Women workers, recording and moving ingots in 1943
The Government Accountability Office has released a new report on the persistent wage gap between working men and women. Specifically, the report considers workers who have less education and earn lower wages. Among its findings: “Even when less-educated women and men were in the same broad industry or occupation category, these women’s average hourly wage was lower than men’s.”
As for the wage gap on the whole, The New York Timessums it up:
“Adjusted for factors that could affect pay, like age, race, education, number of children in the household and part-time status, women earn 86 cents for every $1 earned by men. That’s up from 81 cents in 2000.”
According to the most recent (non-adjusted) numbers available from the Idaho Department of Labor, Idaho’s wage gap is considerable. From the fourth quarter of 2009 through the third quarter of 2010, working Idaho women earned not quite 62% of the amount earned by working Idaho men.
The department’s most recent analysis of the wage gap is available here.
Chobani’s parent company, Agro Farma, has released some details of its plans to build a new yogurt manufacturing facility in Twin Falls. The company plans to break ground on the facility in December. It will be located on 200 acres south of U.S. Highway 30.
The city of Twin Falls has agreed to more than $25 million in infrastructure improvements using urban renewal dollars, tax increment financing and Idaho Community Development Block Grants, according to Agro Farma. The Times-News has this explanation of the funding sources:
“Urban renewal districts get their money primarily by tax-increment financing, which allows the agencies to collect any increase in assessed property tax value within their boundaries after their formation and use them as incentives for developers. In this case, the site is in the city’s urban renewal district, and is turned the site area into a revenue allocation area that will generate the urban renewal dollars. The city’s also putting $6.75 million of tax dollars into wastewater pretreatment and sewer line improvements that are needed for wet industry projects to come to Twin Falls. The deal with the company also puts fee waivers in place for construction and wastewater system capacity.”
Idaho offers nine different tax credit programs for businesses. We’re highlighting the five most popular. The investment tax credit is used far more than any other credit-type incentive. In 2009, businesses collected more than $26 million under that credit alone, according to the Division of Financial Management.
Here’s a look at the other most frequently used business tax credits:
Research Activity Credit: Enacted in 2001, it’s a five percent credit for expenses related to research completed by a small business, university or federal government entity. The research must be done in Idaho to qualify.
Broadband Investment Credit: This is a three percent credit for purchases of qualified broadband equipment in Idaho. The credit is limited to no more than $750,000 per tax year, and no more than the taxpayer’s liability after all other credits in a single tax year. It can be sold to other taxpayers. It was enacted in 2001. Continue Reading →
The Greek yogurt maker Chobani says it will hire at least 400 people and invest $100 million in its new manufacturing plant in Twin Falls, Idaho.
The Times-Newsreports city officials and local and state economic development leaders brokered a deal behind closed doors to lure the New York-based company to the region. The newspaper reports the efforts started in May when Chobani’s parent company, Agro Farma, contacted the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization. Continue Reading →
We here at StateImpact have been trying to get a sense of the potential local impact of the expansion of a federal mortgage refinancing program, announced last week. The program is intended to allow underwater borrowers to refinance, but only if they are up-to-date on their payments, and only if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac acquired the loan before June 2009.
Nicolas Asfouri / Getty Images
Twenty-three percent of all mortgaged properties in Idaho were underwater at the end of June, according to the most recent negative equity report from financial data firm CoreLogic. Finding out what percentage of those homeowners are current on their payments and might be able to take advantage of the new program is more difficult. Until the lender sends a notice of default or begins the foreclosure process, that information is between the borrower and the lender.  “I want to know this answer more than you do,” said Mark Lebowitz, Executive Officer of the Ada County Association of Realtors. Continue Reading →
Michael Mazerov is a Senior Fellow with the State Fiscal Project at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I contacted the center to discuss the potential shortfalls of Idaho tax incentive programs after coming across this article.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a non-partisan research and policy institute which works at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low and moderate income families and individuals.
Q: How do state tax incentives work?
A: There’s a wide variety of incentives that state governments and local governments use to try and attract new businesses or encourage businesses that are already in the state to expand their investment or job creation. Basically, a tax that a state imposes on a business could theoretically have an incentive added to it. At the state level the most common kinds of incentives are reductions in the state corporate income tax based on increasing investment or increasing the number of employees a company has or increase the amount of R & D in the state. Some states have credits or reductions in the state corporate income tax if the company moves its headquarters to a state. But, they all basically involve cutting a tax in exchange for doing something the state thinks will benefit its economy.
Q: Does the state end up losing money?
A: Certainly, when the state first grants the credit, they’re definitely reducing the revenue from the tax that they’re allowing the break on. What they’re doing is hoping that in the long run what they’re doing will generate enough economic activity as a result of the credit that the economic activity will recoup some of the revenue lost that they initially lost by granting the credit. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s Division of Financial Management (DFM) released its latest economic forecast today and the news is gloomy. The probably of slipping back into a national recession is higher than it was just three months ago. “In the previous (July) forecast, the probability of the economy slipping into a recession was 25 percent,” says Derek Santos, chief economist. “The probability of a recession was raised to 40 percent in the current forecast.”
Santos writes the state’s economic recovery stalled more than expected this last spring and summer. Advancements in job creation are now predicted to be slower through 2014. For example, Idaho’s non-farm employment was forecast to grow two percent in the second quarter of this year, but it didn’t.
“The economic recovery had its second anniversary this summer”, says Santos. “Instead of being a milestone to celebrate what has been achieved, it served as a reminder of how much more is to be accomplished. The economy should be further along the road to recovery than it is.” Continue Reading →
Idaho’s most popular tax incentive is the three percent investment tax credit. Businesses that purchase qualifying new equipment can earn an income tax credit. The credit can offset up to half of a company’s state income tax liability and can be carried forward up to 14 years.
Dan John manages tax policy at the Idaho State Tax Commission. “So, if you have $100 of computed tax liability, even if you have $1,000 worth of credit, you could only claim $50 of the credit against that liability.”
Whatever is left over can be used for the next 14 years. Plus, this credit isn’t a one-time deal. John says companies that are ‘capital intensive’, like manufacturers, use this credit all the time on qualified purchases. Continue Reading →
The Commerce Department’s website lists 18 different business incentive programs. Many of them are broad and open to any industry. Some are very specific, like the Idaho Film Incentives, which offers discounted lodging and sales tax rebates for media production companies, among other things.
We’ll look at some of Idaho’s most popular tax incentive programs over the next few days and try to answer a few questions. How do they work? Who uses them? What’s the tradeoff that the state is choosing to make when it forgoes tax revenue to spur investment?
And, we want to hear from you. Does your business use tax credits to grow? Are you skeptical of the growth touted through incentives? Share your thoughts throughout the week in the comment thread.
Home owners met with a Bank of America negotiator last summer, in hopes of restructuring a mortgage loan.
Bank of America is the bank mentioned in our recent story about lenders suing homeowners for the amount of the mortgage that remains after a foreclosure, but it may be that smaller banks are more likely than large ones to pursue what are called deficiency claims.
Terri Pickens, an attorney with Pickens Law in Boise, has come to that conclusion, based on her experience representing clients who have been served with deficiency judgments. “The small banks pursue everything,” she said. “I have not seen Bank of America pursue them. In my clients’ cases, whether it was a modest house to a multimillion dollar house, they haven’t gone after the deficiency.” Attorney Brian Webb of Angstman Johnson agrees with Pickens’ analysis. Continue Reading →
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