Emilie Ritter Saunders was StateImpact Idaho's multimedia reporter until the project merged with the Boise State Public Radio site in July 2013. She previously worked as the Capitol Bureau Chief for Montana Public Radio and was a Senior Fellow with NPR's Economic Training Project from 2009 until 2010. She graduated from the University of Montana School of Journalism in 2007.
Idaho’s senators are trying to block new USDAÂ recommendations that would limit servings of potatoes to school kids.
The Northwest News Network reports the USDA is recommending that districts in the National School Lunch Program limit servings of starchy vegetables to one cup a week per student. That means fewer scoops of corn, lima beans and most politically charged — potatoes.
“Every state grows potatoes,” he says. “Now, Idaho is the No. 1 growing state, but we represent one-third of all U.S. potatoes. So this is an important issue for really every state in the union.” – Frank Muir, Idaho Potato Commission
Here’s why Idaho’s senators and potato farmers don’t like the proposal:
294,000 acres of Idaho farmland was planted with potatoes in 2010
That acreage equaled 113 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes or 11,300,000,000 pounds
Those potatoes brought in more than $852 million dollars for Idaho farmers last year
The Idaho Department of Labor is touting the state’s energy economy and reports a four percent growth in jobs between 2007 and 2010. At the same time, a study released today by the department in collaboration with the Center for Regional Development at Purdue University, shows a 15 percent decline in jobs over that three year period.
“Energy accounted for about 6 percent of jobs and 7 percent of businesses in Idaho, ranking the state 14th and 22nd respectively among the states. From 2007 to 2010, Idaho employment in this sector was hit hard by the recession, falling 15 percent. Idahoans working in the energy industrial cluster made on average $25,000 more per year than the overall average wage earner in the state, based on a comparison of Idaho energy job and establishment attributes with those of the nation and the other 49 states.” – Illuminating Idaho’s Energy Industry, Fall 2011
25,149 babies were born in Idaho in 2008 at the height of the recession
A noticeable decline in the U.S. birthrate is linked closely to the economic recession starting in 2008. A new Pew Research Center report out this week says there were a record number of births in 2007, just as the economy slid into the recession, when 4,316,233 babies were born. Preliminary data for 2009 indicate the number of births dropped to the lowest number since 2004 at 4,131,018.
“A state-level look at fertility illustrates the strength of the correlation between lower birth rates and economic distress. States experiencing the largest economic declines in 2007 and 2008 were most likely to experience relatively large fertility declines from 2008 to 2009, the analysis finds. States with relatively minor economic declines were likely to experience relatively small declines.” – Pew Research CenterÂ
Luis Bettencourt working at one of his 11 dairies in southern Idaho
It’s hard to find optimism about the state of Idaho’s dairy industry among the very people who operate farms, milk cows, and try to make a living selling their product. The Idaho Dairymen’s Association reports there were 569 dairies in the state as of September 30th, 2011. That’s a significant drop from a few years ago when in 2008, 800 dairies were licensed to sell milk.
“I don’t think anyone would want to get into a losing business,” says Sharon Bettencourt. She and her husband Luis own one of the largest dairy operations in Idaho. They have 60,000 cows spread across 11 facilities. “At this point, we are trying to hang on to what we do have…there is no room for growth.”
While the number of dairies is on the decline in Idaho, the number of milk cows and the production of things like milk, cheese and cottage cheese are on the rise. According to a study from Boise State University’s College of Business & Economics which looked at the economic impacts of the dairy industry in Idaho, the number of dairy cows here is up more than 35-percent.
John Brown / Getty Images
In 2008 there were 550,333 dairy cows in Idaho
“The producer has to be better at making more milk,” says Jeff Ackerman who is the dairy operations manager at Bettencourt Dairies. “Production has grown because economics have gotten harder — we’re producing more milk out of the same number of cows, we have to, to squeak out any margins” says Ackerman. Continue Reading →
The New York Times is drawing attention to the large number of states that have this year considered implementing drug testing for people who receive public assistance.
“[Thirty-six] states considered drug testing for recipients of cash assistance from the major welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; 12 states proposed it for unemployment insurance; and some also considered making it a requirement for food stamps, home heating assistance and other programs.” – The New York Times
The idea is, of course, a polarizing one, and this state has had its own flirtation with it. In 2010, the Idaho Legislature asked the Department of Health and Welfare to study the costs of implementing random drug testing for adults receiving public assistance. According to the department’s resulting analysis, such a program would cost more than it would save.
Idaho Legislature
Rep. Judy Boyle is a rancher, writer and small business owner from Midvale.
