What was with that veto?

When Gov. Butch Otter vetoed his first bill last week, few lawmakers were familiar with the low-profile proposal from the state Tax Commission, and even fewer were fired up about it. “It was a noncontroversial bill,” said Rep. David Langhorst, D-Boise, the bill’s Senate floor sponsor. The measure cleared both houses of the Legislature on nearly unanimous votes. Lawmakers and political observers say Otter was flexing his political muscle to send a message that may have had little to do with the bill: He won’t hesitate to take a stand. “He has found the veto stamp in the governor’s office and knows how to use it,” said Jim Weatherby, Boise State University political scientist emeritus.

The bill, HB 8 , would have changed a state law that requires the Tax Commission to send certified letters notifying taxpayers whose property – bank accounts, paychecks or other assets – it is planning to seize for past-due taxes. Because half those certified letters are refused or returned, the Tax Commission wants to switch to first-class mail. That would have saved taxpayers $25,000 a year in postal charges and stopped wasting money on letters that weren’t getting delivered. Read the full story here in today’s Spokesman-Review.