Sales Tax on Food?

I thought that we had gone a day in our legislative session without a Republican legislator saying something stupid...but I spoke too soon.

State Rep Mike Noel has proposed a return of the sales tax on food...again.  Here are the arguments for it to return.

1.  It is a stable source of revenue.  Even in tough economic times, people have to purchase food.

2.  It is a tax that even poor people pay...it is fair.  Everyone contributes.

3.  Rural areas in Utah do not have many other sources of revenue.

Here are my counter arguments.

3.  Rural areas need a better source of revenue, but every one gets shut down by the Federal Government.  Today, I will not go into a history of it, but it is well documented.  The Feds control too much of rural Utah, and it is here that the State's Rights arguments carry the most weight.  Whether you are speaking about recreation, energy production or land use, the Federal Government has too much power.  Mike Lee has promised to do something about this.  Let's make sure he does.

2.  All taxes are unfair.  There is no way to create a tax that will hit an even number of people proportionally.  For some, any tax is more of a burden than others.  It is not the most poor, those who qualify for food stamp assistance, that will suffer the most from the sales tax on food.  There is no sales tax when paying for your purchases with the Horizon Card.  It is those who make just enough not to qualify for Food Stamps that are hurt the most by a tax on food.  Think about this when asking about the motivation people have to get off of these programs.

3.  Certainly, people will not completely cut back on food, but they will limit their purchases in tough economic times.  In times like this, people purchase less steak and more hot dogs.  Parties are less extravagant and there will fewer fancy desserts.  There is a certain degree of steady revenue in taxing food, but it is not a complete panacea.

How is it that we can not live without what 31 states in our country do...a sales tax on food?  Here are some answers to our problems...but it will take some help from Mr Hatch and Mr Lee to get it done.

1.  Utah needs more tax revenue from energy production.  Let's stop talking about it and get it done.  Our country needs this energy and we need that tax revenue more than OPEC does.
2.  Utah needs less Federal ownership of our land.  We need to release some of our land to developers including land that is in a certain controversial national monument.  We need to have the courage not to let the Feds continue walk all over us.  This was one of my main problems with Bob Bennett when he was in the Senate.  It is certainly a problem that I have with Hatch.  Mike Lee personally promised me that he would do something about this issue if he were elected.  But he has only been in office for a month...so I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
3.  Utah needs more general and diverse economic development statewide.  We can not be a state, like we are now in some counties, completely dependent on tourist dollars.  We have good communities all over this state with talented and hard working people whose talents are going to waste.

It is certainly easy to tax food.  But we can not go after easy solutions to our problems.  We have to find better, more permanent solutions to our problems.