State lawmakers are moving to strip cities and towns of their ability to tax residential rentals and grocery store food. Almost all that loss stems from the tax on food. The votes Wednesday, Feb.
They told senators that their budgets depend on these revenues. Many cities are actually in good shape at the moment β thanks in large measure to millions in federal pandemic relief money.
Payson would be especially hard hit by the measure because the council in increased the sales tax and applied the tax to food and grocery stores. The town added. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, who said most cities and towns have a surplus.
And Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, the sponsor of the measure to phase out the tax on rentals, said it is crafted in a way to ensure that tenants get the benefit of the mandated reduction. All SB will do, she said, is allow landlords to pocket what they no longer have to forward to cities in taxes. He pointed out that state lawmakers, facing an initiative, voted in to exempt the state sales tax on food.
But three years later, facing a deficit, Ponder noted the Legislature raised the overall state sales tax on all remaining items from 4 percent to 5 percent, an increase that never was repealed.
