This means lawmakers could be faced with choices. Governor Butch Otter laid out his budget priorities earlier this month. Topping the list: $60 million for state reserves, $41 million in one-time, merit-based bonuses for state employees (only if the state meets revenue targets) and $45 million in tax cuts. Plus Otter’s budget plan includes some increased funding for public schools and higher education. Continue Reading →
Lucky Friday Mine workers in Mullan, Idaho are valued for their skill at "jackleg" mining, using hand-held equipment seen here.
They say the days when you could go from high school to a high-paying, blue collar job are long gone. But there are places in the Northwest where those days still exist — that is, if you’re willing to work a mile underground.
For gold and silver miners, it looks like boom times right now. Rising salaries, more job opportunities. Even a recent layoff in north Idaho doesn’t look like other layoffs.
Don Kotschevar teaches at the tiny high school in the small north Idaho town of Mullan. He’s the assistant principal/ basketball coach/ shop teacher.
But lately Kotschevar has been questioning his career path. His students are parlaying the skills he teaches them in this industrial mechanics class into mining jobs. Continue Reading →
Lawmakers could have $33.3 million less to work with next year. A group of Idaho legislators voted to approve Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s revenue estimate for the remainder of this fiscal year, but decided to trim nearly $33.3 million from his 2013 recommendation.
The 18-member Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee (EORAC) approved these figures on a 15-3 vote. The three “no” votes were from Rep. Cliff Bayer (R-Boise), Sen. Shawn Keough (R-Sandpoint) and Sen. Curt McKenzie (R-Caldwell).
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The revenue estimating process still has another step, though. These numbers will now head to the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC) for their stamp of approval. But there is a chance JFAC will select a different revenue estimate.
This evening at the Statehouse, the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee (EORAC) meets to discuss an important number: its revenue forecast. Just as the governor bases his budget on a revenue estimate, so does the Idaho Legislature. Both numbers are critical, because they dictate the spending levels that lawmakers will settle on over the course of the session.
Yesterday, StateImpact‘s Emilie Ritter Saunders described the ins and outs (and the peculiarities) of EORAC’s forecasting process. Today, a bit of background. The Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee didn’t always go about its job the way it does today. In fact, prior to 1994, the committee didn’t exist at all. Instead, there was the Revenue Projections Committee. According to Mike Ferguson, Director of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, that committee had a rigorous process for arriving at its own revenue projection. They held hearings and met with business leaders. “They literally went in and debated the specific revenue sources and the estimates they’d heard and likely revenues,” he said. Continue Reading →
President Barack Obama will deliver his final State of the Union speech of his first term tonight before Congress and a nationally televised audience. It’s been widely reported the President’s speech will focus on the economy.
“The central challenge that we are facing right now is we came out of a steep recession, the worst since the Great Depression, and the American people want to know how are we going to continue to climb out of it,” Plouffe said. “And that’s what the president is going to lay out tonight: A very specific blueprint for how we build an America that’s durable and that works for as many people in this country as possible.”
Sandy Brown has worked at the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare for six years.
This story is a collaboration between StateImpact Idaho and Northwest News Network. Contributing reporters are Emilie Ritter Saunders, Chris Lehman and Austin Jenkins.
Across the Northwest, government agencies and schools have laid off thousands of workers. Just like corporate downsizing, those public sector job losses have a human and an economic impact.
The health and welfare office in Boise was unusually quiet on a recent Tuesday morning, thanks to the first major snowstorm of the year. Only a handful of people waited in line to sign up for food stamps, Medicaid or other programs. This office typically sees 100 people a day. Continue Reading →
Mike Ferguson is the Director of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy.
The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy unveiled its website today. The center describes itself as a “non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing our state’s citizens and elected officials with fact-based information and analysis to help make informed policy decisions.” Director Mike Ferguson, who served as Idaho’s chief economist for more than 25 years, says the website will be a resource for policymakers and the public as they work to understand Idaho’s budget and tax system.
The site will provide data and analysis through its own reports and by cataloging relevant work from other sources. One of the center’s early projects will be to compile a history of public finance in Idaho dating back to World War II. The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy is part of the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, coordinated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Tuesday afternoon a group of lawmakers will pick a number that could have a big effect on Idahoans. The Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee (EORAC) will choose a revenue estimate. It’s the number that will determine how much money is available for public services.
Sure, it’s hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm about as dry a subject as revenue estimates, but before you move on to different story consider how lawmakers will choose this all-important number. One state lawmaker referred to the current system as the ‘crystal ball method’, and that’s basically on point.
Click on the map to see interactive county-by-county data
As we reported Friday, Idaho’s jobless rate ticked down one-tenth of a percent to 8.4 for the month of December. Because of last week’s snowstorm, the Idaho Department of Labor didn’t have county-by-county data immediately available, but now it’s here.
The department reports the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped in 27 of Idaho’s 44 counties from November to December. Adams County continued to have the highest rate at 17 percent and Franklin County had the lowest at 5 percent.
Early next month StateImpact Idaho will be unveiling a new app that will allow readers to better understand the state’s jobless picture. It will include things like a visual map showing county jobless data over time, it will highlight our series Jobless in Idaho and it will let you share your stories about unemployment with us using Google Voice.
What would you like to see in this kind of an app? How will you use it?
University and college leaders are presenting their requests to members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee.
It’s education week at the Idaho Legislature. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday officials from Idaho’s universities and community colleges will be asking lawmakers to spend money on infrastructure, employee salaries and programs to keep their schools moving forward.
Governor Butch Otter’s budget for fiscal year 2013 recommends legislators appropriate about $254 million for universities and community colleges. Campus leaders requested nearly $294 million.
The Center of the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University compiles data on state funding of higher education. It’s called the annual Grapevine study. The Associated Pressreports overall state spending nationwide has declined about $6 billion, or nearly 8 percent, over the past year. Continue Reading →
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