Idaho state road closure information

The Maggie Creek Supervisory Area of the Idaho Department of Lands in Kamiah has historically closed the Brown’s Ridge/Mosquito Creek Loop Roads and the Fidler Road from the end of general elk season to Memorial Day weekend.

These seasonal closures were designed to reduce road damage and maintenance expenses and also to reduce soil erosion and sedimentation from road surfaces. 

Last year, due to significant road improvements performed by the Maggie Creek Supervisory Area, these roads remained open on a trial basis and were closely monitored for moisture related road damage and soil erosion issues. 

Brown’s Ridge/Mosquito Creek Loop Roads and the Fidler Road will remain open again this year, but will be closed should road damage and/or significant erosion occur, or if damage to timber resources or other State property is determined by the Idaho Department of Lands to have occurred. 

The Farmer Road system will be closed from Oct. 1 - May 1 annually, and all other road closures remain in effect, which means that use by unauthorized vehicles wider than 50” is prohibited. 

Cooperation of the public is crucial and much appreciated. Please report any unauthorized use of closed roads and/or damage to State resources. 

For more information, please contact the Kamiah Idaho Department of Lands at 208-935-2141.

An island of sanity called Idaho

By Suzanne Budge, Idaho State Director, National Federation of Independent Business

In the stormy sea of minimum-wage madness washing over the country rests an island of sanity called Idaho.

For thousands of teenagers and young adults looking for their first entry into the job world, our state will safely remain a haven of opportunity, thanks to the recent passage of House Bill 463, which Gov. Butch Otter let become law without his signature.

You see, “Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less.” That quote comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2014 (the last year for which statistics are available), the study all other studies on the minimum wage must by necessity start.

Economist Jeffrey Dorfman delved deeper into the BLS study and concluded, “… minimum wage earners are not a uniformly poor and struggling group; many are teenagers from middle-class families and many more are sharing the burden of providing for their families, not carrying the load all by themselves.”

Corralling other research into theirs, economists William J. Carrington and Bruce C. Fallick write that 63 percent of minimum-wage workers don’t remain at that rate a year later, and only 15 percent were at a minimum wage three years later.

However, to hear advocates of higher and higher minimum-wage rates tell it, increases are needed to help struggling families, lift people out of poverty, and invigorate a sagging middle class. Not so. In fact, two states and one city hold cautionary lessons for Idaho in thinking this counter-factual way.

Neighboring Oregonians were promised that a 2002 ballot initiative linking future increases in that state’s minimum-wage rate to rises in the federal Consumer Price Index would take the issue out of politics forever.

Forever didn’t last long, last month Gov. Kate Brown put her signature on legislation that will eventually make Oregon’s minimum-wage rate the highest in the nation, in steps, by region, and by varying rates. On July 1, this seemingly odd way to govern will start making second- and third-class citizens out of many working Oregonians.

“Today we have taken action that will serve as a model for the rest of the nation to follow,” boasted Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in 2014 when the city council voted to eventually raise its minimum-wage rate to $15 an hour.

And how’s that faring?

“Early evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Seattle’s monthly employment, the number of unemployed workers, and the city’s unemployment rate through December 2015 suggest that since last April when the first minimum wage hike took effect: a) the city’s employment has fallen by more than 11,000, b) the number of unemployed workers has risen by nearly 5,000, and c) the city’s jobless rate has increased by more than 1 percentage point,” reports economist Mark J. Perry of the American Enterprise Institute.

Across the nation, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pinning his legacy on a $15 an hour minimum-wage rate, citing 600 economists who say it will have no effect on employment, even though some of them didn’t go quite that far.

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants a $15 federal minimum wage, but Hillary Clinton says that would be too high, without explaining why her almost-as-high alternative wouldn’t be as damaging. On and on the minimum-wage madness goes.

Idaho wisely pegs its minimum-wage rate the federal rate and has said in the past ‘No’ to efforts to link it to the CPI and now ‘No,' by passing HB 463, to allowing cities and counties to set their rates. What the Idaho Legislature did was say ‘Yes’ to continued job opportunities for the overwhelming majority of current and future minimum-wage earners: Teens and young adults.

Every employer values experience, but how is anyone to get it if governments conspire to remove that first rung up the ladder of everyone’s working life? Our State Legislature deserves praise for keeping Idaho an island of minimum-wage sanity.

Idaho gun range, geothermal bills advance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two bills authored by Rep. Raúl Labrador cleared the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday, offering solutions to regulatory burdens affecting constituents and industry in Idaho.

