Task force leaders have said everything is on the table, including taking the sales tax off food. Huntsman said after the taping that the issue has been opposed by "rural constituencies" that depend heavily on the taxes collected at local food markets.

He said the cost of the tax break could be reduced by limiting it to basic needs — not chips, soda and candy.

'I'm looking at helping those who, the minute they put something they need to sustain life into their shopping cart, there's a tax on top of it instantly. I see that as an unnecessary burden on people who are just trying to get by," he said.

A tax commission report in 2000 found that the average Utahn pays $89 a year in sales taxes on food. The state's poorest residents paid a total of $25 million on their food purchases.

Democrats, who are in the minority in the Legislature, traditionally have supported taking the sales tax off food. "Our Utah tax system really disadvantages the working poor," House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said.

But Becker, a member of the Tax Reform Task Force, said while he favors the concept of removing taxes from food sales, "we have to consider the balancing act that we do as we create tax policy."

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