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.
Cosette is 8-years-old and recently became a Girl Scout. Here's why she joined, "You get to learn new friends, and you get to sell some cookies, and maybe eat some."
Girl Scout cookies sold in Idaho are one step closer to being tax-free. The House Revenue and Tax Committee unanimously agreed to send the new tax exemption proposal on for a vote in the full House.
Idaho Girl Scouts sell an estimated $2.5 million worth of their famed cookies each year, resulting in $140,000 in sales tax revenue for the state.
Rep. Robert Anderst (R-Nampa) voted in favor of the tax exemption, but wants the Legislature to think about dealing with exemptions differently, in a less piecemeal fashion.
The amount of money that came into Idaho’s main bank account in February exceeded expectations by nearly 20 percent. The Idaho Division of Financial Management published its monthly general fund revenue report today.
DFM says February’s receipts beat the forecast because of higher-than-expected revenue in each of Idaho’s main tax categories: individual income, corporate, sales, product and miscellaneous taxes.
Division of Financial Management / State of Idaho
Idaho individual income tax receipts of $27.2 million for the month were nearly twice the projected $14.7 million. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s latest proposal to create a state-based health insurance exchange has been approved by a House committee, and now heads to debate in the full chamber.
The Times-Newsreports the House Health and Welfare Committee approved the new exchange bill 10-1 after three hours of public testimony.
Thursday’s vote came after three hours of testimony, which started at 7 a.m. Lobbyists and members of the public testified, with more lobbyists testifying in favor of the exchange and more members of the public testifying against. Continue Reading →
Public comment on the Idaho Legislature’s new health insurance exchange bill starts bright and early tomorrow morning. With signup starting at 6:30 a.m., interested citizens will have the chance give the House Health and Welfare Committee their opinion on the revamped bill that would create a state-based health insurance exchange.
As we reported Monday, the new bill combines Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s initial proposal that passed in the Senate, with more legislative oversight as requested by a group of 16 freshman legislators. The most noticeable change from the original Senate Bill 1042 to the new House Bill 248 is that three legislators will be appointed to the exchange’s oversight board.
StateImpact did this line-by-line comparison with the original version of the bill and the latest iteration. You’ll see the majority of the new text is on page 5. It’s there that House lawmakers included a section that explicitly says the insurance exchange can’t ask customers about their use, ownership, possession, or storage of any firearms or ammunition. Continue Reading →
The average annual rate was revised down three-tenths of a percent to 7.1. That’s a significant decline from 2011’s average rate of 8.3 percent.
The revised data show the number of jobless Idahoans dropped below 50,000 last year, a first since 2009. Still, the numbers indicate jobs aren’t being created fast enough.
Idaho Labor Department chief research officer Bob Uhlenkott says the labor force here has been mostly flat over the last year. Continue Reading →
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is making another plea with Idaho House members to pass his state-based health insurance exchange bill.
Last week, after nearly six hours of debate, the Idaho Senate passed Otter’s exchange plan 23-12. Now, the House will determine the fate of an Idaho-based, online health insurance marketplace.
The debate is between Republican members of both chambers. Those in favor of a state-based exchange say it gives Idaho more control over a policy they largely dislike. Lawmakers against a state-run exchange say that control is a facade.
Here’s Gov. Otter’s op-ed he released this morning to media: Continue Reading →
A job-seeker browses job listings at an employment office. In Idaho, at least 50,800 people are unemployed.
The state agency that handles unemployment insurance benefits, workforce training and helps jobless Idahoans search for work, anticipates a $3.5 million budget cut beginning at the stroke of midnight.
It’s the sequester, the $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts that have the potential to affect nearly every aspect of government services. The Idaho Department of Labor is no exception — the agency charged with helping people find employment will now find itself cutting jobs.
Chief deputy director John McAllister has been through these kinds of cuts and swings in funding before. He’s been at the Idaho Department of Labor for 40 years and watched funding fluctuate dramatically in the 1980s, 90s, 2004, and the most recent recession. Continue Reading →
More Idaho workers earned minimum wage in 2012 than in any year since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping track a decade ago.
The Idaho Department of Labor reports 7.7 percent of Idaho hourly workers earned $7.25 an hour or less last year. That’s up from 5 percent in 2011. The new data show Idaho has the largest share of minimum-wage workers in the country.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics estimated that 31,000 of Idaho’s 404,000 hourly workers were paid the minimum wage last year, an increase of 12,000 from 2011, when 5 percent of the state’s hourly workforce made the minimum wage or less. That ranked the state 30th in 2011. Continue Reading →
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey show 28.7 percent of adult Idahoans who receive benefits are also disabled. Nationally, that rate is 30.4 percent.
The survey data includes people who are 18 or older and receiving Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (also called food stamps).
Census data shows there are 214,772 people in Idaho who fall into this category, 61,639 of whom have some type of disability. Continue Reading →
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