Opposing Viewpoints – State needs to concentrate on permanent lower food tax

Tennessee has the highest state and local sales tax in the nation, as well as the nation’s highest combined food tax. This weekend, however, shoppers across the state got a brief, three-day?reprieve from Tennessee’s high sales tax.?

This weekend’s temporary holiday is in addition to the permanent three-day holiday that now takes place in August prior to the school year. As shoppers across the state are taking advantage of the holiday, Tennesseans for Fair Taxation is asking, ?What about the other 362 days of the year??

While Tennesseans for Fair Taxation (TFT) does not oppose the holiday, the group points out that since people are still forced to pay the nation’s highest sales tax for the other 362 days of the year,?it does very little to impact people’s lives. At the same time, the holiday only applies to a limited number of items like computers, schools supplies, and clothing.

There are several proposals to cut the state food tax, but the coalition prefers the Food Tax – Cigarette Tax Swap because the food tax reduction is permanent and across-the-board. With the nation’s highest average food tax and one of the nation’s lowest cigarette taxes, this bill makes perfect sense.

The Tax Swap as introduced, will cut the state food tax in half from 6 to 3 percent, paid for with a 44 cent increase in the cigarette tax. Gov. Bredesen also has a bill to raise the cigarette tax, but his uses the funds to make public investments in education.

When shoppers start to line up at the checkouts during this weekend’s sales tax holiday, we hope legislators and the governor take it to the next level and look at ways to cut the sales tax year-around, starting with a permanent, across-the-board cut in the state food tax.