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Supreme Court to weigh in on grocery tax repeal |
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June 5, 2017 |
By Idaho First District Representative Heather
Scott
As we get ready for a much-anticipated summer
season, I wanted to briefly update you on a few
important legislative activities. Remember while
you are off enjoying the Idaho outdoors,
government is always active and rarely sleeps.
The 2017 session is now in the books and most of
the new legislation will take effect on July 1.
With 339 bills and an additional 1,416 pages of
rules and regulations becoming law, you can bet
every resident of Idaho will be impacted by one
or more of these laws.
If you find this ever-growing mountain of laws
burdensome, make sure you are one of the
informed and engaged citizens who knows your
candidates' voting records when the May 2018
primary rolls around. Make your impact at the
ballot and vote for liberty-respecting
legislators who want to reduce, not expand,
government.
Also, please remember that the 1,416 pages of
new regulation that come from our bureaucratic
agencies are supposed to be negotiated with
citizens. Administrative bulletins are released
monthly, and I urge you to use the process to
provide feedback to the agencies on how their
rules will affect you or your business.
Here is a link which provides legislative
summaries of key 2017 legislative bills that
passed:
https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2017/2017_Key_Actions.pdf
Here is a link to the Final 2017 Legislative
Report, which overviews all that was done in the
2017 session:
https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2017/sinedie.pdf
Idaho is one of only six states that fully taxes
groceries. Idaho legislators made it clear this
year that they want to bring some tax relief to
all Idaho citizens, regardless of their income
status, by repealing the six percent sales tax
on groceries.
Governor Otter decided to supersede the common
economic sense and needed tax relief and vetoed
the bill. There is just one major problem: the
Constitution (Article IV Section 10) gives him
10 days after adjournment to veto the bill. He
waited 11 days to do so!
This is the same mistake he made a few years ago
concerning the pari-mutuel horse racing bill.
No-one is above the law, not even a governor.
A group of 30 concerned legislators, including
myself, took exception to Governor Otter’s
unconstitutionally late veto on House Bill 67aa
and have taken the fight to the Idaho Supreme
Court for review.
Let’s hope the Idaho Supreme Court justices
believe, like the all of the legislators who
signed on to the lawsuit, that the Idaho
Constitution is clear on this case and needs to
be followed by all citizens, including the
Governor.
The opening hearing before the Idaho Supreme
Court is at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, June 15.
Lawyers representing the legislators have
indicated they are extremely encouraged that our
petition was set for hearing so quickly and at
such an early date, which leads them to believe
the Court wants to hear this issue, and this
bodes well for our case.
Hopefully I will have good news in my next
update letter! |
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