House Votes to Scrap Food Tax Refund



     PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The South Dakota House has approved a plan
to scrap a tax refund program for poor people and instead give the
money to a nonprofit organization that provides food to low-income
families.
     The bill would repeal a program started in 2004 that has given
low-income families refunds of the sales tax they pay on food.
Because of rule changes, only 264 households are now receiving the
refunds.
     The measure sponsored by Rep. Suzy Blake of Sioux Falls will
take the $838,000 remaining in the tax refund program and spend it
over four years to help the nonprofit organization called Feeding
South Dakota distribute food to needy families around the state.
     A committee had rejected the bill, but Blake persuaded the full
House to debate the bill and pass it.
    

    
     (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
    
 AP-NY-02-14-12 1935EST


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