Huckleberries Online

Eye On Boise: House OKs Higher Grocery Tax Credit

Posted by DFO

Feb. 8, 2007 1:10 p.m. • 0 comments

The House has just voted 62-7 to pass HB 81, Rep. Cliff Bayer’s bill to raise the grocery tax credit from $20 to $50 for everyone, and from $35 to $70 for seniors. The vote came after nearly an hour of debate, including sharp warnings from some lawmakers about the bill’s cost, $47.5 million a year. The measure now moves to the Senate. The House Revenue & Taxation Committee chose HB 81 over Gov. Butch Otter’s plan for a targeted, means-tested credit that would have given up to $90 a year in grocery tax credits to the lowest-income Idahoans, $105 for seniors, but little or none to the higher-income; the price tag on the governor’s bill was less than half as much, at $22 million a year. Ten North Idaho lawmakers co-sponsored Bayer’s bill — Betsy Russell/Eye On Boise.

More Eye On Boise: Richardson: Try toll roads; Budget writers have lots of GARVEE questions; Growth not paying for transportation needs, new ITD director says; and Senator with gumption proposes disclosure bill.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.