Mitch Ponting is grateful he's doing well, and building relationships with his family.
When the 2013 legislative session wraps up, a big policy question will remain: Will the state make Medicaid available to a greater number of Idaho’s poor? The federal health care law encourages that move. It’s a debate that involves potential costs and savings, along with patient well-being. And it turns quickly to chronic conditions, like mental illness.
Mitchell Ponting is 48 years old with neatly trimmed gray hair and a quick smile. When he was paroled from prison last summer after serving two years on drug charges, he faced an immediate problem.
The Idaho Legislature will now archive its audio and video recordings of committee meetings and floor debate. Until now, those audio and video sessions were live-streamed by Idaho Public Television and deleted after five days.
The new rule will require the director of legislative services or a designee to hang on to the recordings for two years. Then, they’ll be transferred to the state archivist for safe keeping.
The Idaho Freedom Foundation has been lobbying the Legislature to keep an audio or video archive of its proceedings in the name of government transparency. The organization began archiving the sessions on its website as a way to push lawmakers to act.
Executive director Wayne Hoffman said in a written press release the passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 131 is a “monumental positive development for government transparency in our state.” Â Continue Reading →
Some Idahoans receiving unemployment insurance payments will see their benefits cut by more than 10 percent.
The Idaho Department of Labor says the federal budget cuts, called “sequestration,” that went into effect at the beginning of this month triggered a 10.7 percent reduction in those unemployment benefits. Unless Congress acts, the benefit payment cuts could be in effect through at least September.
Earlier this month the Idaho Department of Labor notified over 6,000 extended benefit claimants their benefit payments and remaining extension balance will both be reduced by 10.7 percent. Continue Reading →
Power County Commissioner Vicki Meadows, at the oil seed processing company she runs with her husband.
The 2013 legislative session won’t wrap up tomorrow, as many hoped. But lawmakers have come to near-unanimous agreement on an issue we’ve tracked closely: the business personal property tax. A bill backed by the Idaho Association of Counties passed the Idaho Senate on Tuesday without opposition.
I decided to follow up with Power County Commissioner Vicki Meadows. We met in January, when it wasn’t at all clear how lawmakers would handle the push to repeal the tax on business equipment and machinery.
Idaho’s per capita personal income increased by $868 in 2012. That’s a 3.3 percent increase over 2011, and it boosts annual earnings above their 2008 peak. But the change wasn’t enough to narrow the gap between the net incomes of Idahoans and Americans at large.
The annual personal income data released today from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show Idahoans earn on average 79 percent of the national average. That maintains Idaho’s rank of 49, with only Mississippi further behind. The states had per capita personal income of $33,749 and $33,073, respectively.
Times-News reporter Melissa Davlin points out that the delay could turn the Medicaid expansion into a litmus test for Republican lawmakers next year, when fall elections loom. Continue Reading →
On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release personal income data for 2012. In anticipation of that release, StateImpact Idaho pulled together personal income data going back to 1990 and compared it with the U.S. average. The data show a widening gap between Idaho and the country as a whole.
Per capita personal income is total personal income divided by total midyear population. – BEA
As recently as 2006, Idaho’s personal income was 83.4 percent of the U.S. average. Last year, it was just 79.1 percent of the national average. While the trend lines look similar for Idaho and the nation, you’ll notice personal income in Idaho hasn’t recovered the ground it lost during the recession. Continue Reading →
House Minority Leader John Rusche (D-Lewiston) this morning made an unorthodox push for action on a pair of bills that would expand Medicaid eligibility in Idaho and do away with the state’s catastrophic healthcare fund. As the Idaho Statesman‘s Dan Popkey writes:
House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, took the rare step of using a parliamentary move to force a committee chairman to hold a hearing on legislation against his will. His gambit failed Monday morning, when House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Fred Wood of Burley was supported by his GOP colleagues. — Idaho Statesman
Rep. Rusche and Chairman Wood are not at odds on the issue. Wood, like Rusche, favors opting into the Medicaid expansion that is a central component of the federal Affordable Care Act. Â Continue Reading →
Albertsons says it doesn’t have store closures to announce after a $3.3 billion deal was finalized last week to reunite the brand that was split in 2006.
The Idaho Statesmanreports the company did lay off seven workers as part of restructuring. Albertsons LLC, owned by Cerberus Capital Management, purchased 877 stores from the Minnesota grocery giant Supervalu.
Spring marks the start of the busy season for home-buying and selling. In the Treasure Valley, the housing market mirrors national trends. The story is one of few homes for sale, and high demand.
Mike Turner, an agent with Front Street Brokers in Boise, will tell you: the local housing market was competitive last spring, and it’s even more competitive now. “A year ago, we had really low inventory,” he says. “Now, shockingly, we have even less inventory!”
Data from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service shows that there were 12 percent fewer homes on the market in Ada County in January and February of this year compared to last. In Canyon County, the gap was just over 10 percent. Continue Reading →
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