Kansas senator says reducing the sales tax on food is a form of social engineering

[hfojvt]

7. I would oppose this as well

When I first moved to Kansas from places like Wisconsin and Iowa, I thought it was barbaric to have sales taxes on food.

But later, I saw it as actually progressive.

Because of one thing - the food sales tax rebate.

With the food sales tax rebate, that means poor families pay less sales tax on food than upper income families do. Rather than get rid of the sales tax on food - which would benefit upper income families more than poor ones, I would do two things 1) expand the sales tax rebate - right now it applies only to the elderly and those with children so that a retired person with a pension of $30,000 a year would get a sales tax rebate (and a Homestead credit) whereas a young person like myself, working part time and making $11,000 a year, gets nothing. 2) Increase the amount of the rebate, which stands now at $84 per exemption for those making less than $15,900 and $41 for those making less than $31,900.

This bill would cut the sales tax on food from 6.3% to 4.95%, a savings of 1.35%. For that to balance the food sales tax rebate, a person would have to spent $518 a month on food - per person or $253 a month for those with slightly higher incomes.

So basically combining this sales tax reduction with elimination of the food sales tax rebate will be
1) a tax increase on people making less than $15,900 a year
2) break even for those with incomes between $15,900 and $31,900
3) a tax cut for those making over $31,900 (and for non-residents who purchase food in Kansas)

Again, that tax cut for the upper incomes could be used instead to increase and expand the sales tax rebate.

Further, this measure adds a new level of complexity as now registers and scanners would have to be re-programmed for the different sales tax rates.