House, Senate vote to remove food tax
-
Mar 2, 2006 Posted by Bill Luckett
They did it! Both the House and Senate adopted budget amendments today to remove the sales tax on groceries for two years. These votes took place near the end of the longest day yet of the 2006 budget session.
The House voted first, after about 20 minutes of debate. Rep. Ann Robinson, D-Casper, the primary sponsor of the amendment to remove the tax on groceries, told her colleagues that the amendment offered them a genuine chance to improve the lives of Wyoming's people.
"Tonight, we have a tremendous opportunity to pass legislation that will have a truly positive impact on the very Wyoming families that we were sent here to represent," she said. She added that the move would give a family of four between $287 and $518 of tax relief per year, and if lawmakers lift the tax on groceries, they will be able to tell their constituents that they listened to them and did something to improve their lives. Rep. George Bagby, D-Rawlins, also spoke briefly in favor of Robinson's amendment, which he said would help families and senior citizens.
After the House debate, which included a couple of dissenting opinions, the voice vote took my by surprise. There were an overwhelming number of "ayes," but I don't think even 10 of our 60 state representatives voted "no." I don't know if that vote margin reflects the sense of the House or what, but if it does, that's a very encouraging development.
The House vote took place just before 6:30 p.m., or nine hours after the House convened for the day, and representatives were still working their way through budget amendments an hour and a half later.
In the Senate, which convened at 9 a.m., members didn't get to the food tax exemption until about 7:30 p.m., and then they debated it for about 25 minutes. Senators finally cast their vote on the amendment at 7:45 p.m., and as was the case in the House, senators voiced overwhelming support for removing the food sales tax. They did a roll call vote, which came out 23-7 in favor of the amendment. All seven Senate Democrats voted for the proposal. Part of the discussion in the Senate involved whether to reimburse local governments $46.6 million to help them absorb the loss of tax revenue the bill would cost them, but in the end, senators voted 22-8 to adopt that part of the amendment as well.
Tomorrow (Friday) will be third and final reading of the budget bill, so legislators could reverse their stances on the issue before then. But if their vote margins were any indication, they probably won't change their minds. In which case, the budget conference committee that meets next week will almost certainly keep the grocery tax exemption in the compromise version of the budget bill. There are other things that could happen to imperil the tax break, and the bottom line is that nothing is for certain until Gov. Freudenthal's signature is on the budget bill. But right now, things look pretty good for the food tax exemption.
One other budget item of note: both chambers adopted amendments to restore funding to the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund. Gov. Freudenthal proposed putting $33.5 million into the trust fund corpus, interest income from which will help fund the projects the trust fund board would authorize. The Joint Appropriations Committee cut that money out of the budget prior to the session. But today, the House restored $23 million of that funding, while the Senate voted to restore $33 million. If these amendments survive third reading tomorrow, it is likely that the final budget bill will have funding for the trust fund somewhere between these two amounts.
-
Re: House, Senate vote to remove food tax
Mar 7, 2006 | Bill Luckett | bill@wyomingdemocrats.com
Mark, my understanding is that removing the tax on groceries saves people more money than lowering the overall sales tax by half a percent. The food tax would save a family of four about $300 to $500 a year. Those people would have to spend $60,000 to $100,000 - on taxed items - to get the same amount of tax relief from a half-cent lower overall sales tax.
-
Re: House, Senate vote to remove food tax
Mar 3, 2006 | Mark Harris | mharris@wyoming.comHi Bill, Just curious if anyone ever ran the numbers on how much the half cent would put in the people's pockets? Which would give the most people the most money, 1/2 of a cent on everything we purchase or the tax on food? Mark
-
Re: House, Senate vote to remove food tax
Mar 3, 2006 | Mark Harris | mharris@wyoming.comHi Bill, Just curious if anyone ever ran the numbers on how much the 5 cent would put in the people's pockets? Which would give the most people the most money, 1/2 of a cent on everything we purchase or the tax on food? Mark