Utah Legislature has proposed a tax restructuring policy that, among other changes, will increase the sales tax on groceries.
According to the fiscal impact chart included on the tax proposal, the restoration of full sales tax on food (from the formerly reduced rate of 1.75% to 4.85%) will offer the greatest increase to the state budget than all other proposed tax adjustments. While an increase in the state budget is a worthy goal, creating a higher regressive tax is not a respectable way to achieve it.
A regressive tax, like taxing groceries, impacts the low-income population significantly more than those who are well off.