Volunteers from an array of churches and faith-based organizations are at the Capitol Annex today, urging lawmakers to correct what they say is a “crucial flaw” in Idaho’s current grocery tax credit: That poor people are disqualified from receiving it. Anyone who doesn’t make enough to have to file tax returns – that’s at least $17,500 for a married couple filing jointly – is ineligible for Idaho’s current grocery credit. Various proposals to expand the credit over the past year would have corrected that, but none have passed. “This is the minimum they need to do on the grocery tax this year,” said Vivian Parrish of the Idaho Interfaith Roundtable Against Hunger. “Nothing was done last year. We are very concerned that this is an unjust flaw in the grocery tax credit.”

The Interfaith Roundtable volunteers have split up into pairs and are talking with legislators and giving them cookies to remind them of the issue. “We’re trying to catch all the legislators and tell them it’s really important,” Parrish said. Here, Parrish, of the Lutheran Church, and Sandy Berenter, of the Ahavath Beth Israel Synagogue, pause in a capitol annex stairwell between chats with legislators.

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