Molly Messick was StateImpact Idaho's broadcast reporter until May 2013. Prior to joining StateImpact and Boise State Public Radio, she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Emilie Ritter Saunders / StateImpact Idaho
In Meridian, a worker trains to become a mechanical technician.
By one measure, Idaho’s economy has regained the ground it lost in the recession.
The state’s real gross state product (translation: the total value of all goods and services produced in Idaho, corrected for inflation) was greater in 2011 than it was in 2007. That’s according to the Idaho Department of Labor. Continue Reading
Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
Women in Idaho earn about 74 percent as much as men, according to the most recent Census figures.
The U.S. Senate is slated to vote on an equal pay bill today. As The Boston Globe explains, the Paycheck Fairness Act would address the persistent wage gap between men and women by “requiring employers of companies with pay discrepancies to provide a reason for the gap.” Moreover, it would “bar employers from retaliating against employees who discuss pay.”
As we’ve noted a few times here on the StateImpact site, the disparity between men’s and women’s wages is especially great in Idaho. Boise’s pay gap was named eighth worst in the country earlier this year, in a ranking based on U.S. Census data.
The Paycheck Fairness Act isn’t expected to pass. In an article titled “Paycheck Fairness Act expected to fail” The Washington Post said of the bill: “[A]t its core it is not so much a legislative vehicle as a political one intended to embarrass Republicans and help President Obama and congressional Democrats with female voters in November.”
According to The Hill, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) introduced an alternative measure this morning.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images News
More than 22 percent of the homes sold in Idaho in the first four months of the year were in some stage of foreclosure. That might sound like a lot, but it’s actually a sign of improvement in the state’s housing market.
Why? Because the numbers from housing data provider RealtyTrac show that the proportion of foreclosure homes sold in the state has dropped by more than 30 percent over the last year. Continue Reading
Transform Solar
Nampa-based Transform Solar announced this week that it will close, cutting 250 jobs.
In the last two weeks, Idaho workers have gotten dismal news from two solar companies.
First, Hoku Corporation said it would lay off 100 workers at its polysilicon plant in Pocatello. Polysilicon is used in solar panels. Then, on Tuesday, Transform Solar announced it will close, cutting 250 jobs. Continue Reading
Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho
In mid-May, high winds and the lack of rain had left some Power County fields dry and dusty.
Last year, farmers and ranchers in southeast Idaho had a hard time getting crops in the ground because of persistent wet weather. This year they’re facing the opposite problem, as weeks have passed without substantial rainfall. Continue Reading
Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho
Rockland, Idaho is surrounded by grazing and cropland.
The people of Rockland, Idaho pay a lot to support their school. As StateImpact reported yesterday, they pay the highest levy rate in the state, despite having some of Idaho’s lowest property values.
Let’s unpack that a little more. What exactly does that mean?
Relying on the most recent statewide data, from 2010, taxpayers in the Rockland district pay a levy that amounts to $696.50 per $100,000 of property value. In other words, for every $100,000 worth of property in the district, nearly $700 goes to Rockland School. Continue Reading
You might not guess it, if you happened to pass through, but tiny Rockland, Idaho, population 318, is a place of distinction. The town has no grocery store. Its gas station is just a couple of unmanned pumps where you pay by credit card. But what this town does have is a school, and local people stand behind it.
Enterprise Community Partners
Click on the map above to see a study of how states have used their portions of the mortgage settlement.
Idaho received more than $13 million in a national, multi-billion dollar mortgage settlement reached early this year. But the state has committed only a fraction of that amount to housing programs and alleviating the effects of the housing crisis.
The historic mortgage settlement was the result of negotiations between states’ attorneys general and five of the nation’s largest banks. It was the banks’ atonement for the mortgage and foreclosure practices that contributed to the housing crisis. Continue Reading
Emilie Ritter Saunders / StateImpact
Some stories take a long time to report. StateImpact‘s recent piece on the refugee travel loan program is one example. I first spoke to Legal Aid attorney Zoe Ann Olson in February, not long after I reported a story about how Idaho’s economic downturn has affected refugee resettlement. Marcia Munden, the Catholic Charities social worker who was instrumental in that piece, recommended I give Olson a call.
A long phone conversation ensued. One of Olson’s main observations about the program was this: many refugees seemed not to know they could be eligible for loan deferrals or waivers based on criteria like economic hardship or disability. As a result, she said, the travel loans compounded refugees’ economic distress, and put them at risk for bad credit. The loans were, in effect, creating an additional barrier to integration in the U.S. Continue Reading
Pew Center on the States
Click on the image above to go to Pew's interactive map.
Idahoans have a greater chance of sliding down the economic ladder than the average American. That’s one piece of information gleaned from the Pew Center on the States’ recent report on economic mobility, out this week.
Idaho is grouped with Montana, Alaska and Wyoming for the purpose of the report, given the states’ small populations. The study is based on 30 years of earnings data, and focuses on Americans in their “prime working years,” meaning their mid-30s through 40s.
According to the report, 40 percent of top earners living in Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Wyoming saw their rank in the national earnings distribution fall by ten or more points over a decade. That is, they found themselves doing less well relative to earners across the nation. Continue Reading
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »