The Senate has approved HCR 25, the measure to put off the scheduled $10 bump-up in the grocery tax credit for all Idahoans next year, to save $15 million in next year's state budget. Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, told the Senate, "I don't like this very well." But he said when the escalating grocery tax credit was enacted, it included this possibility: That the scheduled $10 increases each year could be held up in certain circumstances, "should the economy take a very negative turn." The grocery tax credit is now $50 for most Idahoans and $70 for the low-income, with an additional $20 for seniors in either category.

"The reality is I do understand the economic situation that we're in," Fulcher told the Senate, urging support for the concurrent resolution. Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, said, 'We've failed to make choices that would allow us to raise revenue in ways that could be meaningful and instead we're going to go after a break in the tax on food, which I don't believe we should have a tax on food at all." Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, decried the move as "raising revenue on the backs of the people who are the most vulnerable."

But Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said the grocery tax credit goes to the well-off as well as the poor. "I personally feel that this is a very appropriate place to raise revenue this year," she said. "It's the least we could do." The resolution passed on a 29-5 vote; that's final passage, as it's already passed the House.