The committee passed H.R. 5040 the Idaho County Shooting Range Land Conveyance Act. The bill would convey 31 acres of Bureau of Land Management land to Idaho County (southeast of Clearwater County) for use as a gun range. This gun range would provide accessible firearms training for Idaho County residents, recreational opportunities for families and a convenient training facility for the Idaho County Sheriff’s Department. The Idaho County Commissioners have agreed to manage the land as a shooting range and work closely with local law enforcement to provide all necessary maintenance.

“As a matter of principle, the government closest to the people is the one that governs best,” Labrador said. “For years, the Idaho County Commission has been ready to install a gun range in the Riggins area. Because of cumbersome BLM regulations, they have been unable to acquire the necessary land. Idaho County residents deserve to have a safe location for recreational firearms use and this solution is long overdue.”

The committee also passed H.R. 1363, the Exploring for Geothermal Energy on Federal Lands Act. The legislation removes federal barriers to geothermal energy exploration while limiting environmental impact. It will allow for the development of clean geothermal energy resources on federal lands that will create jobs and provide low-cost energy to American families. In Idaho alone, geothermal energy has the potential to generate more than 800 megawatts. That’s enough energy to power more than 500,000 homes.

“Idaho has an abundance of geothermal potential that is unavailable due to bureaucratic impediments,” Labrador said. “Idaho has a unique history of developing geothermal energy. I served in the Idaho Legislature where our 100-year-old Statehouse is heated with geothermal energy, as are many Downtown Boise office buildings, homes near Warm Springs Avenue and part of the Boise State University campus. We need to harness this clean, renewable and reliable form of energy.”

Both bills now move to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Earlier in the 113th Congress, the Natural Resources Committee approved two other bills sponsored by Labrador: H.R. 657, the Grazing Improvement Act and H.R. 1294, the Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act. Both bills passed the full House of Representatives and await Senate consideration.

Clearwater County unemployment falls to 10 percent; highest in the state

Clearwater County, with a rate of 10 percent, was the only county in Idaho with a double-digit unemployment percentage in May. Ten percent is Clearwater County’s lowest unemployment rate in several years. In April of this year the rate was 10.6 percent, and in May of last year it was 10.9 percent.

The last time the state saw only one county in double digits was July 2008. 

Idaho County’s May rate was 6.7 percent, down from 7.1 percent in April, and from last year’s May rate of 8.6 percent.

Nez Perce County’s rate ticked down from 4.4 to 4.3 percent from April to May. In May of 2013 it was 5.4 percent.

Lewis County, at 4.0 percent, has the lowest rate in counties near Clearwater. In April Lewis County’s rate was 4.4 percent, and last May it was 5.7 percent.

Statewide information

Only four Idaho counties—Jefferson, Jerome, Owyhee and Power—saw jobless rates increase from April to May, but all 44 counties posted declines in unemployment from May 2013.

Eighteen counties had rates above 4.9 percent, down from 21 in April and 39 in May 2013. The lowest rate was 2.4 percent in Franklin County, and that was up a tenth from April’s rate.

Businesses hired at or just below their May average for the past five years, maintaining Idaho’s steady economic recovery and driving the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate below 5 percent for the first time in nearly six years.

Total employment increased another 1,000 from April to May, eclipsing 741,000 for the ninth record in as many months.

That was enough to accommodate the entry of 2,000 more workers into the labor force, holding the state’s labor force participation rate at 63.8 percent of all residents over age 15. Job generation by Idaho employers pulled another 1,000 workers off the unemployment rolls, dropping the number of jobless workers below 38,000 for the first time since July 2008.

With over 15,000 more people working this May than last, the unemployment rate at 4.9 percent was 1.5 percentage points below May 2013. Idaho’s rate was also 1.4 percentage points below the national jobless rate for May, marking more than 12½ years that the state rate has been lower.

Idaho’s economy has added 29,000 jobs since January, and total employment has risen every month since mid-2012. Financial services, real estate, information, health care, natural resources, mining, hotels and restaurants all generated jobs at just above the five-year average for May. Manufacturing, retail trade and transportation maintained the average, and only business services, private education services, construction and government fell short of their five-year performance. 

The state’s economic activity continued to drive down demand on the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, but the number of claims and amount paid has crept back up above the levels of the mid-1990s expansion.

In May, an average of 7,600 workers a week collected a total of $8.3 million in jobless benefits, down 42 percent from a year earlier with benefit payments – both state and federal extensions – 35 percent lower. Federally financed extended benefits ended in 2013.