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.
Melinda Anderson shows off what will be a new downtown headquarters for dairy manufacturer Glanbia. It's a project aided by Twin Falls' urban renewal agency.
Urban renewal districts allow communities to leverage property tax dollars to support local economic development. There are more than 60 of them in Idaho. But this legislative session has brought fresh signs that, in some corners, urban renewal isn’t exactly popular – even as it supports the state’s most touted new company.
Former state representative Dennis Lake is a past chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.
In absence of a bill, the Idaho Legislature’s personal property tax discussion has played out behind closed doors so far this session. But former Representative Dennis Lake introduced a twist today when he went before his old committee to suggest a simple change to the definition of real and personal property.
“With the definitions we’re working under right now, the only thing that’s taxed as real property is the land, buildings, and some fixtures, such as air conditioning and heating, that’s in the building,” Lake explained as he presented his bill to the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. “But everything else — lights, electrical — is being treated as personal property.” Continue Reading →
In his January State of the State address, Gov. Otter said he hopes to find an Idaho-specific alternative to expanding Medicaid eligibility.
Idaho policymakers may claim more leeway to lower Medicaid repayment rates based on a legal brief filed by the Obama administration yesterday. In a move that frustrated health care providers, the administration said states may contain Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursement rates. That’s according to The New York Times.
The Idaho Medical Association’s Susie Pouliot calls Medicaid reimbursement rates “a fine balance,” explaining that some medical practices in the state have already begun to limit the number of Medicaid recipients they treat.
“Especially in a rural state like ours, policymakers need to balance access to care with cost savings at the expense of providers,” Pouliot says. Continue Reading →
Mike Chakarun is tax policy manager for the Idaho State Tax Commission.
A left-leaning tax policy group recently put out a short little report about the state corporate income taxes paid by IDACorp. That’s the holding company of Idaho’s largest electric utility, Idaho Power. The report claims IDACorp paid no state income taxes nationwide from 2007 through 2011. It led StateImpact to a larger question: What information do lawmakers have when they make big tax policy decisions?
The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy's Mike Ferguson spoke about the push to repeal Idaho's business personal property tax at a January panel discussion.
Local government and school officials from around the state have been weighing in on the Legislature’s draft bill for phasing out Idaho’s business personal property tax since news of it broke last week — even though the draft has not yet been introduced in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.
The bill would phase out the tax over six years and provide limited replacement dollars to local units of government, which will collectively lose $141 million if the tax goes away.
The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy’s Mike Ferguson dissects the draft bill with an eye toward education funding in a piece published today. Public schools will be the “big loser” under the proposal, he says, for three reasons. Continue Reading →
A worker tended a machine that stacks boards not long after the Emerald Forest Products mill began operating again late last spring.
An Emmett, Idaho sawmill funded by $4 million in federal stimulus money and additional capital from private backers stopped operations last week, closing its doors for the second time since 2010.
The mill’s primary owner, Montana entrepreneur Dick Vinson, blamed the recession and inadequate equipment for the first closure. When the Emerald Forest Products mill reopened last June, Vinson predicted it could be profitable within weeks. Today, he declined to explain why the mill last week let its remaining workers go, but he did confirm operations have ceased. Continue Reading →
A "For Rent" sign stood in front of a home in Charter Pointe last week.
It’s clear that residential real estate investors played a role in the boom and bust in Idaho’s housing market. Realtors tell stories of receiving call after call from out-of-state speculators attracted by Idaho’s high growth rate and low cost of housing.
Yesterday, we reported on a southwest Boise subdivision called Charter Pointe that’s still reeling from the bust, three years after foreclosures peaked in the Boise area.
We mentioned in that piece that in 2005, the development’s first full year of existence, more than a third of the homes in Charter Pointe were owned by people who didn’t live there. Continue Reading →
At 31, Rep. Malek is the second-youngest member of the Idaho Legislature.
Sixteen Republican House members, all of them freshmen, this morning announced their support for a bill to create a state-based health insurance exchange. That bill, promoted by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and currently in the Senate, is one of the most controversial of the 2013 session.
The first-year lawmakers constitute a key block of support, says the Idaho Statesman‘s Dan Popkey. The Spokesman-Review’s Betsy Russel reports they may give the exchange plan the votes it needs to pass in the Idaho House. However, the lawmakers’ support of Otter’s exchange bill is contingent on the passage of a companion measure that was introduced in the House Health and Welfare Committee this morning.
Sponsored by freshman Rep. Luke Malek (R-Coeur d’Alene), that bill would increase the Legislature’s oversight of a state-based exchange. Continue Reading →
Ryan, Scott and Tara Arellano, at home in their kitchen
Homeowners, credit intact, still making their monthly mortgage payments. They’re not who we think of first when we think of the damage brought on by the housing crisis. But in a sprawling, master-planned southwest Boise subdivision called Charter Pointe, they’re a group that has struggled.
More than most cities, Boise felt the brunt of the housing crisis. Home prices dropped by 46 percent. Foreclosures peaked in the Boise area three years ago, in March of 2010. County records show that a year after that, 90 percent of the houses that sold in Charter Pointe were foreclosures or short sales. We wondered: What is the story now in a place that bore the weight of collapsing home prices?
Sen. Tippets told his employer, Agrium, that he would not support eliminating Idaho's business personal property tax.
Not long ago, Sen. John Tippets (R-Montpelier) found himself in a peculiar spot. This summer and fall, influential lawmakers and the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry made it clear that phasing out or eliminating Idaho’s tax on business personal property would be a focus of the 2013 legislative session.
Tippets is a public affairs manager for fertilizer producer Agrium. It’s the parent company of Nu-West Industries, which pays the biggest business personal property tax bill in Caribou County. Tippets represents the company on the board of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (IACI), which has championed getting rid of the tax.
Still, Tippets’ view on the issue was clear. More than any other county in Idaho, Caribou County depends on personal property tax revenue. He had to support his constituents. Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
