<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>This is what Republicans are trying to achieve as far as I can tell.</div><div><br>On Jul 29, 2013, at 3:52 AM, Tom Hansen <<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (July 29, 2013) Lewiston Tribune.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">--------------------------------------</div><div><span class="paragraph-0" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "></p><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="font-size: 30px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 34px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; "><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: TiresiasInfofontRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">Watching Idaho from the bottom rung up</span></h1><p></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; text-align: right; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Marty Trillhaase</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; ">Idaho is a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps place where anyone with a little gumption and a work ethic can join the middle class.</p></span><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><span class="paragraph-1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; ">All we need is a government that gets out of the way.</p></span><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="p402_hide service-members" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><div id="in-story" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: left; "><div id="tncms-region-ads-in-story" class="tncms-region-ads" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "></div></div></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Widespread prosperity is one corner - and two or three more tax cuts - away.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was never true.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But you rarely heard it.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not in a state where the political debate pits the pro-business side of the Republican Party against the anti-government wing.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not in a state where the big business lobby presumes to be the sole voice on the economy - and often is.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And not in a state where the conversation occurs among elites.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At least not until two years ago, when National Public Radio partnered with Boise State Public Radio to create StateImpact Idaho. Idaho was among eight states winning a two-year NPR grant to launch this Web-based project.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At StateImpact Idaho, two reporters - Emilie Ritter Saunders from Helena, Mont., and Molly Messick of Laramie, Wyo. - brought fresh eyes and a new slant to examining Idaho's economy.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Their timing could not have been better. Since the Great Recession broke, Idaho had slipped from the top of the economic pyramid to the floor.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The housing collapse produced widespread unemployment and the highest growth of food stamp use in the country.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But Ritter Saunders and Messick waded into these waters from a new perspective: They'd explore Idaho from the bottom rung up. What emerged was a portrait Idahoans were unaccustomed to viewing:</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><ul style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 8px 8px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; list-style: square inside; "><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A state with the highest proportion of minimum-wage jobs in the nation.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A place where, in spite of the low incomes, living costs are higher than you'd expect - especially in the rural communities.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A location beset by too few doctors.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An economy where good-paying jobs go wanting because too few skilled workers qualify.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A state where school funding has eroded to the point where in some communities, rebuilding gymnasiums has relied upon volunteer labor.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A political environment that congratulates itself for recruiting low-wage call centers.</span></li><li style="text-align: -webkit-auto;outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; list-style: disc inside; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A culture that is watching its youngest, presumably most marketable people migrate to more lucrative opportunities in other states while retirees move in to replace them.</span></li></ul></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This wasn't advocacy journalism. But in an age of cash-strapped, pared-back newsrooms, this in-depth reporting filled a void and became a must-read.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">More people began examining why a generation of trickle-down economics hadn't delivered on its promise of prosperity.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it held economic policy makers accountable.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Case in point was StateImpact Idaho's handling of the $141 million personal property tax break the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry planned to ram through the 2013 Idaho Legislature.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ritter Saunders and Messick compiled reams of data - which cities, counties and schools stood to lose the most and which big corporations stood to profit. Next they produced an interactive map detailing which enterprises stood to gain the most in each of Idaho's 44 counties.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suddenly, the tax cutters had to justify gutting services in the name of a tax windfall for 10 percent of Idaho's companies, such as Micron, Idaho Power, J.R. Simplot and Clearwater Paper.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the end, lawmakers compromised, extending about $20 million in tax relief to small and mid-sized companies.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That's what a two-sided conversation sounds like.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Or at least did.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With its grant funding used up and no local money to replace it, StateImpact Idaho shut down last week - although its Web page (<a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/idaho/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">http://stateimpact.npr.org/idaho/</a>) will remain as an archive of its past reporting.</span></p></div><span style="text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, it was nice while it lasted. - M.T.</span></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">--------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet,</span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.</span><br><span> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a></span><br><span> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a></span><br><span>=======================================================</span></div></blockquote></body></html>