By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — All invited legislators were at the Hutchinson Chamber's legislative forum Saturday morning. A topic that appeared to have momentum from all the house members on the panel is reducing the food sales tax.
"I know you're going to see somewhere between $400 to $500 million in some sort of tax relief," said Republican Rep. Paul Waggoner. "The food sales tax, if they went all the way down to zero, would be around $400 million."
It's not clear if legislators will go that far, or if that would be the particular tax they choose to reduce.
"There's definitely forward momentum to do something," said Democratic Rep. Jason Probst. "There's a lot of discussion about which taxes and which tax reduction will do the most good for the state. There's some conversation about, instead of eliminating the food sales tax, could you do a small reduction in the overall tax rate, which I wouldn't mind either."
Probst's larger point was that the food sales tax is the most universal cut you can have, because everyone buys food. Nonetheless, Republican Rep. Michael Murphy noted that even if a rate reduction passes, that wouldn't take all the tax off of your food bill.
"If state sales goes to zero on food, there's still going to be sales tax on food," Murphy said. "Counties and cities still have sales tax on food. Keep that in mind, if we do take it to zero at the state level, don't be surprised when you look at your receipt."
The portion of state sales tax on food is 6.5%. The portion you pay above that is assessed by the city or county.