Time for Boise to earn its boomtown reputation when it comes to business regulations
Boise scored a win in 2019 when StageDotO Ventures relocated from Seattle and announced plans to invest $50 million in Idaho startups. Other companies have made moves of their own, turning the Treasure Valley into a tech hotspot.
Inc. magazine calls Boise “hip,” “attractive” and “on track to become the next Silicon Valley.” Time calls Boise “a techy boomtown.” And Moody’s Analytics ranks Boise as one of the 10 best U.S. cities positioned to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hype suggests a business-friendly climate, but a new report exposes a weakness. Although Boise rolls out the red carpet for tech entrepreneurs, it buries less flashy businesses in red tape.
“Barriers to Business,” a first-of-its-kind analysis from the Institute for Justice, examines the startup process in 20 U.S. cities, including Boise. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence, the report wades through the actual steps required for government approval before a business can serve its first customers.
The report repeats the exercise for five common business types: restaurants, barbershops, bookstores, food trucks and home-based tutors. None of these businesses requires advanced degrees or advanced microchips, but boomtowns stall without basic goods and services. So city planners should pay attention.
Launching a Boise restaurant is a 59-step process. Food entrepreneurs must fill out 14 forms, complete at least seven in-person activities, deal with nine different municipal and state agencies, and pay 10 fees totaling $2,946.
Starting a barbershop involves 50 steps, a bookstore involves 35 steps, and a food truck involves 30 steps. Providing music, language or math tutoring is slightly easier, but home-based business owners face other challenges in Boise. They cannot host more than one pupil at a time, for example, turning piano recitals and other small-group sessions into criminal activities.
Even experienced entrepreneurs with legal assistance can get lost in the maze. The barriers are more daunting for first-time entrepreneurs with big dreams but little resources.
Despite the difficulty, most business owners do their best to comply. People who invest their life savings in an enterprise want it to be legal. But they struggle to know what the procedures are — and in what order to complete them — because government agencies do a poor job communicating.
Boise is particularly opaque. The city does not connect municipal requirements with state- and county-level requirements to open a business, nor does it provide step-by-step guides for common business types.
Things were better in the past. But in late 2020, Boise transitioned from hosting an OpenCounter portal — an online tool that helps business owners complete regulatory requirements — to an Accela portal that lacks many user-friendly features such as step-by-step guides and cost estimates for getting started.
The good news is that tech hubs can be nimble. Idaho lawmakers showed how fast they can move when African-style hair braiders sued the state over burdensome occupational licensing rules on March 8, 2022. Less than three weeks later, Gov. Brad Little signed a law that exempts braiders from Idaho’s cosmetology licensing regime. In legislative terms, the reform moved through the House and Senate at lightspeed.
Boise planners should match the urgency at the city level. Reverting to an OpenCounter-style portal would be a good first step. At a minimum, the city should create clear, online step-by-step guides. Boise also should lower fees and eliminate unnecessary restrictions on lower-income entrepreneurs.
Policymakers tend to focus on the opposite end of the spectrum instead. They try to attract high-technology jobs, which can lift the entire economy. The strategy makes sense, but Boise must not leave other small businesses behind.
Traditional mom-and-pop shops hold the community together. Rather than crushing them in bureaucracy, Boise should get out of their way and let them contribute.
That’s how boomtowns roll.