Friday, April 18, 2014

A taker, not a giver


     Idaho politicians regularly bash the federal government. The rhetoric is high and deep in every political campaign and every session of the Legislature where fist-shaking-by-resolution is common practice.

     Perhaps it’s a good thing Idaho is not a populous state and doesn’t get a lot of notice from the others, because it turns out that Idaho is more taker than giver when it comes to federal government revenues.

     A recent study by WalletHub, a personal finance website, found that Idaho was 29th of the 50 states in the amount of money it receives from the federal government. It showed that for every dollar we pay in federal income taxes, we get $1.40 back in the form of installations such as the INL, highway payments, military installations, federal expenditures to care for public land and wildlife, Social Security and public pensions. Mountain Home Air Force Base alone generates more than $1 billion each year and provides 7,000 jobs.

     States such as New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Delaware receive far less than a dollar back for every dollar paid.

     If the federal government were a couple of private corporations, Idaho’s politicians and administrators would be sending them chocolates and blowing them kisses to keep them happy to be here. Instead, legislators pass resolutions insisting that the federal government surrender public lands to the state and generally butt out.

     Idahoans need to envision what life would be like if the federal government complied. It would mean life with few or no public lands, no federal jobs or investment, no support payments for agriculture, transportation or retirees. It would mean fewer, sicker, poorer people.

     If this is the state Idaho leaders want, they should fess up and say so instead of leading constituents to believe that the federal government is cheating us.




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.