Businesses will get even more tax breaks as part of the current tax reform process if proposals pass the Legislature, including a bill that would allow Utah-based firms to figure corporate income taxes in different ways, saving firms an estimated $32.4 million, Curtis noted.

The taxpayers association is "always saying, 'Don't tax business inputs,' " said Curtis. "Well, if you don't feed your employees for a couple of days, they're not going to be very good workers. But we are taxing their (nutrition) inputs, aren't we?"

When it gets right down to voting in the 2006 Legislature, "You are not going to see very many businesses say, 'No, continue taxing food,' " says Curtis, because the tax is so unpopular. "Plus the (speaker's) plan gives an overall $37 million tax cut in state taxes."

And that political savvy may be what strikes at the heart of some senators' anger — the House Republicans jumping out front on a very popular tax repeal, finding a way that it can work (by slightly increasing by 0.6 percentage points the sales tax on non-food items) and then forcing senators to make a very unpopular vote if they oppose it.

"I favor the Curtis plan," says House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, adding that his caucus has not much discussed it and has taken no votes on it. "I'd like it to be revenue-neutral" rather than reducing revenues by $37 million. "And we have to find a way to help the small communities with one or two grocery stories, whose sales tax bases could really be harmed. But we can work that out."

Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said, "Removing the sales tax from food has always been a Democratic issue." And he finds Curtis' idea interesting. But already, GOP senators are talking it down, Dmitrich said. "I don't find much support in the Senate."

2006 is an election year for all 75 House members and 14 senators. Voting to cut the sales tax from food would be a popular re-election position.

It takes 15 votes in the Senate to pass a bill. Six Democratic senators are up next year, along with a few moderate Republicans. Two or three conservative senators who are up for re-election are in safe districts and may not support any sales tax cut. Two Democratic senators who may favor Curtis' bill are up in 2008.

Yet cobbling together 15 votes in the 2006 Senate with the body's GOP leadership against it would be difficult.

Democrats are not going to vote for Valentine's bill because they don't want to cut state programs by $225 million. "We don't want to harm Medicaid or Medicare, harm the federal matches," Dmitrich said. "Valentine's is not a good deal now. But we can support some kind of sales tax plan that doesn't hurt ongoing programs."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com