“Ms. Gilliam will be an excellent addition to our team,” said Commerce Director Jeffery Sayer. “Her strong leadership, her proactive and partnership-focused approach, and her experience will be a great asset for our team and for our state. We are excited to have her join our effort to accelerate employment growth and business creation for our great state.” Continue Reading →
We’ll be at the Boise Centre tomorrow (8:30-3:15) liveblogging the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho’s 65th annual conference. This year’s theme: “Niching Idaho in Uncertain Economic Times.”
A prominent DC-based think-tank says real growth in U.S. jobs is attributed primarily to new startup companies, not existing small businesses. The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization, reports most jobs created in the last 30 years have come from young, new enterprises. In the video below, Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Litan says the age of a business is a better predictor of its job-creating potential than the size of that business. Many successful startups began during periods of economic trouble, he adds.
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