IDAHO: Benefits from Washington’s proximity

I applaud Becky Funk for pointing out governments often quietly succeed while some occasional failures get amplified. In particular, she celebrates Idaho’s fiscal responsibility and low taxes.

But, as a resident of Washington State who loves Idaho, I do have to point out a few things.   

For example, Idaho gets $1.67 back from the Feds for every $1.00 paid in federal taxes. Washington State, on the other hand, gets $0.87 back for every $1.00 in taxes paid here. In a very real sense, gasoline in Idaho is 80 cents/gal cheaper because of subsidy from Washington.

And there are other issues in which it is quite convenient to live next door to a “socialist” state like Washington. For example, during the COVID pandemic, Idaho hospitals did not have enough beds for their own sick residents — so they exported them to Washington and Oregon.  

Idaho’s women have a special problem: the number of ObGyn docs has fallen by *half* in the past five years, because of Idaho’s hostility to contraception and abortion. The impact upon Idaho women seeking healthy babies is enormous — but most of them are within a two-hour drive of Washington and Oregon, where the doctors need not fear criminal prosecution.

A few years ago, there were some major forest fires near Priest Lake which were fought primarily with federal resources. I made a rough estimate of the cost of fighting the fires, and of the economic base of the affected communities. If those communities had taken a loan to pay for the firefighting, it would have taken a century to repay those loans by contributing 10 percent of the gross incomes of those Idahoans... during which time more fires would surely break out.

While Idaho’s conservatives and libertarians congratulate themselves on their fiscal responsibility, let them tip a hat to the socialists in Seattle who make it possible.

J.D. SAHR

Otis Orchards