Idaho Business Leaders Map Out Economic Plan

Gov. Phil Batt again raised the prospect of support for local option taxing authority for Idaho’s counties on Monday, but a statewide panel of business leaders seemed to give the idea the cold shoulder.

Batt also made clear he disagreed with the suggestion of some on the panel charged with developing a business stimulus strategy that the state offer tax or other financial incentives to lure new businesses to the state or encourage existing ones to expand.

“Everybody says Highway 95 is impassable, the infrastructure isn’t acceptable, we don’t have enough school buildings,” Batt said. “I don’t think we ought to get into something like that. … We have never in Idaho been much for giving individual enterprises tax breaks.”

But the governor and Employment Director Roger Madsen did indicate that the existing strength of the economy could make a modest reduction in the unemployment compensation tax paid by employers. The state trust fund was expected to approach $300 million by year’s end even after paying out an anticipated record $120 million in benefits.

He also sought suggestions on whether - and how - the state might help school districts cope with building construction needs approaching $1 billion, and he reiterated his intention to propose an increase in either the fuel tax or vehicle registration - or both - next winter to generate more cash for needed highway construction.

In the first of three meetings to prepare a plan to keep Idaho’s economy growing, the business leaders staked out a number of priorities that could easily launch them into fractious debates helping little in developing any strategy.

At the top of their priority list was Idaho’s education system. Members of the Governor’s Council on Business Stimulation agreed improvement was needed, but off-the-cuff solutions ranged from pumping more of the available cash into teachers and classrooms to creating charter schools run independently of the public school system and turning schools over to private companies to manage.

Activities of the Fish and Game Department, the Department of Water Resources and federal land managers were among the other controversial issues panel members put on their tentative agenda.

“If this group thinks it has the expertise to remodel the education system, well, …” Boise attorney Carl Burke told his colleagues.

But Jack Lemley, the construction consultant who recently returned from construction of the tunnel under the English Channel, said education was a critical contributor to the business climate.

“Nothing will happen unless we haul this out as a problem,” he declared.

The council agreed to consider the issue of increasing the state minimum wage, as a proposed initiative filed by organized labor contemplates.