Business
House Panel Votes To Keep State Out Of Commercial Ventures
March 1, 2012 
On a 15-1 vote The House Resources and Conservation Committee approved a measure Wednesday to prevent the state endowment fund from purchasing and running businesses.
This is a practice the GUARDIAN revealed in 2010 when the Dept. of Lands went into the private storage business with the purchase of Affordable Storage in Boise. With an 8% profit margin, officials claim it is the most profitable of their commercial real estate holdings. Other parcels are actually posting losses which we have noted in recent posts.
The IDAHO REPORTER covered the meeting and has complete report. It is unknown when the bill will get a floor vote and proceed to the senate if passed.
A history of GUARDIAN COVERAGE on this important issue.
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Comments & Discussion
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Mar 2, 2012, 2:20 pm
I think this is long overdue. How can a small business hope to compete with govt. funded ownership of a business. Tax free, unlimited funds to do any and all improvements without concern for profitability. And finally, no consequences for squandering taxpayer dollars.
The guy running a business has to fund his competition? This is just nutty as is the proposition of letting local governments invest in the stock market with taxpayer dollars.
We have a State Treasurer, and a LGIP (local government investment pool) to deal with idle excess funds of local city , county and state entities. The money is invested in short term and long term low risk bonds, T-bills and Certificates that will protect taxpayer dollars from excess risk. I just looked on Vanguard’s info and about 20-25% of all the years from 1929 to present have been down years for investment returns. Equities may be a good long haul investment but you will also have to weather some severe downturns. I do not think that is good exposure for government dollars that may be needed in those down years.