Employees at the Hayden, Idaho based Empire Airlines work inside a plane.
Idaho exports continue to increase. Data from the Idaho Department of Commerce show exports from the Gem State grew 3.5 percent from 2011 to 2012.
Driving the export growth last year were food and agriculture products, transportation equipment, and office and home furnishings. More than $6.1 billion worth of Idaho exports headed to other countries last year. Canada led the way purchasing more than $1.3 billion in Idaho products.
Rep. Kelley Packer (R-McCammon) is a freshman legislator.
A bill that would give a sales tax exemption to pregnancy resource clinics that don’t offer abortion services has passed the House. In a 58-12 vote, Idaho lawmakers approved Rep. Kelley Packer’s (R-McCammon) proposal.
Packer introduced the bill on behalf of Boise’s Stanton Healthcare, after the organization purchased two ultrasound machines and were charged a sales tax. The organization didn’t think it should be subject to sales tax because it is a non-profit, and because it’s a health related entity, which are largely tax exempt in Idaho.
“That little amount of money to the state creates a huge concern for them,” Packer says. According to Packer, Stanton’s tax bill on the ultrasound machines was $6,000.
Rep. Grant Burgoyne (D-Boise) says the Legislature shouldn’t make policy based on one organization’s misunderstanding of the law. “We’re backing our way into a policy because someone got caught up in a mistake,” Burgoyne says. Continue Reading →
Job-cutting at the Idaho National Laboratory continues. The Post Registerreports more than 100 INL employees voluntarily left their jobs last week as the lab’s contractor deals with “budget constraints”.
The contractor [Battelle Energy Alliance] in charge of INL announced in December it would lay off at least 300 employees, citing budget concerns, increased daily costs and a need to remain competitive.
Most of the 110 volunteers — who had to apply — served their last day as INL employees Thursday, spokeswoman Amy Lientz said. Continue Reading →
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 →
The health insurance exchange bill will now head to the full Senate.
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s health insurance exchange plan will move forward for a full vote in the Idaho Senate.
Lawmakers on the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee spent more than 90 minutes listening to a second day of public testimony and debating the proposal before voting 8-1.
The overriding theme: Idaho will be able to create and manage a more affordable and effective health insurance exchange than the federal government.
The one dissenting vote came from Sen. Branden Durst, a Democrat from Boise. Durst voiced concern over the 16-member, governor-appointed board that will oversee the online marketplace. He says there should be more legislative oversight. Continue Reading →
Idaho Republican Party chairman Barry Peterson says the GOP’s position on creating a state-based health insurance exchange is “clear and irrefutable”. In advance of this afternoon’s Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee vote on Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s health exchange proposal, the party sent this statement to media and lawmakers:
The Idaho Republican Party today reminded the Idaho State Legislature that the state’s Republicans stand opposed to the creation of a state health insurance exchange. The reminder comes as the State Senate is considering Senate Bill 1042, which would create an insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
22 cents of every box of Girl Scout cookies sold in Idaho goes to the state.
For cookie connoisseurs, this might be the best time of year. It’s Girl Scout cookie season. Starting next week, Idaho Girl Scouts will be canvassing neighborhoods and their parents’ offices to take orders for boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, and all the rest.
Each box sells for $3.75, and 22 cents of that goes to the state. Idaho and Hawaii are the only two states in the country to tax the sale of Girl Scout cookies. That’s according to the Girl Scouts of Silver Sage, the council of Girl Scouts in southern Idaho, northern Nevada and eastern Oregon.
The council is behind an effort to exempt the cookies from sales tax in Idaho. All together, their Scouts in Idaho sell about $2.5 million in cookies each year, $140,000 of which goes to the state. Continue Reading →
“Whether we’re going to get anything done this year or not, I can’t predict that,” he said.
He was speaking to county leaders, a crowd that has pushed back against the idea of eliminating the tax. Nevertheless, it was a notable statement. The governor and others have made the issue a top priority for this legislative session.
Asked about Otter’s comment today, House Revenue and Taxation Committee chairman Gary Collins (R-Nampa) said discussions on the personal property tax are ongoing. Continue Reading →
The debate among Idaho lawmakers started in earnest today over whether the state should create its own health insurance exchange.
At its heart, the debate is an ideological one: does Idaho work within the confines of the federal health care law to establish its own exchange? Or, does Idaho continue to fight the law and reject the exchange, defaulting to a marketplace run by the federal government?
The Otter administration is pushing for the first option. Even though the governor has opposed, what he and others call Obamacare in the past, he supports creating a state-based exchange so Idaho has as much control possible over the online marketplace to purchase insurance. Continue Reading →
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter this morning told a crowd of county officials he’s not sure the Legislature will be able to come up with a plan to eliminate Idaho’s personal property tax.
“Whether we’re going to get anything done this year or not, I can’t predict that,” he said. “There’s probably more options out there than there are legislators.”
Otter spoke at a conference of the Idaho Association of Counties. County leaders and other local officials have been some of the most vocal opponents to doing away with Idaho’s tax on business personal property, given the effect that tax cut could have on local government. The $140 million the tax brings in annually funds local services. Continue Reading →
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