Plan offers little to small towns, official says

MOSCOW, Idaho – A proposal by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to lure large businesses to Idaho offers little to the state’s smaller cities, according to a Latah County economic development official.

Kempthorne’s Corporate Headquarters Tax Act promises tax breaks and tax exemptions for companies that invest at least $50 million in a new facility and provide 500 jobs that pay at least $50,000 annually in Idaho over the next five years.

But Latah Economic Development Council Director Barbara Richardson-Crouch said the incentives are designed to help larger urban centers like Boise, Pocatello, Nampa and even Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls – not smaller communities such as Moscow or Troy that may be ill-equipped to attract large companies.

Richardson-Crouch said Moscow is much more likely to grow through the expansion of existing local businesses.

“We don’t really have the workforce or the infrastructure to handle a new company wanting to employ more than about 150 people,” Richardson-Crouch said. “If a company came here and said they wanted to start out at about 100 people and grow to 500 in 10 years, we could do it.”

Richardson-Crouch said Moscow could see some indirect benefits from Kempthorne’s plan such as research parks, spin-off businesses and other trickle-down effects.

Moscow and the state’s smaller communities probably wouldn’t be first on any large corporation’s list of places to set up shop, said Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow. Trail said it’s more likely that the state’s towns will be beneficiaries of another Kempthorne-backed initiative for rural communities.

“I find it hard to believe that Kempthorne’s business enhancement package will benefit the towns of Moscow’s size,” he said. “I can think of about five or six cities of sufficient population that might benefit from it.”

Kempthorne told a Moscow newspaper’s editorial board last month that city planning boards and elected officials will come up with ways to accommodate so-called Fortune-500 companies.

“Imagine the increased revenue if you put a $50 million plant in Moscow,” Kempthorne said at the time. “It would be huge for your tax base. The City Council would find a way to make it work.”

But Moscow officials remain skeptical.

Moscow’s population grows approximately 1.5 percent a year and planning for the city’s infrastructure, housing market, school system and other basic services are based on that trend. City Supervisor Gary Riedner said it would take a lot of work to provide services and space for more than 500 new families.

“That’s a pretty intense influx,” Riedner said. “It would take a huge amount of planning, for housing and public infrastructure if we were approached by a company that fit the governor’s criteria. Anything that creates a significant increase in your population requires intense planning.”