UPDATE: Hours after discussing it, House Republicans told FOX 13 the bill was being abandoned for the year in the Utah State Legislature.
“We’ve decided to suspend our efforts,” Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said Monday of the food tax during a 6 p.m. news conference with reporters.
ORIGINAL STORY:
SALT LAKE CITY — You could pay more for food under a tax hike being pushed in the final days of the Utah State Legislature.
The bill — which has yet to be made public — is being drafted and will have one chance for public comment in a joint House and Senate committee hearing, less than 72 hours before the end of 2017 legislative session.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said the proposal is to raise the food tax to 4.4% as part of an overall restructuring of taxes.
“It’s going to lower the rate and broaden the base by the restoring the food into the base,” he said.
Read the full story here: Fox13Now.com
Written by BEN WINSLOW, Fox13Now.com
Copyright © 2017, KSTU. A Tribune broadcasting station
It’s hard to believe a food tax was and is an option.
Well, seems like most of these lawmakers finally realized that they’d like to keep their cushy jobs.
Any Utah lawmakers who choose to Tax “We the people” for a basic Human necessity to survive? We all need to throw these damn bums out, and the sooner the better….here’s a idea, tax the tourists you already choose to serve over the Utah state citizen, charge them more tax to visit and stay here….but leave our food alone
With any increase in taxes Utah becomes too expensive to live in, and now lawmakers are considering raising certain taxes to increase revenue? Increases in any tax in Utah makes UT a less desirable place for businesses to move into.
“The state of Utah has a single personal income tax, with a flat rate of 5%. According to the Tax Foundation, total income tax collections in Utah average $833 per person. This is the 23rd highest in the country. Sales taxes in Utah range from 5.95% to 8.05%, depending on local rates.” (source: Google)
If Utah is unable to stay in the black, stop subsidies to illegals. The many illegal people are killing this state and other states. Those in business who hire illegal people should be fined. Let the market dictate price of goods and services and take out social engineering. My opinion is food should stay free of any taxes, that would be a benefit to any lower middle-class income level family.
Something to think about, CA doesn’t have any food tax (except for non-essentials and hot foods). However, income taxes have been raised to keep abreast of growing debt largely due to illegal immigration.
Yep, and illegal immigrants always seem to have large numbers of children. We are taxed to pay for their education, medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, etc etc. But mainly it seems Utah politicians like to put the heaviest tax burden on middle class. Corporatists and the very wealthy seem to slide by with super low taxation which amounts to them being subsidized by middle class workers. The LDS politicians are friends to big business first and foremost. Constituents are an afterthought. Utah businesses employ huge numbers of illegals, also.
@comments, I notice a lot of children around here, too – 4 children families seem to be the norm among LDS families. I see how young the parents are and wonder what the heck they do for a living to afford 4 children all a year or so apart. Unless the LDS Church is supporting all of these young families, it isn’t just illegals that are sucking the system dry.
Yup, I realize LDS’ers have a lot of children, but even they can’t outbreed the illegal aliens. They must figure that the more they have the harder it’ll be to deport them, and I think they’re right. The state doesn’t want to take on the full burden of the anchor baby epidemic. This is why 1/2 of US school children are now latino/hispanic.
Your information is incorrect. According to Pew Research, one in five US students is latino/hispanic, not one-half. The vast majority have parents who are citizens of the United States. Did you forget Florida and the Cuban American US citizen population? They are Hispanic, too. You seem to infer that all Hispanic school children are “anchor babies” with undocumented parents. That is factually incorrect.
Ha ha Bob you got busted blowing hot air and just shooting off your mouth like you always do. ….ha ha ha ha
Karen – not all of you information is factually correct either. According to Pew Research in 2014, roughly 1 in 4 (25.8%) U.S. students is Hispanic. Whites are 49.7%, Blacks 15.4%, Asian 5.2%, American Indian/other 3.9%.
The article also states that the majority of Hispanic kids are now born in the U.S. That does NOT necessarily mean that their parents are U.S. citizens, as you stated.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/18/u-s-public-schools-expected-to-be-majority-minority-starting-this-fall/
If you don’t like it Bob write a letter to the Governor. I’m sure he cares what you think
Instead of taking food off the tables of hardworking families, why don’t we jump on the lottery bandwagon. Why we keep letting other states get all Utah $$$$$
Lottery? While I agree with you, it could add much needed funding for schools, there is no way in hell the local Nazi party that runs this state would allow it. They just got rid if coin pushing machines because they were deemed gambling. COIN PUSHING MACHINES! Now they are trying to lower the alcohol limit in a state that sells near beer. Meanwhile the women take opiods by the handful to keep em’ in line, and nothing is done about it
Well get a job and pay your share if it bothers you that bad
Who woke you up?
I’m glad of this. I moved here from Arkansas which has a 6.5% sales tax, PLUS, our county and city imposed taxes on top of that to total 8.875% currently. It was 9.5% last year, and the year I moved here, it was about 12%. Our groceries were taxed at the full rate until a few years before I moved here, then it was dropped to about half. I can tell you that Utahns pay more for groceries here, especially meat. Adding a tax on top of that is a bad idea. I’m with @old school – get a lottery if you want to generate money, and keep our money in UT, instead of letting it go over state lines.
We pay full tax on food here in Oklahoma. And it’s a crying shame that gov’t needs to resort to taxing a necessity we all need. Utah-don’t be like Oklahoma. Be like California and have a zero tax on most foods.
Oh I forgot- we do have the lottery here…hmmmmmmmmmm a food tax ain’t Christian, dang baptists lol
@ladybugavenger, Arkansas finally got a lottery, too. Between that and the high taxes, the pockets of the “good ol’ boys” are being lined pretty thickly there. Every state has a good ol’ boy club, that’s for sure.
Dang tweekers !