Tension rises over tribal gas sales

The House passed legislation Thursday to impose a deadline on tax negotiations between the governor and the state’s Indian tribes that sell gasoline. Opponents said the bill jeopardizes good relations between the state and tribes.

Meanwhile, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes passed a resolution to begin taxing agricultural products raised by non-Indian farmers on their reservation, which lies at the heart of southeastern Idaho’s potato country. The tribes said they’ll impose that tax if Idaho tries to tax tribal fuel sales without a negotiated agreement. The Shoshone-Bannocks’ Fort Hall reservation includes about 90,000 acres leased to non-Indian farmers, which produce $150 million worth of agricultural products each year.

Grocery tax

Senators floated four plans to amend a House-passed grocery tax relief bill Thursday, but all failed. They’ll try again early this week to amend the House bill that would raise the annual $20 grocery tax credit to $50 and double the $35 credit for seniors. The failed amendments included one by Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, to scale back the first-year increase in the credit slightly, then increase it substantially in each subsequent year until it entirely offsets the sales tax that Idahoans pay on food. That plan’s first-year cost was estimated at $32.6 million; six years out it would cost about $122 million a year. Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, urged support for the multiyear plan, despite its cost: “I believe that we can afford it – it’s simply a matter of priority.”

Words bring pause

The Idaho Senate voted 20-15 in favor of Senate Bill 1172, declaring English to be the official language of Idaho, in a debate that took a personal turn. “It’s not for shutting people out, but bringing people in,” Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, lead sponsor of the bill, told the Senate. Sen. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, said quietly, “Looking around the chamber, I think I’m probably the only one that has English as a second language.” Malepeai recalled that his late father and uncles served proudly in the U.S. military. “They spoke very, very broken English, but they were proud American Samoans,” Malepeai said. Democracy and freedom “is what unifies people in this country,” he said, “not the English language.” A hush fell in the Senate after Malepeai’s comments, and no one else debated the bill.