Idaho: Rolling in Pennies

To keep taxes down and meet rising costs, some state governments have turned to such moneymaking gimmicks as lotteries and race-track taxation. Idaho now draws income from an eight-lane bowling alley.

Lake Bowl, in the resort town of McCall, belonged to Oliver B. Turner, 49, an accountant in the Idaho highway department. It was seized, along with Turner's four cars, four houses, his Italian restaurant in Boise and Turner himself, after state auditors last month discovered a $484,326.83 discrepancy during an annual audit. Turner is being held on 19 counts of forgery, falsifying documents and obtaining money under false pretenses. If convicted on all counts, he could get 266 years in prison.

The affair is something of an embarrassment to Governor Don Samuelson, who was elected on a promise to "run the state like a business." What is particularly embarrassing is the fact that only after seven years and six separate audits did anyone notice anything amiss. "It was done very cleverly," said State Highway Engineer Ellis Mathes. "On the surface, the vouchers and everything looked very normal." Attorney General Robert Robson said that Turner had invented his own company name (The B.G.O. Investment Co.) and systematically diverted highway funds by means of 40 separate warrants ranging from about $3,000 to $17,500. Turner has four children and got an official salary of only $11,650, but for all of his cars, houses and business properties, he had aroused little suspicion. "It wasn't hard to believe he could accumulate all those things," said a friend, "because he was an operating fool. He always had something going." Turner has little going now. Police impounded his modest savings account, then scoured his home and confiscated everything of value, including his wife's typewriter and bowling club treasury.

Because the Federal Government matches highway funds by 92% to 8%, the shortage at the state level could eventually cost Idaho $5,000,000, or ten miles of interstate highway. But there is still Lake Bowl. Though Turner's restaurant was closed upon seizure, the alley is yielding a 6 1/2¢ profit to a special state trust fund for every line bowled. At that rate, it will take 7,451,-182 lines of bowling to recoup the loss —about ten lines each for every man, woman and child in Idaho, or almost 18 years of around-the-clock play.