Sunday, July 02, 2006

Arkansas Grocery Tax

I've been hearing this from most politicians concerning Arkansas' really big revenue surplus.
State Rep. Horace Hardwick, R-Bentonville, said he will pre-file a food tax reduction measure for the upcoming legislative session and released a draft of the legislation in an interview Tuesday

Asa made a comment about reducing grocery taxes on Saturday.
Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson's campaign released a statement saying Hutchinson "has made a firm commitment to tax reform in Arkansas that includes eliminating the state sales tax on groceries. Rep. Hardwick's plan is a good place to start the discussion on how, specifically, to get there."

A cut in the grocery tax is a really good idea. It will especially benefit people with lower incomes. There's a lot of stuff we can live without, but food is not one of them.
As the bill reads now, the measure would phase out state taxes on "the sale of food and food ingredients" by 4.5 percent of the total state sales taxes of 6 percent.
The proposed reduction would come in steps. The first reduction would be a 1.5 percent drop beginning July 1, 2007. That would be followed by 1 percent drops each year until the 4.5 percent reduction was accomplished on July 1, 2010

It's nice that the biggest cut comes first. Too bad we'd have to wait a year before it would begin.

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