One of your biggest monthly expenses will shrink Oct. 1 when the state sales tax on unprepared food items drops from 5 percent to 3 percent, removing $96.5 million in state revenues for this fiscal year.

About $11.6 million would have come from Greenville County, according to the Bureau of Economic Advisors.

The smaller levy is the first facet of a tangled set of state tax changes. It means you'll pay 40 percent less sales tax on unprepared food ó defined as anything that would qualify for food stamps.

State Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, said legislators opted to return some of the state's surplus to taxpayers via a sales tax cut instead of Gov. Mark Sanford's proposal to rebate fuel taxes.

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Economic growth has spurred increased buying by state consumers, and Cooper said legislators believe the extra sales tax revenues will help pay for the new cut.

The state has planned on a revenue reduction of more than $100 million because of the grocery tax cut and the state's annual sales tax holiday in the fall, Cooper said.

Robert Martin, an economist with the BEA, said some politicians believe consumers will spend more on items not covered by the tax cut, making up the difference. If they're right, then the added revenue would become a state surplus.

Greenville resident Hank Meyer, who runs a tax-related business, said he doesn't believe the reduction in state revenue is a bad thing, but the larger tax package raises concerns because it will increase sales taxes on other items to 6 percent in order to fund school operations.

Schools have historically been funded by property taxes.

"Nobody wants to pay taxes, OK?" Meyer said. "But the reality is, we have to fund county government, and we have to fund the schools that we built, plus operate them."

Cooper said the state budget is based on a 2 percent annual increase in sales tax revenues, but actual growth has been about 6 percent.

The state is simply giving some of the surplus back, he said.