Comments on: Idaho Offers Businesses A Welfare Home

By: dog

dog — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:52:32 +0000

Corporate Farms get huge tax and legal incentives to move CAFO operations to Idaho. The jobs they create are so low paid, they do not add significantly to the tax base. When they leave, a huge environmental mess is left behind.
Most mining operations do the same.

By: Werner

Werner — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 05:40:28 +0000

The tax code is to blame here, its an ever changing hodge podge of city, county, state, and federal hoops and rules and exemptions and credits. Apparently kept complicated to keep us all confused. It should be scraped but that is a whole other agrument. Right now we have bills to pay, do you want to pay them or do you want your employer to pay them? Some states put the burden higher on businesses, but states like California hit the citizen hard too. Calling Idaho a Welfare Home for business is a stretch. I think attracting business with lower taxes is a good idea as long as you can still pay your bills. The key is to have discretion as to which businesses get these breaks. Moving a software design firm here makes a lot of sense you are getting a lot of high paying jobs with intelligent people and small environmental effect. I can see the long term gain in giving them a tax break. The key is the discretion. I would need better examples to comment further. And Cyclops when you cut someones taxes you aren’t “giving” them anything, you are taking less.

By: Count Me Out

Count Me Out — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:49:12 +0000

The County also does this with their new-fangled “business tax exemptions.” Companies that are profit-making enterprises apply for tax exemption under a state law that allows multiple years of exemptions in exchange for I guess them bringing business here. The county commissioners agendas on the internet show recent meetings for this but never included the name of the companies applying and they show it as an executive session so I guess it’s a secret even though they’re giving away our hard earned (and much needed) tax dollars. I think we should at least know which companies are applying and on what basis they get to avoid paying taxes, since none of us get to avoid paying our property taxes! Why the heck should big business?

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:34:00 +0000

Wow, that explains a LOT. Back when I worked at Directv, shortly after they opened their call center, they told us that they were very careful in how they screened applicants, and that we were the “best of the best”, because it was going to cost them around $3000 to train each of us. At the time, I wondered how on earth they could possibly afford that- the turnover rate was astounding, and around 5000 people are employed there, at any given time…guess I can see how it’s done, now. A call center would be a very, very profitable enterprise, with the right kind of “help”, and “specialized” training for your prospective cannon-fodder…er, employees! ;o)

By: Timm

Timm — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:16:38 +0000

The same thing is largely true at the national level. While congress is holding emergency sessions to cut NPR funding, us corps are skipping out on about 60 billion annually in taxes thanks to loopholes.

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:55:14 +0000

A couple of things jump out here. First, note there are no amounts of relief shown. That tells me the “business” looking to re-locate is limited in the tax relief only by their ability to negotiate. Second, although it isn’t near as attractive as the brochure, it would be more truthful to simply say: Come to Idaho where we have no problem giving you our citizen’s tax money!!!