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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Senate leaders file ‘notice of non-filing’ in grocery tax case; they won’t file arguments

Idaho Senate leaders from both parties have confirmed to the Idaho Supreme Court that they won’t be filing arguments in the grocery tax case, now that the court has narrowed the issues to preclude arguments about whether or not the bill was constitutional. After Gov. Butch Otter raised questions about HB 67a’s constitutionality, based on a constitutional provision that requires tax bills to originate in the House, the court on Monday issued an order limiting the issues in the case, at least for now, to the validity of the veto.

HB 67 started in the House as an income tax cut bill, but the Senate amended it, transforming it completely into a grocery tax repeal bill. That’s what prompted Otter to question whether the measure really originated in the House.

Senate leaders said that was the only issue they wanted to address; they weren’t weighing in on the validity of the veto. So today, they filed a “notice of non-filing” with the court, noting that they don’t want to offer arguments on the validity of the veto, but if the constitutionality question comes up later, they want a say.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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