IFF: Let’s debate sales tax on groceries

Of all the public policies that enjoy wide support at the Idaho Statehouse, one idea has received consistent bipartisan love through the years: a plan to eliminate the sales tax on groceries.

Since 1965, when the state’s sales tax was first implemented, at three percent, the state has taxed food purchased at the grocery store. Today, the tax is 6 percent. The money collected doesn’t fund schools. It doesn’t fund health care programs. It doesn’t pay for parks, police or prisons. No, the tax on groceries is collected, held by the state tax commission, then refunded to you — $100 for each taxpayer and $100 for each child. Seniors get a bit more.

The policy makes little sense. It temporarily removes about $150 million from the economy for no reason whatsoever. People who don’t owe income taxes are forced to file to collect their share of the grocery tax, which annually costs the government — read We the People — about $1 million just to process the paperwork. Periodically, the tax commission will require taxpayers to prove they’re really residents of Idaho and thus entitled to receive the rebate/ Wayne Hoffman , Idaho Freedom Foudation. More here.