If we want to bolster America's middle class - well, Idaho's, anyway - maybe there's a better way than encouraging stronger unions or forcing minimum wage increases.

Appropriate incentives for businesses might just build the momentum we all need and bridge the unhealthy gap between poor and rich.

We use the word "appropriate" because incentives in years past have often been inappropriate. So desperate for jobs and tax dollars were cities and states that they raced to deliver bundles of taxpayer-appropriated cash to companies willing to move for the right price. Companies were richly rewarded just for setting up shop, and guess what? A bigger hook would soon be waved in front of them, and the thin veneer of loyalty burst. Many companies swallowed the fatter worm of greater incentives elsewhere, leaving empty buildings and heartache in their wake.

Idaho is in the midst of something else on the incentives front, and at the one-year mark, it appears to be a revelation. If you get past the bulky name of Tax Reimbursement Incentive, you'll find a program that rewards companies for creating new, good-paying jobs - and the key is that the rewards come only after the companies are employing and paying those people.

In its first year, Idaho's TRI program approved incentives on 3,177 new jobs generating $1.27 billion in new payroll dollars. Not all those jobs have been filled yet, but it's an astonishing start for a program that was born over protests from many skeptics and outright opponents.

In Kootenai County, several hundred new jobs have been approved for the incentives program, which requires every one of those jobs to pay no less than $33,737 a year, and many will pay significantly more. While that's not elite salary status, it's well over double minimum wage and a huge step toward filling the ranks of Idaho's middle class.

On today's Business page you'll find a story recapping the first-year success of Idaho's TRI program. It's our hope that this is just the first step on the path to a robust middle class.