Well, it appears that sometimes it doesn't pay to shop early.
I purchased premier in December. The cost was $69.99. I just saw that Amazon is offering it for $54.99 to prime members.

I couldn't recall what I had purchased last year and looked at the comparison chart for what I needed.

As for the State issue mentioned in the article, 1 state is included. Additional States are available for a fee. Looks like Intuit did a knee jerk reaction to the initial story with advertising rather then think it through.