A step in the right direction: Utah lawmakers consider axing food sales tax.
Repealing the food sales tax has been on the political agenda for more than 30 years but hasn’t been able to get through the Republican controlled legistlature here in Utah. Yesterday lawmakers, republicans included, finally recognized that this is an issue that needs serious examination.
The “catch” is, though, that there would be a revunue loss of $260 million.
So there is a proposal to raise tax on non-food items by 0.6 of a percentage point statewide.
These were some concerns cited in the article:
The proposal also was met with mixed response from advocacy groups present at the meeting. Advocates for the poor strongly favor it, while the Utah League of Cities and Towns and the Utah Association of Counties are strongly opposed without some sort of mitigation for the revenue losses.
There was also concern from Utah Issues, however, that focusing efforts on the complete removal of the sales tax could push the tax credit aside and that the end result will be nothing gets done.
Conservatives don’t want to lose their expected tax cuts and some businesses say it will hurt them.
Repealing the food tax is a good thing and long overdue. Governor Huntsman is looking at ways low-income Utah citizens will benefit from tax breaks. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and who the changes will negatively affect the most. You can bet it won’t be the wealthy.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 