Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee.
A ranking House Republican is sponsoring a bill to reverse key cuts in Medicaid services. Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee. That committee oversaw the state’s process of reining in Medicaid services as the state’s economy suffered the effects of the downturn. Rep. McGeachin now says lawmakers made one cut based on an inaccurate understanding of how certain services were provided, and what they entailed.
“Our Medicaid program is quite intricate,” she said, “and it’s really impossible for us on the committee to understand all of those codes.”
McGeachin’s bill would allow adult Medicaid recipients to again receive skill development services related to both developmental disabilities and mental health problems, as long as those services are not duplicative. That would reverse a cut that forced Medicaid recipients with dual diagnoses to choose which kind of skill development services to receive.
At Boise High, a binder that a few years ago was full of job listings for students now has barely any use. A career counselor says local businesses used to call all of the time looking for students to fill part-time jobs. Now, those calls are rare.
The economic downturn hit young people especially hard. Today’s young adults are the “boomerang generation,” given how many have landed back home with parents. For teens, jobs are even harder to come by, and few places are tougher than Idaho. Last year, the state’s teen unemployment rate stood at 30 percent, one of the highest rates in the nation. It’s a number that represents lost opportunities.
It’s a weekday evening, and high school junior Igor Autin is kicked back in his living room, doing something he does a lot: playing video games. “This is Halo Reach,” Autin says. “It’s kind of the biggest game that’s out.”
Stephen Berry says he's been looking for work nearly every day for months now, with no luck.
StateImpact‘s story on teen unemployment will air tomorrow morning on KBSX. Ahead of that story, we’re doing short profiles of a couple of the teenagers who agreed to be interviewed. One of them is Stephen Berry, 18, a senior at Frank Church High School.
For Berry, wanting to work isn’t about wanting to earn spending money, or saving up for later on. It’s about wanting to help his family. “At my house, we have four people going off of one income,” he says. “We barely make it by.” Berry’s step-dad works at a furniture store, and his mother has an illness that keeps her from getting a job. Berry’s younger sister just turned 16, and is trying to find work. Continue Reading →
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates January’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.1 percent. That’s down from December’s estimate of 8.3 percent.
Despite the downward trend, there are still an estimated 63,000 people in Idaho without jobs. Those figures don’t take into account the people who have given up looking for work. Bob Uhlenkott at the Idaho Department of Labor says when discouraged workers are included in the monthly jobless rate, it typically doubles.
As we reported Thursday, Idaho’s average unemployment rate for 2011 wasn’t significantly different from 2010’s average. Uhlenkott says while things aren’t getting worse in Idaho, they aren’t improving quickly. “Recovery is starting to gain a little bit of traction – but we’re not popping the cork yet,” Uhlenkott says.
StateImpactis reporting on teen unemployment this week, which has meant talking to a lot of school counselors and high school students. We’ll be wrapping their stories into a radio feature early next week, but in the meantime, we’re introducing a couple of the teenagers here.
First, meet Igor Autin. He’s a junior at Boise High School, and he’s been looking for a job for months now. For Autin, work isn’t absolutely necessary. He has supportive parents and a comfortable home — but he doesn’t get an allowance, and he would love to go to college out of state. Plus, he knows that work experience now might help him get a better job later on. Continue Reading →
A bill to cut Idaho’s top corporate and individual income tax rate overwhelmingly passed the House this afternoon.
House Bill 563 would cut the top individual income tax rate from 7.8 percent to 7.4 percent and the top corporate rate from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent. It would cost the state an estimated $35.7 million in 2013.
Idaho’s average annual jobless rate in 2011 wasn’t much different from 2010. Data released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Idaho’s average unemployment rate in 2011 was 8.7 percent, down one-tenth of a percent from 2010.
Idaho Department of Labor Regional Economist Kathryn Tacke says there are a couple of reasons for Idaho’s stagnant rate. One, the recession hit hard here, and recovery has been exceedingly slow. The second reason: Idaho has a significant teen population trying to enter the workforce, which can keep the jobless rate high. Continue Reading →
A sign advertises a foreclosed home in Nampa, Idaho's Blackhawk Subdivision.
Over the last few years, Idaho has consistently had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. The rate is trending down, and the number of bank-owned and short-sale properties are selling faster than they were back in 2009.
Still, as ProPublicareports, government plans to fix the housing mess have fallen short. ProPublica has been reporting on the Obama administration’s attempts to turn the housing market around and now its detailing the four Republican presidential candidates’ proposals.
24.75 percent of houses sold in Idaho last year were foreclosures
Almost 25 percent of the houses sold in Idaho last year were foreclosure sales. That’s according to RealtyTrac, a company which specializes in housing market and foreclosure data analysis.  Last year, foreclosure sales were about 23 percent of all houses sold, nationally.
Other western states had among the highest rates of foreclosures sales in 2011. Numbers for Idaho’s neighboring states like Montana and Wyoming are not available because RealtyTrac doesn’t have “sufficient data” for those states. Continue Reading →
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