<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div>Courtesy of the Lewiston Morning Tribune:</div><div><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><h1 style="font-size: 24px; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 27px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">At least Mississippi has Idaho to look down on</h1><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><strong style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;">Marty Trillhaase | Posted: Monday, January 14, 2013 12:00 am</strong></div><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px;
margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;">No matter how bad things got in Idaho, we always had one thing going for us.</div><div style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; background-image: none; float: none !important;">It was worse in Mississippi.</div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Poverty?</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div
style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Crummy economy?</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Poorly funded schools?</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">At least Idaho wasn't dead last.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none
!important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Close enough to be ranked the Mississippi of the West.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">But not Mississippi outright.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Well, take another look, Idaho.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family:
'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">If the Magnolia State hasn't eclipsed us already, it's closing in fast.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Take schools for instance.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">At the close of the last century, Idaho's comparatively low per pupil
spending hovered near or above a cluster of states. Besides Mississippi, you had the usual suspects - Arkansas, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Today there's only Utah separating Idaho from the bottom. The Beehive State is 7.1 percent behind Idaho.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Meanwhile, Mississippi went from spending 8.6 percent less than Idaho to 3.8 percent
more.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Arkansas started out 5.7 percent behind Idaho. Now it's 17.8 percent ahead.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Alabama? It outspends Idaho by 23.5 percent.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px;
margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">North Dakota? Up by 28.1 percent.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">South Dakota? It's ahead by 16.9 percent. Even lowly Tennessee outspends Idaho by 3.2 percent.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Consider wages.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New
Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Before the recession hit, Idaho's median earnings ranked it 43rd. Now it's dead last. Only nine states declined in median individual earnings - and none fell as far as Idaho.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">That's quite a reversal. From 1986-2006, Idaho's workers were gaining on their fellow Americans. In 2006, Idaho incomes reached a peak of 83.5 percent of the national average.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',
Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Now it's down to 79.1 percent - which translates into a loss of $1,813 for every man, woman and child in the state.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">By 2006, Idaho's per capita earnings put it ahead of eight states.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Since then,
Idaho has fallen behind all but Mississippi. Even there, the gap is narrowing. Six years ago, Mississippi's per capita income was 7.5 percent less than Idaho. Today, it's 2.1 percent behind.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">This relative decline in fortunes has occurred despite assurances that as long as Idaho continued to prime the pump by cutting taxes on the well-to-do, the economy would prosper.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none
!important;">Three times in the last dozen years, GOP governors and lawmakers have whacked away at the income and property taxes corporations and wealthy families pay.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">As a result, Idaho's relative tax burden has plummeted. In 2004, the State Tax Commission figured Idaho's per capita tax burden was 43rd. As of 2010, it was dead last - behind Mississippi (46th), Utah (47th), Tennessee (48th), South Carolina (49th) and Alabama (50th).</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px;
margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Far from stimulating Idaho's economy, this relentless round of tax cutting has undermined the ability of Idaho's parents to provide better education for their children. The share of Idaho's personal income devoted to schools is down 25 percent from its traditional levels.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Cuts in higher education budgets have triggered double-digit increases in college tuition - pricing education out of reach in a state where only one in four adults has a four-year degree.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family:
'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Hence you have the vicious cycle of poorly trained workers chasing low-wage jobs in a low-service state.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">And here comes another installment. Backed by Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry wants to repeal the personal property tax businesses pay on equipment. If that happens, a handful of rich corporations will divvy up about $140 million in money from local and/or state coffers - while everyone else either shells out more or puts up with
diminished services.</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">For a time, this tactic of each state handing out tax breaks in the name of economic development was called the "race to the bottom."</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none !important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Guess what?</div></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="font-size: 17px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 24px; float: none
!important;"><div style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;">Idaho won the race. - M.T.</div></div></div></div></body></html>