This week, Idaho Governor Butch Otter vetoed a bill that would have repealed his state’s 6% grocery sales tax. The estimated cost to the state’s general fund would have been about $80 million.
Sen. Shawn Keough (R-Sandpoint) was one of 25 senators — against 10 who didn’t — who voted for the grocery tax repeal. She says she agrees with the governor’s concern about protecting the general fund, but thinks the state could have made spending cuts in other areas to balance the budget, if it came to that.