Delay in food-tax cut?

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to seek a six-month delay in reducing the sales tax on food, citing the recent multimillion-dollar errors in Tax Commission calculations.

"We felt it was better to say, 'Let's slow down,' " Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said after the closed-door caucus decision. "We really want to be certain that we have good information we can rely upon."

It would take action in a special session to stop the scheduled Jan. 1, 2007, implementation of the $70 million tax break that slices 2 percentage points off the state's share of the sales tax on food.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who campaigned on removing the hated tax, is not expected to add the delay to the agenda of next week's special session that was called so lawmakers can hear from visiting Mexican President Vicente Fox.

"We are pleased that Utahns will receive a break on their sales tax on food beginning in January and are not anxious to delay that tax relief," Mike Mower, the governor's deputy chief of staff and spokesman, said.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said attempting to delay the tax cut is a political maneuver by senators who have opposed the reduction all along and may use the extra time to kill it.

"They're trying to use the hype about these errors to undo what's already been done with the sales tax on food," Curtis said. "What information would they get with a delay? Not much. But they would have another general session to fight it."

Republicans in the House backed the removal of all sales tax from food last session but agreed to the partial reduction as part of a compromise that included a $70 million income tax reform plan pushed by the governor.

That plan failed to win support in the House in the final hours of the session. Last month, a $35 million error was discovered in the plan to stabilize the income tax base by cutting rates and eliminating most deductions.

This week, an even larger mistake was made public, bringing the actual cost of the plan to about $200 million. Wednesday, Valentine said he's ready to look at just cutting income tax rates by $70 million.

That's the position already taken by House Republicans, but Curtis said Wednesday the money set aside for the income tax cut might be better used to take an additional 2 percent off the state's share of the sales tax on food.