AUSTIN, Texas -- A proposed snack food tax was killed last week by the Texas Legislature, which was left searching for ways to cut property taxes while not cutting school funding, reported the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
In March, the state House passed a 3% surcharge on snack foods, including candy, soda, donuts and potato chips. But the lead House negotiator, State Representative Jim Keffer (R), said lawmakers decided that it was just too hard to implement.
Retailers strongly objected, he said, and there were questions about how [image-nocss] to apply it to carryout junk food but not to snacks consumed on the premises. The Senate opposed the move from the outset, the newspaper said.
The state House and Senate passed competing plans, both of which would increase the sales tax, broaden business taxes and raise tobacco taxes as part of a tradeoff that would cut school property-tax rates by between 25% and 33%, said the report.
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