NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas Chamber Vice President of Government Affairs, Eric Stafford is clear that the Chamber doesn't hold a position on the potential speeding up of the elimination of the food sales tax.
"We don't have a problem, or a position, on the food sales tax," Stafford said. "If they want to eliminate it faster, that's their prerogative. Our position on the food sales tax back last session was taking something out of the tax base is not the best tax policy."
The chamber would rather have seen an across the board sales tax cut, rather than a food sales tax carve out, which has proven to be confusing for shoppers as they don't understand the different tax rates on their Walmart receipts.
"If a recession hits, what's the one thing people buy? It's food," Stafford said. "It's no longer going to be in the tax base, now, having taxes on your food during a recession, that's the other side of the coin, which is what the legislature went with. Our focus was, it's better to lower the overall sales tax rate and save on everything, versus just taking one thing out of the tax base."
Gov. Laura Kelly campaigned hard on the fact that the tax will go away, but legislators had it as a phase out. Ultimately, if Gov. Kelly wants to make it easy to make it go away, she can make her budget small enough to allow for that elimination and put that as a point of emphasis in her State of the State address. That speech is Wednesday.