Shoshone County Commissioner Jon Cantamessa was sharing his county's moves to cope with declining revenue, from freezing employee salaries to turning off lights to re-bidding health insurance contracts to avoid big cost increases, when he added this: "I do have one thing I want to pitch to Brent Reinke as long as he's here. ... We have a jail that has probably 30 or 40 extra beds." The state may not need them now for its prisoners, he said, but when it does, the county could use the $250,000 it could make by renting them out.

Cantamessa was one of two local officials tapped to tell the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho how local governments in the state cope with downturns.