Tax Break for Girl Scout Cookie Sales Dies in Idaho Senate

Idaho remains one of two states to tax Girl Scout cookies as its legislative session ended Thursday with a bill to lift the levy stalled in the state Senate, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Idaho Girl Scouts mounted a lobbying campaign to gain a sales-tax exemption on cookie sales. The bill handily won passage in the House, but a group of senior senators opposed to granting any new tax breaks blocked it in the upper chamber, according to Sen. Jim Patrick.

Senate leaders declined to hold a hearing on the bill “because nobody could say no to Girl Scouts,” said Mr. Patrick, who supported the proposed exemption. “If they had a hearing, it would pass.”

Only Idaho and Hawaii collect sales tax on the cookies. In Idaho the levy is 22 cents on a $3.75 box of cookies and adds $150,000 a year to state coffers.