Reached today, Rep. Judy Boyle, a Midvale Republican who co-sponsored the resolution requesting the study, said the Department of Health and Welfare took too narrow a view. “My concern is to help people get off drugs,” she said. “I know there are serious problems with people trading their food stamps for drugs, so we’re just enabling people to stay on drugs.”
Boyle says she has prepared draft legislation, and she plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming session. “It’s not to throw people off of welfare. It’s to help them,” she said.
Remember the conversations with your parents or grandparents that began with, “When I was your age, I could buy a burger, a coke and a movie ticket for $5”?
And the typical response would go something like “I get it, Dad, (eye roll) things were cheaper back in the dark-ages.”
Bureau of Labor Statistics / U.S. Department of Labor
CPI Inflation Calculator
It all has to do with the value of the dollar and the changes in prices of all goods and services purchased. Here’s a fun tool from the U.S. Department of Labor that lets you see just how far $5, $100, $1000 could go back in the dark-ages (all the way back to 1913).
Idaho General Fund collections of $229.1 million in September 2011 were $0.1 million above the forecast amount.
Idaho’s Division of Financial Management released its latest revenue report today showing a slight uptick in individual income and corporate tax collections over what state economists had predicted.
“Idaho General Fund collections of $229.1 million in September 2011 were $0.1 million above the forecasted amount.” – Division of Financial Management
Still, Idaho sales tax collections were lower than expected.
“It was expected to contribute $93 million to the state’s General Fund in September. Instead, it added $91.6 million.” – Division of Financial Management
That $1.4 million gap is much smaller than August’s shortfall which came in at $6.8 million under what economists had forecast.
Governor Butch Otter speaking at the annual Buy Idaho conference, October 5, 2011
Buy Idaho launched in 1986, with support from then newly elected Lieutenant Governor Butch Otter, as a way to market Idaho-made products. The member driven marketing cooperative celebrated its 25th anniversary this week. Governor Otter calls the 1,100 member Buy Idaho effort a “great success”. Still, he told attendees at Buy Idaho’s annual conference the group needs to be more aggressive.
“We’re going to continue to go to those marketplaces, go to those buyers that are not only in the U.S. but around the world, and say, ‘Folks we have things we think you need, and we in Idaho would be more than happy to supply those for you.’ And you never know what these marketplaces are looking for until you start demonstrating your products and how it might be applicable to their operation,” said Otter.
The governor is also urging local companies to ramp up hiring. With about 70,000 Idahoans out of work, Governor Otter asked Buy Idaho members to look at the recently passed tax credit program known as the Hire One Act as an incentive to add new jobs. Continue Reading →
Dairy was Idaho's top commodity in 2009 according to Idaho's Department of Agriculture
The Idaho Business Review is reporting the President of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association Mike Roth said without reforming the dairy industry it’s headed “for a serious wreck”. The Dairy Security Act of 2011 is being sponsored by Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. Dairy is one of Idaho’s agricultural staples, the state is actually the third-largest dairy producing state in the country.
“Rep. Simpson has been a longtime advocate for business growth and Idaho’s livestock agriculture. He knows a new dairy policy is needed to address price volatility, create safety nets and to help move the industry future.” – Mike Roth
According to the Idaho Business Review, Idaho dairy producers have been working to change federal dairy policy for some time. Last March, producers voted to recommend the Foundation for the Future reform package, which served as the model for the Dairy Security Act of 2011.
Each week, Tom Birch spends hours meeting with homeowners who know they’re falling behind. Many of them are beset with worry. At no charge, Birch talks to them about their finances. He gives them handouts with titles like, “What to Do When You Default on Your Mortgage.”
Birch worked in the mortgage business for 35 years, but he’s now the Director of Homeownership Counseling for Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., a nonprofit community development organization in Boise. Foreclosure prevention counseling is one of his chief responsibilities. It sounds like an important service, but we here at StateImpact wondered: when a family is deep in the hole and in danger of losing a home, how much can someone like Birch do? As it turns out, quite a lot.
Molly Messick
Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. offers free foreclosure prevention counseling to Idaho homeowners.
Q: First, what does foreclosure prevention counseling consist of?
A: It’s awareness of where the borrower really is. Borrowers that I see, about 99 percent of them, have lost a job. They had high credit scores when they got their loans, but they are in a new situation, because of job loss or a reduction in wages or hours, and they don’t know what to do. They’ve tried to make their payments. They wish they could make their payments. And when they come to see us, they basically are paralyzed.
Q: When someone sits down across from you and says, “This is the predicament I’m in, and I have never dealt with this before,” what’s the first thing you say?
A: You are not alone. You’re just like people that I talk to every day. There are some options, and the first step is to know where you’re at. Continue Reading →
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