Gov. Butch Otter was none too pleased with the job the Senate did this morning amending the grocery tax credit bill, and, in comments to the Idaho Press Club just an hour after the Senate vote, bolstered the threats some senators had alluded to that the amended version could be headed for a veto. “I think I sent a pretty strong signal,” Otter told the Press Club. He said he favors a means-tested credit that costs the state about $22 million a year – not an across-the-board credit like the Senate-approved plan, which has an annual price tag of $32.6 million.

The governor said, “I will not look favorably on that. … They could send it back to the amending order again, maybe.”

He said, “I think we need to target that tax credit with what money we do have available on an ongoing basis, and I believe that to be $22 million.”

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