Rural Partnership Earns Praise

Advocates pressed legislative budget writers on Friday to retain the federally financed Idaho Rural Partnership.

“A year ago, I said I would give the partnership a year to progress,” Labor Department Director Roger Madsen told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. “The director has been very responsive to the needs of our agencies.”

The panel was created to bring government and private resources together to benefit rural Idaho economically and socially, and it appears to have worked.

“It sounds to me like you have turned it around,” Rep. Frances Field, R-Grand View, said.