{"id":346,"date":"2011-09-20T20:41:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T02:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=346"},"modified":"2011-09-20T20:41:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T02:41:12","slug":"how-the-obama-jobs-act-would-affect-idahos-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/09\/20\/how-the-obama-jobs-act-would-affect-idahos-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Obama Jobs Act Would Affect Idaho’s Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a White House estimate, here’s how President Obama’s ‘American Jobs Act’ would affect Idaho’s economy:<\/p>\n

\u2022 $160 million would prevent or reverse layoffs of about 2,500 teachers, police officers and firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u2022 $190 million for highway and transit modernization projects could support at least 2,500 jobs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 $94 million would upgrade schools, supporting as many as 1,200 jobs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 About 40,000 Idaho businesses would see their payroll taxes cut in half to 3.1 percent on the first $5 million in wages.<\/p>\n

\u2022 $20 million would revitalize and refurbish vacant or foreclosed homes and commercial buildings.<\/p>\n

\u2022 $11 million would upgrade community colleges.<\/p>\n

The outstanding issue, of course, is paying for these priorities in a Washington that’s been paralyzed by partisan fighting. But the Statesman talked with economists about the impact<\/a> of this potential money:<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s biggest, most immediate impact would be on teachers, police officers and firefighters, said Boise State University economist Don Holley.<\/p>\n

Economist Don Reading of Ben Johnson Associates Inc. said the bill focuses on the right areas. Reading said the gap between the rich and the poor has widened almost to 1920s proportions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the things dragging us down in the economy,\u201d Reading said. \u201cThe act is attempting to attack that for small businesses and the unemployed. He\u2019s aiming where we need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only three states \u2014 Wyoming, Utah and Alaska \u2014 have income inequality greater than Idaho, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a White House estimate, here’s how President Obama’s ‘American Jobs Act’ would affect Idaho’s economy: \u2022 $160 million would prevent or reverse layoffs of about 2,500 teachers, police officers and firefighters. \u2022 $190 million for highway and transit modernization projects could support at least 2,500 jobs. \u2022 $94 million would upgrade schools, supporting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[75],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}