Cathy Holland-Smith has been working for the Legislative Services Office since 1994.
The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee began budget setting in earnest this week, after weeks of hearings. Writing the budget is the legislature’s only constitutional requirement, and it has to be balanced. For a primer on the nuts and bolts of the process, StateImpact reached out to Cathy Holland-Smith. She oversees budget and policy analysis for the state’s Legislative Services Office.
Q: The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has finished its weeks of hearings now, and we’re in the budget setting process. What’s at stake? Continue Reading →
President Obama recently spoke at Boeing in Everett, Washington.
President Obama wants Congress to lower the top federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. The New York Timesreports Obama’s proposal would get rid of dozens of loopholes and subsidies and give preference to manufacturers that would set their maximum effective rate at 25 percent.
Mr. Obama’s proposal, outlined by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner at a midday briefing, also would establish a minimum tax on multinational corporations’ foreign earnings — a feature that Republicans immediately denounced.
An aerial view of Huston, Idaho on the border of Owyhee and Canyon Counties
One of Idaho’s largest private employers is acompany with a name that doesn’t really explain what it does. It’s called Marsing Agricultural Labor Sponsoring Committee Inc. It’s basically a temp agency for farm workers.
The company employs between 500 and 600 people in Owyhee County according to data from the state. And that’s a significant chunk of the local population. Census data estimates about 11,500 people live in the county — one of Idaho’s largest at more than 7,600 square miles. That means there are 1.5 people for every square mile. Continue Reading →
Idaho lawmakers are moving forward with a measure to ensure the state’s 6 percent sales tax applies to all online purchases. It’s called the streamlined sales tax bill. A similar bill failed last year.
The Magic Valley Times-Newsreports it’s not a new tax, but most people aren’t paying it.
Idaho law already requires residents to pay the state’s 6 percent sales tax on purchases made online or from catalogs. But the state lacks a way to collect the taxes other than trusting people will pay up on their annual tax forms. Continue Reading →
High-school dropouts are falling further behind, even as the national jobless rate has improved. That’s according to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. “Some 1.8 million more college graduates have found work since January 2010, when the recovery began producing jobs,” the piece says, “but about 128,000 high-school dropouts lost work in the same period, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Moreover, the article says, wages are substantially lower for workers without high school degrees, a gap that’s expected to widen. Continue Reading →
Kevin Settles, at his restaurant and distillery in downtown Boise
In reporting yesterday’s story about the competing budget priorities that legislators are weighing this session, I reached out to a lot of business groups. I wanted to identify a small business owner who could walk me through just what a reduced individual income tax rate would mean for his or her business over time; I wanted to hear a strong case for tax cuts, grounded in business practicalities. All inquiries led to Kevin Settles, who owns Bardenay Restaurant and Distillery.
Why seek out someone like Settles? For starters, there’s Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s recommendation that the 2013 budget include $45 million in tax cuts. That proposal got a preliminary vote of confidence from the Idaho Legislature last week, in the form of a $35 million tax cut bill that Rep. Mike Moyle (R-Star) said would help the state attract businesses. Continue Reading →
CBS News 60 Minutes’ story Trapped in Unemployment follows a group of jobless 40-and 50-somethings. They’re participants in a program aimed at getting people back to work through internships.
The story takes place in Connecticut, some 2,000 miles away from Idaho. But the stories in the 60 Minutes piece don’t stray far from the narratives in our Jobless in Idaho series.
As correspondent Scott Pelley puts it, “There’s a new minority group: the long-term unemployed.”
The Idaho Department of Labor reported in November 12,200 Idahoans have exhausted all unemployment benefits since the start of the recession. It’s unclear how many of those people found work. But according to December’s monthly jobless report 64,100 Idahoans were still unemployed. That doesn’t include the number of people who may be underemployed or who’ve stopped searching for a job.
As Idaho’s jobless rate keeps trending downward, the hope is more people are having success at finding permanent employment. But until more concrete data is available later this year, we just won’t know.
Krystal Esterline and Nikki Tangen posed together after Esterline spoke at a panel discussion last month.
In the wake of spending cuts, the Idaho Legislature is now in the process of determining how the state’s revenue surplus should be spent. It’s a process of sorting out priorities, and the decisions have palpable effects. For one Medicaid recipient, for example, recent budget cuts mean an uncertain future, even if funding is restored.
Last month, Krystal Esterline made a brave decision. The then 22-year-old decided to talk publicly about recent cuts in Medicaid services, and how they’ve affected her. “With having services, I’m successful in life when I have them,” she said. “When I don’t have all my services, I’m not successful. I have issues.”
Speaking at a Boise modular building company, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he has the skills it takes to turn Idaho’s economy around.
The former Massachusetts governor was in full campaign mode, delivering a speech that was light on details, but heavy on attacks leveled at President Barack Obama and fellow GOP candidate Rick Santorum, who has made a recent surge in the polls.  Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
