Low-income Utahns should get a break to offset what they pay in sales tax on unprepared food, both Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative leaders said in separate appearances Thursday.

But a break won't be of much help to Utahns who need it most, advocates for the poor said Thursday as they rallied around their proposal to get rid of the tax altogether. They called the proposed tax rebate supported by Huntsman and lawmakers too complicated to be useful to many poor families, seniors, the homeless or dispossessed.

Calling the food tax the most regressive in the state, Linda Hilton of the Coalition of Religious Communities presented petitions to a representative from Huntsman's office signed by more than 4,600 Utahns calling for elimination of the tax.

"In a word, our proposal is fair. It's simple," she said. "This is the wish of the people."

Complete removal of the sales tax on food was a central theme of Huntsman's gubernatorial campaign. At his monthly KUED Channel 7 news conference Thursday, the governor said he still favors exempting unprepared food from sales taxes.

"I would love to see it done," Huntsman said. "I think it is a tax that hits people in all the wrong places.

"This is a question of fairness, to my mind, and I'm going to continue talking about it to see what we can get accomplished."

Whatever gets done, a tax cut from lawmakers won't be part of it even though the governor's spokeswoman, Tammy Kikuchi, said later in the day that Huntsman is open to other alternatives providing "an opportunity to give relief to those who need it most."

Possible versions of relief include the food tax credit discussed Thursday by a special tax study group. Lawmakers and executive branch appointees are drafting specific proposals expected to be forwarded to the entire Tax Reform Task Force.

A repeal of the food tax would have to be "clean," meaning local cities, county and special district sales taxes would also have to be removed from food. "No one has really talked about" including the local option sales taxes in the repeal mix, said Roger Tew, lobbyist for the Utah League of Cities and Towns.

"There would be real anxiety over this (food tax rebate) if the local portion (of the sales tax on food) is returned" to poor people, Tew said.

State officials say it would cost the state between $160 million and $180 million to remove the state's portion of the sales tax from unprepared food.

Such a large tax reduction would be great, said Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association. "But that's a pretty big hit" on state coffers, and legislators have refused to repeal the whole sales tax on food previously, he noted.