For its latest episode of Elevating The Conversation, the Journal sat down with Wally Jacobson, executive director of the Panhandle Area Council and the interim executive director of the Coeur d’Alene Economic Development Corp., to discuss North Idaho economic activity.

The Elevating The Conversation podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, and elsewhere. Search for it on any of those platforms or the Journal's website to hear the entire conversation, but for now, here are five takeaways — edited for space and clarity — from the episode.

1. North Idaho’s economy and business community is trending in the right direction, but challenges persist.

The state of the economy and business community is pretty strong.

We've had quite an influx of population over the last five years. We look at the amount of retail that's coming in, but we focus on trying to attract work with those companies that maybe pay a higher wage. If it's aerospace-related or advanced manufacturing, that gets our attention because we think the retail will follow. We're always trying to focus on those higher paying industries.

I think if you look at Kootenai County, we've had companies that want to move here; they would like to purchase a building. It's challenging, because there aren't that many buildings available for purchase. And then if you want to build one, you're 18 months to two years out. I think everybody was hoping that interest rates would drop and construction prices would go back down.

When I look at Kootenai County, Bonner County, it's always a challenge to find employees. I still see the “help wanted” signs out at all the fast-food places.

It’s still challenging finding good employees, but I think we have a lot of remote workers that came here, once that got acceptable after COVID.

2. Washington state’s “millionaire’s tax” is driving business owners to inquire about relocating to North Idaho.

I know there's some surveys out there saying the tax is affecting businesses, and actually it is. Some of my evidence is the inquiries that we've had in the last six months have picked up, and 80% of them are from Washington.

It's an opportunity both for North Idaho and Kootenai County to say, "Okay, are there some good companies on the West Side that would be interested in moving to Idaho?"

That'd be great. Bring in some new higher-paying jobs, maybe leverage our aerospace, our advanced manufacturing. But what's a little concerning is that a lot of the activity is from Spokane companies wanting to move over. That's not a net positive gain for the area for jobs. 

 I don't want the west side of Spokane to empty out, or Liberty Lake. I don't think that benefits any of us here because we're one economy, basically.

 I'm not excited that Washington's decided to become a little less business-friendly, but at the same time it may become a market for Coeur d'Alene Economic Development Corp. to focus on some West Side companies that pay higher and match what we've got here in terms of resources both in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.

3. Quality of life and the state’s tax system are among the top benefits of living and working in North Idaho.

 I think most people that look here look at quality of life. People could say that on the West Side, if we're just talking specific to Washington, they have quality of life too, a lot of things to do, but maybe we have less crowds here.

From a business standpoint, I think we've got a pretty fair tax system in Idaho. We have a budget; our governors have typically (asserted), "This is the budget. We're staying with budget. That's state law." 

They hold the line, and I think that provides a little consistency if you're a business moving to Idaho, that you can rest assured that there won't be a lot of budget tax creep.

I think the other thing, and maybe this is coming more to the forefront, is power prices, power costs. I have seen that because we do lending down in the Boise market. That's been driving up some companies out of California. They were just kind of flabbergasted and surprised how, quote, unquote, "cheap pricing for power is."

4. The region’s higher education institutions are helpful for addressing workforce challenges.

Workforce is going to be challenging, but I think we've got some great colleges around here — Spokane Colleges, North Idaho College, Gonzaga University, Washington State University, University of Idaho, and Lewis-Clark State College.

We need more workforce; I think we've got the resources that can do that. If you had somebody say, “I need X, Y, and Z," I think NIC could put a program together pretty quickly. So that's a plus for the area.

5. The semiconductor industry’s success in the Boise area may present opportunities for North Idaho.

I would like to see our area get those jobs that pay a better, decent wage. We all want that, but you’ve got to almost plan for that.

A push years ago here in both Spokane and Kootenai counties was the aerospace industry. How could we leverage that? We're not that far from Seattle. What can we do to bring that skill set and those companies over? And I think both sides worked on that pretty heavily.

I think we have an opportunity to perhaps leverage the bioscience industry. That's a high-paying industry.

And the one that just hit me the other day, and maybe because I was down in Boise for six days where Micron Technology is, and then looking at the State of Idaho on their website, the salaries that they were saying were paid in the semiconductor industry were like $132,000 a year.

Idaho's on the map right now because of Micron and the semiconductors. Is there any opportunity to maybe bring — not a Micron — but maybe a Micron supplier? We could just say, "Hey, it's Idaho," and, you know, most people don't know what Idaho looks like anyway, and we'll just land them in Kootenai County.

But again, I think the vision, the future, we're trying to be more proactive and look farther out.