Scott Anderson, president and CEO of Zions Bank, said there were five reasons his company decided to expand in Idaho, the reasons “we decided to make significant investment in this new building just up the street,” the nearly finished office tower at 8^th and Main streets in downtown Boise that’s the bank’s new Idaho headquarters. The five? Low energy costs (32% below the national average); low construction costs (4^th most cost-effective place to build in the western U.S.); educated workforce, in that the state ranks in the top third nationally for the number of adults with a high school diploma; easy transport of goods, including access to the Columbia River system; and high quality of life, from a serious crime rate 21 percent below average to abundant recreation.

“Each of these five encouraging factors makes the state a very desirous place to live,” Anderson told the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho conference this morning. He also noted that Idaho has the lowest per-capita tax burden in the nation and the nation’s second-lowest property taxes – but didn’t include those factors in his top five. “At Zions, we are very bullish on the future of Idaho,” he said. “We believe in Idaho and so we are investing in Idaho.”