Gov. Otter will decide whether Idaho will expand its Medicaid program and whether to create a state-based health insurance exchange.
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s workgroup to study a possible Medicaid expansion meets tomorrow at the State Capitol.
The Governor has to decide by early November whether he’ll expand Medicaid eligibility for low-income adults earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line. The expansion is a key element of the federal health care reform law.
“The main reasons for the Californian exodus are jobs, lower taxes and costs to employers such as utilities, the report said. Idaho was one of seven states whose right-to-work laws banning compulsory union membership have attracted some businesses, according to the Manhattan Institute, which is pro-free market. Real estate prices and regulations were among the other reasons Californians left for Idaho, the institute said.” – Idaho Statesman
Between 2000 and 2010 about 54,000 Californians moved to Idaho, according to the Statesman. The report uses federal tax data, the same data StateImpact Idaho used to map migration in and out of Idaho.
The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2011 American Community Survey results last week. We’re breaking out the findings in a series of posts here on the StateImpact site.
An eviction notice hung in the window of a home Glendale, California last month.
The historic $25 billion national mortgage settlement reached in February could result in direct payments to more than 12,200 Idaho borrowers. That’s how many Idahoans are eligible to share in nearly $10 million in direct payments from Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial.
The borrowers were on the receiving end of “loan servicing errors” that may have led them to lose their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011, the Idaho Office of the Attorney General says.
Idaho’s total share of the mortgage settlement is just under $114 million. The nearly $10 million that will be distributed directly to borrowers is part of that total amount. Continue Reading →
Last year, 13.5 percent of Idahoans received food stamps, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That works out to about 214,000 people. It’s an increase from 2010, when 12.5 percent of Idahoans were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
In fact, as shown in the graph below, Idaho’s rate of food stamp use has risen year after year since 2007, when it was 6.2 percent.
Idaho’s poverty rate continued its upward climb in 2011, rising to 16.5 percent. That’s higher than the national rate of people living in poverty, which grew to 15.9 percent.
Put another way, more than 255,000 Idahoans lived below the federal poverty guideline last year.
The state’s poverty rate has climbed each year since 2007, when 12.1 percent of state residents lived below the poverty line. While the rate grew by 1.4 percent from 2008 to 2009 and again from 2009 to 2010, it grew by less than a percentage point from 2010 to 2011.
At first glance, it’s good news. Idaho’s unemployment rate ticked down yet another tenth of a percentage point in August, falling to a three-year low of 7.4 percent. That’s better than the national rate of 8.1.
But, like the nation as a whole, Idaho is now facing an unhappy trend: its labor force is also shrinking.
According to the state Department of Labor, there were 2,600 fewer people in the Idaho labor force in August as compared to July. In other words, the unemployment rate isn’t falling because that many more people have jobs. It’s falling because people have given up looking. Continue Reading →
The wind farm on Edith and Richard Kopp's land was completed last year.
If you look at a map of where wind development has taken off in Idaho, you’ll notice an area near American Falls. There, in the rolling agricultural land of southeast Idaho, Edith Kopp stands on a high hillside. She gazes out with satisfaction at more than a dozen turbines, turning steadily.
“This is a pretty constant wind,” she says. “They’re all going!”
Census data released today paint a picture of the recession’s lasting impact in Idaho.
The state’s median household income has dropped considerably since 2008, when half of Idahoans earned more than $47,576 and half earned less. In 2011, median income continued its retreat, falling to $43,341. That’s a nearly 9 percent drop.
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