Haslam plans tax cut on groceries

All of us eat, so all of us directly are affected by the cost of our groceries -- and thus the state sales tax on them. So Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is proposing to increase a planned sales tax reduction on groceries -- from 5.5 percent to 5.25 percent, beginning July 1. And he wants to cut that sales tax to 5 percent in next year's budget.

So reducing the sales tax on food will affect us all. The governor's proposals should be pleasantly received by grocery-buying taxpayers. The cuts on sales taxes on food may seem small, but most people welcome any tax reduction.

Will you notice the change? Surely, there would be some opposition if the proposal were to raise the sales tax on food, even a little bit.

There are several other proposed changes in Tennessee's budgeting: restoring $1.4 million for mental health support centers, including $3.9 million more for Healthy Start and other health programs for children, restoring a quarter-million dollars for Child Advocacy Centers, providing $5 million for Tennessee Career Centers, restoring $375,000 in cuts to the Poison Control Center, giving $250,000 to Big Brothers and Big Sisters to support children of prison inmates, and providing $122,000 to pay for verifying that unemployment aid recipients are seeking jobs.

Each change obviously subtracts or adds to state budgeting.

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