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Exploring the policies and politics that help or stand in the way of job creation.

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May 2, 2012

Do Business Incentives Create Jobs? Idaho Is One Of 13 States In The Dark

The state of Idaho will give up an estimated $845 million this year in the form of tax credits and exemptions. And only a select few at the Idaho Tax Commission know exactly where that money goes. Idaho’s law is pretty clear, individual and business tax information is confidential. Tax returns, specifically, are confidential under […]

May 1, 2012

Tax Incentive Transparency: What Is And Isn’t Public In Idaho

We’re talking this week about tax incentive and exemption transparency. So, we thought it’d be a good idea to create a simple list of what is and is not public information. Without further ado… What IS Public Information in Idaho Estimates of foregone revenue (tax money the state opted not to collect) due to income […]

April 30, 2012

Tax Credit Roundup: What You Need To Know

The effectiveness of tax credits and incentives is something StateImpact Idaho has been looking at since we launched back in September. We wanted to better understand how the state views tax incentives and what the return is on that (sometimes risky) investment. But in Idaho, there is very little public information available when it comes […]

April 18, 2012

Idaho’s Education Funding Glossary

The non-partisan Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy released a report questioning the constitutionality of Idaho’s school funding plan late last week. Education funding is complicated. It gets even more complex when you throw in jargon. The center’s report uses Idaho-specific funding terms, and we found ourselves often looking for the definitions of those. So, we […]

Economist Mike Ferguson Questions Whether Idaho Is Adequately Funding Education

The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy released a report last week questioning the constitutionality of Idaho’s education funding system. Director of the center and former longtime chief state economist Mike Ferguson authored the report. Two of the largest stakeholders involved, the Idaho Department of Education and the Idaho Education Association have yet to weigh in […]

April 13, 2012

Study Questions Constitutionality Of Idaho’s Education Funding Plan

A report released today by the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy questions whether the state is meeting its constitutional duty to “maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.” The report is authored by the center’s director Mike Ferguson, who was also Idaho’s chief economist for 25 years. “One of the […]

Study: Idaho ‘Trailing Behind’ On Measuring Tax Incentive Effectiveness

A new 55-page report from The Pew Center on the States shows most states don’t really know if business tax incentives are boosting job growth. In case you don’t have time to read the full report, here’s what you should know: 26 states, including Idaho, don’t really know if the millions (in some cases billions) […]

March 19, 2012

Idaho’s Among The Worst States When It Comes To Government Transparency

The latest government transparency report gives Idaho a near failing grade, ranking the Gem State among the ten worst states for transparency in the country. The State Integrity Investigation gives Idaho an overall grade of D-. The report looks at 14 categories, six of which the state failed. The worst grades went to categories like […]

March 15, 2012

Update: “F” Is For “Flunk,” But Also For “Funding”

Yesterday, StateImpact published a story about Idaho’s last-place finish in a government transparency study. In it we noted that Idaho was one of only three states that didn’t respond when the study’s initial findings were sent to government officials, requesting comment. It was the Department of Administration’s Bill Burns who received that survey. He wasn’t […]

March 14, 2012

“F” Is For “Flunk”: Idaho Falls Short In Transparency Study

Idaho earned last place and an “F” ranking in an analysis of government transparency released today. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group study focuses on how easily the public can get information about government spending. “The main thing is that Idaho is one of the four states that does not have checkbook-level expenditure information,” Tax […]

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