Senate cool to Curtis' plea to end food tax

Even a personal plea from House Speaker Greg Curtis couldn't get Senate Republicans on Monday to reconsider their opposition to taking the sales tax off food.

Curtis, R-Sandy, slipped into the closed Senate GOP caucus and presented what he described as his ideas on removing the sales tax from food.

"I don't want to characterize it as anything but extremely sincere on his part," Senate Majority Whip Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, said after the more than a three-hour caucus. "But I think our caucus is still pretty firmly where it's been right from day one."

With the session set to end March 1, the continued stalemate over divvying up a record $1 billion-plus in extra revenue was not encouraging. Especially since Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has now threatened to veto budget or tax bills that he doesn't like and call lawmakers back into special session.

The GOP governor and the House want to remove the sales tax from food, agreeing last week the tax could remain at the local level as part of a compromise package. Even then, the Senate refused to budge.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said after a long day of meetings — including with the governor — that "in my 18 years, I've never had as complicated a session as this one is. . . . More money is not easier."

Mike Mower, Huntsman's deputy chief of staff and spokesman, said the governor remains optimistic. "These are complicated issues, and we're still working out the details," Mower said.

The Senate majority is apparently willing to move a little. They're expected to announced Tuesday they'll go back to an earlier position and, like the House, set aside a total of $300 million for tax cuts as well as funding for transportation and water projects.

Senators are staying put, though, on what tax cuts they want to see. They say the $167 million price tag for eliminating the sales tax on food at the state level is just too high, especially combined with a $23 million income-tax reform proposal also included in the compromise package.

Senate Republicans, who had set a $100 million limit for tax cuts this session, said they'll review their own version of income-tax reform Tuesday — a proposal that Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said will include an income tax credit for poorer Utahns to refund at least some of the estimated $75 in sales taxes they pay annually on food.

Asked after his presentation if there was some way that GOP senators could save face and still come around, Curtis said, "I don't think senators need to save face."