[Vision2020] Better Match Investment Timelines (was: Otter Has Plan)

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Thursday 28 February 2008 23:19, Donovan Arnold wrote:
>    
>   What parts of Idaho are growing now?

Before you rush to jump to the conclusion that the short answer is Ada and 
Kootenai counties, or Boise and Coeur d'Alene, read this report from the 
Idaho Department of Labor about southern and eastern Idaho:

http://news.idaho.gov/pressdetail.aspx?temp=temp&pressid=668

Here is another Labor Department report for Kootenai county:

http://labor.idaho.gov/lmi/pubs/kootenaiprofile.pdf 

Yes, indeed, Ada county is growing:

http://labor.idaho.gov/lmi/pubs/adaprofile.pdf  

>   I think the building development is pretty much at a stand still. All 
over the country building projects are stuck in suspended animation. I do 
think you are on to something though, taxing all the wealthy Californians 
coming into the state and putting greater demands on our structure that it 
can handle.

Even though housing has been, and will continue to be, in the national news 
for some time as a troubled sector of the economy, it remains true that 
residential and commercial real estate are essentially local markets, and, 
as such, will vary in their economic characteristics region by region.

>From 1990 to 2000 Idaho added 287,204 residents, by far the smallest number 
added by the dozen biggest growing states, but for Idaho it represented a 
28.5 percent population increase. For comparison, the entire country grew 
13.2 percent, and the western states grew 19.7 percent in the same time.

>From the links above, you know Idaho continues even more rapid growth.

While we are considering populations of people here, it is noteworthy that 
as people move into a region, causing more expense and capital investment 
requirements, it is also true that people costs, that is, labor costs, are 
a large percentage of construction costs that are capitalized. So, if a 
sales tax on building materials used for long term construction would not 
raise sufficient capital for transportation infrastructure, a similar 
percentage payroll tax for construction labor and supervision, that is, in 
effect, a sales tax on capitalized construction labor, could raise 
additional dollars for those same infrastructure projects. The principle of 
matching investment timelines remains the same; it is just applied to both 
the material and the labor components of a construction project.


Ken