First to testify this morning at the hearing on tax-cut bills was Darcy James of the Idaho Interfaith Roundtable Against Hunger. She addressed the proposed bill to remove the sales tax from groceries while eliminating the grocery tax credit, and she pointed to its effective dates, saying there’s a problem. The bill would remove the credit for the entire year of 2016, she said, but the sales tax on food would continue from January through May of that year. “This leaves you with about five months of sales tax paid but never refunded. We believe that this is in conflict with the Legislature’s intention in establishing the grocery tax credit. This is of course especially important to the hard-working Idahoans in the lower income groups, whose food purchases are necessarily a greater part of their family expenditures.” She said, “Food should be as affordable as possible. Recognizing this, the Legislature has chosen to offset the sales tax on food, and you are considering removing it entirely.” She said her organization has long supported that goal.