Many rural states that rely on energy and agriculture are benefiting from the spikes in fuel and food prices, insulating them from the economic slowdown, Stateline.org's Stephen Fehr reports. They include Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Fehr's object example is North Dakota, where "Timely, soil-soaking rains have helped produce two years of bumper crops at a time of record high prices paid to farmers. . . . The state is also blessed with an oil deposit estimated at 400 billion barrels that is producing at record levels. With the price of oil over $140 a barrel, it’s no wonder North Dakota led the nation in personal income growth in first three months of the year. . . . The number of millionaires has risen 46 percent in the most recent two-year period. . . . The state also has other relatively stable employers in two Air Force bases and over 20 colleges and universities. Its jobless rate is close to 3 percent, compared to 5.5 percent nationally," it has not been hit by the mortgage crisis, and the weak dollar has boosted exports to Canada.
The story's most astounding statistic about North Dakota is its budget surplus of $740 million, about 60 percent of its $1.2 billion annual budget, which has started a lively debate over what to do with it. "Other energy and agriculture states are escaping the national economic downturn for the most part, although budget officials are not at all certain their states will be completely immune from the impacts of a sustained slump in the housing market, high fuel prices and the rise in unemployment," Fehr writes. (Read more)
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