In a divided and nuanced decision, the Supreme Court kept the sales tax on groceries intact. The $80 million repeal could affect available funding for K-12 and higher education.

In a divided and nuanced decision, the Supreme Court kept the sales tax on groceries intact. The $80 million repeal could affect available funding for K-12 and higher education.
Constitutional questions aside, repealing the sales tax on groceries carries a $50 million-a-year impact on K-12 and higher education.
Revenues came in $49.6 million ahead of projections, but only a small fraction of the money could wind up going into education budgets.
A key takeaway from the lengthy report: Idaho is the only state where the Legislature has removed references to climate change from science standards.
“More legislators than ever before voted in support of legislation to restrain the size and power of government,” Idaho Freedom Foundation president Wayne Hoffman said Friday, as the group issued its 2017 scorecard.
Passed in the final hours of the 2017 session, the new law allows the Idaho Transportation Department to siphon some state dollars into pedestrian projects near school zones.
Gov. Butch Otter faces increasingly vocal opposition from fellow Republicans — as his final term heads into its final 20 months.
Otter still has not acted on a related transportation bill to allow state funding for “safe routes to school” projects.
Gov. Butch Otter signed three education-related bills Thursday.
Still hanging fire: a bill to repeal the state’s grocery tax, and a $315 million highway and infrastructure bill. Otter has voiced his opposition to the grocery tax repeal.