Of course you missed it because, well, good news never gets the play it should. But a recent report shows Idaho took another jump upward in its state credit rating, from AA+ to AAA, one of only a few states in the nation with that superior designation.
Naysayers will either downplay the rating or ignore it because it doesn’t fit their narrative of “Drain the Swamp†in Boise. But the new rating from Fitch shows Idaho is already doing many of the prudent, responsible, and fiscally conservative practices which mark it as a national leader.
Public entity credit ratings are somewhat like individual ones. They reflect both savings and spending habits, measured by such metrics as policies, stability of reserves, careful and planned cash flows as well things like political environment, conservative social policies and rainy day set-asides. (FitchRatings, 11/4).
Stability of policies is an important trait, as it reflects long-term intent by governing bodies. Increasingly, states are being held to “social†behavior when it comes to investing and debt. States which have long ignored these basic measurements, pay higher borrowing rates than prudent states like Idaho.
It’s not unlike your personal credit rating. Potential lenders look at things like your driving record, your debt-to-income ratios, and your lifestyle patterns in determining the amount and rate of your loan application. Some are very strict; others not so much.
In a statement on Fitch’s Idaho report, Gov. Brad Little credited Idaho’s long history of solid economic and responsible patterns of public finance. Think for a minute what your bank would say if you came in for loan but had a credit rating that wasn’t at a high enough level. They would tell you to find ways to cut costs, increase revenue, or both.
And they would look at your history of credit over time, whether you’re buying a new car, a mortgage on a new home, or an operating loan for your farm or commercial business.
Without good credit, your chances of getting a loan you want would diminish, just like it would in your personal history.
This is yet another reason why Idahoans should look past the “Sky is Falling†rhetoric of far rightists running for public office. If you listen carefully, they really don’t have any idea of how to grow the state economy or the necessary investments needed for long-term stability.
We should expect our candidates to demonstrate clear and forward-looking proposals rather than simply whining about what a terrible life we have here down here on the farm. It is truly amazing in the state where solid credit is such an important fiscal feature that so many Idahoans would pay any attention to the charlatans on the right.
And it’s a good exercise to think about Idaho’s economy in the future if we were to elect these folks. You would likely see Idaho’s economic progress stall and then go into reverse. What national business would want to come to a state led by nativist and racist prejudicial politicians, by legislators who cruelly and willfully outed a sexual assault victim? What business now here would long stay if these were our faces on national television?
And what about businesses that may be looking to come to Idaho? They’ll quietly drop us from the prospect list like a hot potato if they see the state’s leaders exhibit such demeaning positions. It would be great to be a fly on the wall listening in on a conversation between business executives and Janice McGeachin, Priscilla Giddings or Dorothy Moon trying to recruit them to Idaho. Good luck with that.
The Fitch rating for Idaho as AAA is both a mark of our past diligence as well as a reality check of where we could go with extremist political leadership. A vote for these folks is to send Idaho backward, along with its stellar credit rating.
Stephen Hartgen, Twin Falls, is a retired five-term Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Commerce & Human Resources Committee. Previously, he was editor and publisher of The Times-News (1982-2005). He can be reached at Stephen_Hartgen@hotmail.com
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