However, one of the problems with an income tax credit to give relief on sales taxes paid at the time of purchase is that many low-income people don't owe any income taxes. And so they don't even file income tax returns.

Valentine says all low income people would be eligible for the tax credits, whether they file tax returns or not. "It would be a refundable credit," he said. "But a person would have to file a return to get it."

And it's questionable how many low-income people now not even filing a return would file a state tax return in order to get a check of $30 to $100.

Utah State Tax Commission officials estimate that perhaps 65,000 Utahns now aren't filing returns, most because they don't owe any tax. Maybe 50,000 of those would file a rebate return, assuming the new rebates were well publicized, tax officials estimate.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. suggested during his 2004 campaign that the state should remove the sales tax from all unprepared food. But that would cost upward of $200 million in lost revenues.

Time and again, the Legislature has rejected the idea of removing the sales tax from food, the fiscal cost always settling the issue.

A 1990 citizen initiative to remove the food tax failed at the ballot box.

Huntsman has not changed his position on eliminating sales tax on food, said his spokeswoman, Tammy Kikuchi. But she said he doesn't want to comment on the proposed alternative until the task force's work is done.

"Yes, he is still interested in removing at least some of the sales tax from food and looking at some options, perhaps (taking it only) off the staples," Kikuchi said. "But he really would like to see the full recommendations from the task force."

Huntsman's two appointees on the task force, his deputy chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, and State Tax Commission chairwoman, Pam Hendrickson, are not pushing for the removal of sales tax off food, she said.

"They're looking at everything as a package," Kikuchi said. "I don't want to say they're singling out sales tax off food . . . or anything else. "

Valentine said removing the whole food tax may sound good, but in one way it would be counterproductive.

"We say we want to tax visitors when they come into the state. On the one hand, we're spending $10 million in tourism promotion to get them here. Then we turn around and take the sales tax off" from an item they buy here? "It doesn't make sense."

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Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com