Idaho trying to lure more small businesses

The Idaho Department of Commerce has launched a website as part of its public relations campaign to try to encourage existing small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to create a corporation there.

The website – justmaketheshift.com – features a number of statements by Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in which he praises the state’s legislature by not raising taxes to make up budget shortfalls. Keeping taxes low, he says, makes for a better business climate.

“Business owners understand that having a state government working with you, rather than against you, makes all the difference,” he states on the site.

Earlier this year, Otter even sent thousands of letters to individual small businesses in Washington and Oregon, saying that employers should be unhappy with new business taxes.

Idaho has been ranked highly by many business groups for its very favorable economic conditions. The Milken Institute ranked Idaho as the fifth-best state in terms of the cost of doing business, and the Pew Institute said it had shown the fastest growth of any state in terms of clean energy jobs.

The Oregon Daily Emerald recently reported that so far, Idaho’s campaign to attract companies from the neighboring state has not had a significant effect there. In fact, business formation rates in Oregon have remained extremely high.