Replace the grocery tax; don’t repeal it. (This is an Arkansas Brick.)
It’s not too late to put in your 6 cents’ worth — that’s the amount of state sales tax in Arkansas, before municipalities add on theirs.
Nothing can happen until the Legislature convenes in January, but various state candidates are leapfrogging over one another in their intent to exempt groceries from the sales tax.
A number of other states exempt groceries from the tax, but the exemption usually then has exemptions. The poor should grill their own steaks and not dine at Sizzlin.
Serving time in a California university in the late 1970s, this made for a little game at a Palo Alto ice cream parlor for some friends. Eating the cones inside cost more than specifying them as take-out, due to the tax take. Until the clerks got wise to us, we’d order our sweets to-go then sit at a table.
According to this Wikipedia summary, California excludes food except for “food sold hot or consumed on the premises,” and Colorado defines groceries as “unprepared food.” Think how messy those can get, which seem to be relatively simple sets of regulations. What will Little Rock do?
The whole idea is to help the poor. Cut them a slack where, theoretically, we can.
Back in California at the end of September, I saw that the San Francisco Chronicle cost 44 cents on news stands. Unlike Arkansas, newspapers there are subject to sales tax. (Yes, the Chron ended up costing an even four bits.)
If the Arkansas Press Association wanted mucho leverage to strengthen Open Records and Open Meetings, it should tell the Lege:
Go ahead and tax us. Really, it’s not much trouble. We’ll just take 5 minutes to adjust our bookkeeping software.”
An across-the-board grocery sales tax exemption is easy to support, with the treasury in Little Rock having a surplus. Of course in this poor state, a surplus means having two dimes to rub together instead of two nickels. But, the surplus is temporary, being dependent on a fluctuating economy.
Even with better-than-expected revenue, the state needs more and better roads, and education still needs even more money. Speaking of schools, a steady tax base means more cops in the halls.
No hungry Arkansan has starved to death for want of a few pennies on the dollar for a loaf of bread.
If our consciences require us to create a grocery sales tax exemption, let the Legislature first bulk up revenue from elsewhere. -30-
