Hundreds of business people, government employees, legislators and more are gathered in Boise this morning for the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho annual conference, which is traditionally something of a warm-up for the legislative session that kicks off in January. The program opened with a national expert, Eileen Sherr of the American Institute of CPAs, giving an update on federal tax policy and the state of the federal budget - grim - and Joseph Crosby, head of a trade association that tracks tax policy for large multistate businesses, talking about how the tax climate is changing in states due to recession-driven budget crunches. "A lot of the states that are relying on personal income taxes are seeing dramatic underperformance in those taxes," Crosby told the conference. Some states are turning to sales tax rate increases, which he said are "the easiest way to get money in the door quickly." With the federal economic stimulus - which saved Idaho from drastic state budget cuts this year - Crosby said in the first quarter of this year, the federal government became the largest funding source for state government, something that had never happened before.