In 2018 Sarah was leading the UnTax Food advocacy group to bring the issue of Grocery Taxes to the Longmont ballot. The city council fought the effort with unsubstantiated accounting. It was clearly established that the city finance director could not define the income from Grocery Taxes, separate from restaurant food service taxes. The city defended an unknown loss of income with disinformation. Meanwhile two more towns near Longmont have repealed this tax.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Supplemental Food and Nutrition Service is SNAP
Read what the USDA defines as food that can be purchased with SNAP.
What is edible and is therefore not taxed by either federal or state governments.
Non food items in stores may still be taxed.
Before the late 1960s Longmont was a farming community that the FAA picked for an Air Traffic Control Center. Soon IBM would build a large factory between Longmont and Boulder. The construction of the Diagonal Highway ensured that Longmont would become a bedroom community for high tech commuters. To pay forward for all of the needed infrastructure, Longmont instituted new taxes. Many, including the tax on food remain today.
In 2005 the city of Littleton repealed its long standing grocery tax over a two-year period. While Littleton financial managers claimed that loss would be in the millions, it is now estimated that an annual $425K is the actual impact to the city. Money saved by shoppers at the check-out was spent on fully taxable items or to pay bills.
In the past two decades Longmont has seen three attempts by local groups to Repeal Grocery Taxes as a ballot initiative. Longmont has a high bar for citizen initiatives, and each effort has failed.
A common theme for city financial directors has been that revenue would drop by the millions. As in the case of cities who ended the tax, this has been proven false. The taxes avoided on groceries does not disappear. The money saved is being spent on taxable items.
After Loveland’s citizens passed ballot Question 300 in 2023 to Repeal Grocery Taxes, another local group attempted to UnTax Food in Longmont.
It is clear that citizens want this, and that city hall and the current city council is fighting to keep taxing groceries. This regressive tax hurts the most vulnerable. Food prices are rising which equates to more food taxes.
Untaxing food will give people more money to spend on utilities, clothes, retail goods and rent.
