No End In Sight For Idaho's Growth

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
BOISE

With all due respect to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando, the heart of American's biggest economic boom is right here in Idaho.

In Idaho, the state with the nation's fastest-growing economy, homebuilding hasn't crashed as it has across much of the USA, and a two-decade run of prosperity continues.

Chalk it up, in large part, to chips- computer chips and potato chips. And to a state whose climate and rugged outdoor beauty are attracting highly mobile, white-collar newcomers who could work or live most anywhere.

Idaho has drawn national attention from the recent sex-sting arrest of Larry Craig, its senior U.S. senator, and, in the 1990s, from occasional standoffs between law enforcement and white supremacists. What's less known is that Idaho has been competing with Arizona, Nevada and Florida to be the USA's most vibrant boom state. And unlike those hot-weather states, Idaho is having a boom that shows little sign of fading.

Idaho has been tops among states in economic growth since 2003. It has ranked high nearly every year since 1987, a run of good times unmatched by any other state. Even the recessions of 1991 and 2001 didn't stop growth.

As the state motto says, Esto perpetua: It is forever.

Idaho's growth is remarkable because it has no single cause.

Idaho- unlike its prospering neighbor, Wyoming - doesn't have oil, natural gas or coal, although hydroelectric power is abundant. The state hasn't tried to woo industry with big tax breaks and subsidies. "We don't play that game," says Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, a former executive with agribusiness giant Simplot.

Idaho's economy has clicked in every sector: farming, technology, tourism, construction, service industries. Big business has thrived, and small entrepreneurs have, too. The state has a 2.4% jobless rate, the lowest in the nation, and has added jobs every year since 1987.

"We've had a spectacular economic run for two decades," Idaho state economist Mike Ferguson says, "and I don't see it ending any time soon."

Three-way bonanza

Why Idaho? .....

(View full article by clicking USA Today tab)