Should unprepared food tax be raised?

Legislators and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. should seriously consider putting the state sales tax back on to unprepared food, says a central Utah lawmaker.

And Rep. Kay McIff's effort has some steam behind it, say GOP House leaders — who still maintain that a 15 percent cut to the 2009-2010 budget will go forward for now.

The state sales tax is now 4.7 percent. On unprepared food, the state sales tax is 1.75 percent — lowered in a two-step process in 2006 and 2007.

Going to 4.7 percent on food would raise about $180 million a year, said McIff, money the state needs to avoid the "Draconian program and people cuts" that would otherwise be coming when the new fiscal year starts July 1.

Huntsman, who used the elimination of the food tax as a campaign promise in both his 2004 and 2008 gubernatorial run, said Monday that he is not inclined to sign any bill that raises the food tax. "Fundamentally, I want to reduce the food tax to zero, not raise it."

GOP leaders in the House and Senate say they doubt they could get two-thirds majorities needed to override a Huntsman food tax-hike veto.

McIff, a Republican retired state judge from Richfield, ticks off a number of reasons why Utah's severe budget problems can't all be carried on the back of public and higher education and Human Services, nor through the traditional measures of making up lost tax revenues: spending much of the state's Rainy Day Fund and bonding for new roads.

"We can't get there" in balancing next year's budget without some kind of tax increase, McIff believes. He knows the words "tax hike" are sensitive matters.

"But when push comes to shove, ultimately, I think we'll have real support from both sides of the aisle in the House," McIff said.

And he believes there is support in the Senate, since many senators were against cutting the food sales tax in the first place.

Monday, Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said the argument can be made that "it's going to fund the programs that help the poor the most if we do it." He said he believed the Senate would approve restoring the state's share of sales tax on food if the bill could get through the House. Whether the Senate vote would be veto-proof, however, is not certain.