The task force is considering several different kinds of business tax breaks, including allowing Utah-based corporations to figure their income taxes in different ways which would, overall, be a $32.6 million tax cut.

Curtis said Monday he's encouraged that 38 percent of Utahns favor his sales-tax-off-food plan.

Jones found 40 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints favor the Curtis plan. By and large, GOP lawmakers' base consists of LDS Republican voters.

"I'm firmly committed to taking the sales tax off food this year," Curtis said.

He said he already has 38 votes (a majority) for his plan in the House.

"I don't know if I could get 38 votes (between Republicans and Democrats) to take the sales tax off food and cut higher education and Human Services budgets by $200 million" — the Valentine plan, the speaker said.

"But if the Senate is serious about making these cuts in programs, I'll show up at our Executive Appropriations (Committee) in December with the motion to take that $200 million right off the table" and then instruct each individual budget subcommittee to make percentage cuts to make up that money, Curtis said.

"We'll fight like mad to get those cuts through the House, and then we'll send them to the Senate," Curtis said. "But I don't think the votes are there in either the House or the Senate to make such large cuts" to popular programs, and so his food tax proposal is a viable back-up, he added.

Curtis would cut the whole state and local sales tax from unprepared food items. He would then raise the state sales tax rate on nonfood items by 0.5 percentage points. For local governments, he'd raise their 1 percent local option sales tax to 1.1 percent.

So the basic non-food rate in Utah would go from the current 5.75 percent to 6.35 percent. Under the Curtis plan, overall taxpayers would see a $37 million sales tax cut, much less than the $225 million sales tax cut of the Valentine plan.

The third alternative — supported by the fewest number of Utahns, the poll shows — would provide a $75-per-person income tax credit for low-income Utahns, who carry the heaviest food tax burden because a larger percentage of their income goes to unprepared food.

Curtis and some low-income advocates say poor Utahns don't pay income taxes now, and so don't file a state return. To get the $75 credit, they would have to file a return, and some low-income advocates say maybe half the Utahns who qualify for the credit would actually file. Thus, the $50 million estimated tax cut the credit could give really would be more like a $25 million tax cut — the least of any of the food tax proposals.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com