Behind Boom In Boise Lies Delaware Inc.

Even when it was small, Boise was known as the headquarters for a raft of big corporations.

Today, the biggies based here include Albertson’s grocery stores, timber giant Boise Cascade Corp., Ore-Ida Foods Inc. and computer chip powerhouse Micron Technology.

Here’s the surprise: All are incorporated, not in Idaho, but in Delaware.

Idaho this year updated its corporation laws, which may make it more attractive to companies.

But the biggest draw for corporations all across the country traditionally has been corporation-friendly Delaware.

That’s because Delaware’s corporation law favors corporate management over shareholders. Jim Macdonald, a University of Idaho law professor, said Delaware has made a point of structuring its law that way to attract the biggies and collect their filing fees.

On its Internet home page, Delaware advertises itself as “the corporate choice” and boasts that it’s the corporate home to more than 250,000 companies.

Idaho isn’t losing a lot.

“They’re all taxed on how much business they do in the state,” said Ben Ysursa, chief deputy secretary of state. That’s regardless of where they are incorporated.

The main benefit for Idaho to have its companies incorporate here is the one-time, $100 fee. Renewals are free.

Delaware’s filing fees start at $70, plus annual renewals starting around $30. But the price can go way up for companies with more shares.

It’s not that all of Boise’s biggest businesses are incorporated in Delaware.

Morrison Knudsen Corp., the international construction firm, isn’t. Since 1950, it’s been incorporated in Ohio.

And the J.R. Simplot Co., the food processing, fertilizer and agricultural empire headed by potato baron J.R. Simplot, has been incorporated somewhat close to home since 1956 - in Nevada.

Hitting the trail

Here’s a clue to how Lt. Gov. Butch Otter won that infamous “tight-fittin’ jeans” contest some years back.

Otter was seen this week jogging vigorously along Boise’s riverfront Greenbelt at mid-day, in shorts and T-shirt.

No pain, no gain.

Skeletons in your closet?

As the Legislature’s entire budget committee filed into the inner recesses of the maximum security prison south of Boise this week for a tour, Sen. Evan Frasure, R-Pocatello, cracked, “See, what this is is a giant sting operation - most of you will not leave here today.”

It’s those pro-business Demos

When Idaho’s biggest business lobby ranked state legislators on their voting records, top marks among the North Idaho Senate delegation went to the Democrat.

That’s right. Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, voted with the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry more than her GOP colleagues from the north.

McLaughlin got a 92 percent rating from IACI.

North Idaho Republican senators all ranked around 70 percent. But their constituents probably won’t complain.

Their IACI marks dropped partly because they opposed sharp new limits on voter initiatives and favored increases in the homeowner’s exemption from property taxes - pretty popular stuff at home.

Of course, on both measures, IACI won. The limits on initiatives passed, and the homeowner’s exemption increase failed.

, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.