No Appetite for Hike in Food Tax

SALT LAKE CITY -- Just a few weeks ago, our community rejoiced after we came together through social media and earned a $1 million donation from retail giant Walmart to fight hunger in Utah.

We rallied because we understood the need among our indigent population for basic nourishment is large, and not diminishing.

But now, our Legislature is moving forward with a plan to significantly increase the state tax on food, and we are compelled to ask, "What has changed?"

After more than a decade of activism, Utah sharply reduced its tax on groceries in 2006 and 2007. True, those were boom years and the state surplus was large, but it was also manifestly understood that the food tax was among the most regressive, even punitive levies a state can assess.

Especially now. Food prices are rising at historic levels. The agriculture department predicts a rise in beef prices of more than three percent this year; dairy prices by more than 4 percent.

Utah was on the same path most states have followed, toward reduction, if not elimination of such taxes. Now, this sharp change of course seems random, and lacking the kind of deep thinking such policy-reversals demand.

Have all alternatives been fully considered, including proposals to expedite the delivery of tax revenues, without raising taxes?

No doubt, lawmakers face a tough task this year, to accommodate all of the funding needs while revenues are only modestly returning to pre-recession levels.

But likewise, recovery is also painfully slow for the tens of thousands of Utahns who have found themselves in a situation of need.

KSL encourages a thorough review of any and all potential alternatives to a permanent increase in the food tax before the state budget is made final.

E-mail: cpsarras@ksl.com