As clamor continues to rise around the possibility of raising the food tax, one has to wonder why Republicans are eager to reinstate this regressive tax.

In an oh so unofficial poll issued by Fox news of “political insiders,” some 68 percent of Republicans (presumably legislators among them) say that they support reinstating the tax, while 81 percent of Democratic insiders don’t support the same measure. Furthermore, nearly 60 percent of Republican insiders say that the legislature will “probably or definitely” raise the food tax.  Again, if one were to presume that at least some of these political insiders are legislators, it is safe to say that an increase is coming.

Now, I am going to be a realist and admit that the tax on food will probably be put back in place, but the fact that Republicans in the legislature is so eager (or at the very least, unapologetic) about the reinstatement of this butt saving, but poor harming tax, concerns me.

At no point have I heard honest distress about the fact that we are willfully harming the poor from the right – yet they hem and haw about repealing the states long established tax structure a few short years ago because it overtaxed those on the higher end of the income bracket, all in the name of “fairness.” As I recall, repealing the food tax was one of the compromises made in the first place to ensure that Utah had a flatter tax.

Taxes are a tricky matter, what is fair to one is utterly disgusting to another. Furthermore, we all want lower taxes (yes, even us Democrats don’t particularly like sending our money away every April), but we pay our share in order to live in a civilized society with police, roads, and meals for the poor. This is why we must consider all new taxes, the repeal of old taxes, and the reinstatement of established taxes with great care and compassion – not as cold and callously as Republicans appear to be at the time.

As a side note, I hope the Legislature considers two things when discussing this issue: that a sunset clause be placed in the bill to ensure that the state has to reconsider the bill every year until we are out of this fiscal crisis and that tax brakes be extended to those who are at or below the poverty line and to 20 percent of incomes above the poverty line.

P.S.  I would like to note a correction made to this post.  I failed to add the word “don’t” in the sentence “Democratic insiders don’t support the same measure.” Furthermore, a link to the poll was added to confirm this.