As we all
know, jobs are scarce, private companies have been cutting like crazy -
and now comes the next wave:  state jobs:

"They'll be cutting very significantly, and 400,000 jobs is roughly
what we'll lose over the coming year," says Economist Mark Zandi.

States have seen huge drops in tax collections, and Zandi says
politicians are under intense pressure from voters who demand that state
workers share the pain:

"Generally state and local governments would prefer to cut spending
rather than raise taxes, but the budge holes are so deep in most cases
you're going to have to do both."

States have tried tolls, fees, red light cameras –– voters hate them
all.   But the state of Utah has managed to come with a neat little
product that people are more than happy to pay for.

The Utah concealed firearm permit!  Honored in 32 other states.  You
can get it without even going to Utah.  It requires a background check
and a gun safety class, but the class is fairly easy, and doesn't even
require actually shooting a gun.

The Utah gun permit has become very popular.  Utah has issued about
242,000 of them –– almost half to people who don't even live there.

And at $65 each, that's over $15 million dollars.   Last year alone
Utah had close to 74,000 applications.

This strikes me as a pretty good business for struggling states.  
There's a market niche here for states willing to undercut Utah's fee ––
especially with the Supreme Court's decisions reaffirming individual
gun rights.







And if that doesn't work –– there's always gay marriage certificates...
I'm pretty sure Utah won't be getting into that business.