A SAFER BET

Let’s Go All-In on the Food Tax

By Kimberly Carlson, 11-22-05

Utah is one of the few remaining states to have a food tax, and many of us wish to cut it. The problem is we can't agree on how to recover the lost revenue. It's the old tax catch-22: governments need tax dollars to run, but nobody wants to pay. Yet as a primary focus of the upcoming legislative session in January, it appears inevitable that that tax will get the ax-but how?

The Deseret Morning News recently reported that Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, suggests “replacing� the lost revenue by cutting state programs. House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, recommends we “remove the sales tax from food and raise the sales tax on nonfood items slightly so as not to lose $225 million in state and local government revenues that the food tax now brings in.�

What exactly is “slightly�? What would encompass “nonfood items�? Which state programs would be cut?

While I am in total agreement that the food tax is archaic, I am not completely comfortable with the hyped-up concepts to make up the lost revenue. Nor am I convinced that the removal of the food tax would have much of a positive effect on the lower-income families it is geared to help. Valentine’s proposal would actually further handicap low-income families: saving a few pennies on a loaf of bread or a carton of milk does not offset the loss of insurance benefits or unemployment compensation.

Curtis’ plan could actually create more problems than it may be worth. Lawmakers would get caught up in those nasty details such as ‘definitions of terms.’ Take, for example, “nonfood items.� If this term includes gasoline, utilities and the like, lower-income families won’t realize a benefit—they’ll still be paying.

Perhaps lawmakers need to take a fresh approach to solving this problem. Here’s my proposal: let's legalize gambling. There is a multitude of Utahns gambling in this state right now. And I’m not talking about the thousands that cross the borders into Idaho and Nevada to do so. While gambling is technically illegal here, you wouldn’t be hard pressed to find an establishment that has found a loophole in the system. Currently, you can go to the South Gate Social Club in Midvale and order at $25 plate of food—and receive a “free� bingo sheet with your meal. Trust me: people don’t go to South Gate for the food.

While I realize that many Utahns will have a moral hang-up on this idea, I would like to interject two things:

1. If you object to gambling, don’t do it.
2. If my gambling doesn’t affect you, don’t prevent me from doing it either. A recent poll shows that more than half of Utahns think that gambling is okay, even if they themselves don’t gamble.

And remember: by legalizing gambling, we are merely legalizing something that most Utahns do anyway. The revenue generated from gambling would more than cover the $225 million we need to get rid of the food tax (and imagine what we could do with the surplus money!). It would also keep Utahns’ spending in Utah.

As for cons, well—can you think of any that really are worse than cutting valuable social programs? Come on, now…

It is that simple. Cutting social programs will hurt the poor. Diverting the tax to nonfood items only opens the door to semantic quibbling, which may result in eradicating one tax by disguising another. If we’re going to eradicate the food tax under the rallying cry that we’re removing a tariff from one of our most basic needs and thereby benefiting the poor, let’s be sane about it and find a solution that will benefit the most and hurt the least.

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