House panel backs bill to exempt Girl Scout cookies, Boy Scout food sales from sales tax

Idaho would join the 48 other states that don’t require sales tax to be added to the price of Girl Scout cookies, under legislation that cleared the House Revenue & Taxation Committee this morning with just two dissenting votes. HB 449 would exempt food products sold by the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts in occasional sales from sales tax.

“Both of these organizations have proven to bring back more to our communities than our communities could ever repay,” Rep. Janet Trujillo, R-Idaho Falls, told the committee. She’s sponsoring the bill with House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, and Sen. Cliff Bayer, R-Boise; there’s also a bipartisan group of eight cosponsors from the House and Senate.

The cost to the state general fund for the tax exemption is estimated at $185,900 a year.

In 2013, legislation to exempt just Girl Scout cookies from sales tax passed the House on a 59-11 vote, but died without a hearing in the Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee. That year, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal ridiculed Idaho for halting the bill, with this headline: “No Brownie Points for Idaho Senate as It Keeps Tax on Girl Scout Cookies; Top Lawmakers Wouldn’t Hold a Hearing Because ‘Nobody Could Say No’ to Cute Kids.”