A “Grocery Tax” Fix is in Sight!

The Department of Revenue Services is now in agreement with Republicans that we NEED a legislative fix to protect taxpayers from the grocery tax approved in the Democrat budget last year.

This tax would hurt working and middle class families and those on a fixed income the most.

The only way to fix the law and truly protect taxpayers is to change the language and pass a new statute.

The state’s Department of Revenue Services has now also proposed 2020 legislation to eliminate the tax. DRS clearly agrees that the language of the law MUST be changed.

This is important, overdue legislation I will continue to advocate for this year.

What is the “Grocery Tax” and how did it happen?

The Democrat Fiscal Year 2020/2021 budget implemented a new 1% “prepared meals” tax on top of the state sales tax.

Democrat lawmakers told the public it would only apply to food items already subject to the sales tax. But the legislation included language that expanded the tax to hundreds of grocery store items never taxed before including rotisserie chickens, bags of lettuce and loose bagels and baked goods.

The full extent of the Democrats’ grocery tax was explained in DRS guidance issued in September. Democrats asked DRS to revise their guidance, but refused to alter the language to fully repeal the tax from grocery store items despite Republican calls for a legislative fix.

The Department of Revenue Services included their proposed legislative fix to take the grocery tax off the books in their 2020 legislative proposals submitted to the governor’s office for consideration. You can view the proposed language here.