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State sales tax on food to drop

Reduced rate spells savings for shoppers

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Shoppers will see savings on their grocery bills beginning Sunday when the state sales tax on unprepared foods is reduced.

• Photo: Hilton Head Islanders Carmen and Chuck Loeb stopped Tuesday to shop at the Piggly Wiggly at Coligny Plaza on their way home from the beach. The two said they are looking forward to the reduction of the sales tax on food.
  Jay Karr/The Island Packet
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The tax break is a part of the property-tax-relief legislation lawmakers approved earlier this year. It reduces the 5 percent statewide sales tax on unprepared foods to 3 percent, saving $1 for a shopper who spends $50 on groceries.

"It's not very noticeable, but every little bit helps," said Rachel Cornell, a Hilton Head Island resident wheeling a shopping cart Tuesday around Piggly Wiggly at Coligny Plaza.

Meanwhile, the statewide sales tax on all other purchases will increase a penny to 6 cents on the dollar beginning June 1. That tax increase will be used to replace the money primary homeowners pay on their property-tax bills for school operating costs, a funding change passed by the S.C. General Assembly this year.

So when Beaufort County home-owners receive their property-tax bills in October 2007, no longer will a portion of the tax go toward running local schools. Once that happens, property taxes on owner-occupied homes in Beaufort County will be reduced by 27 percent.

"As part of the whole plan for the property-tax relief, we did not want to be regressive," said state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton. "Since the less well-to-do people, the majority of what they spend their wages on are groceries, ... we figured if we could give some relief to those people as well, it's not a regressive tax."

The South Carolina Department of Revenue sent out notices to all retailers to get the word out about Sunday's tax reduction, but managers at some local grocers said Tuesday they weren't aware of it.

"I haven't been informed of it," said Wanda Brown, customer service manager at the Harris Teeter at Park Plaza. "But normally, if we do have something dealing with the tax, we do have an upgrade" to the cash registers.

While stocking diapers Tuesday at the Piggly Wiggly at Coligny Plaza, former store owner Gene Martin said he had not heard about the tax increase.

"I honestly didn't," said Martin, whose son has taken over ownership of the store. "But Piggly Wiggly does all that through the computer system."

The tax reduction comes as a relief to Chuck and Carmen Loeb, who moved to Hilton Head a year ago from New York, where there is no statewide sales tax on unprepared food. She only recently realized she was being charged sales taxes on groceries when she caught glimpse of her purchases on a cash register's screen.

"I was shocked," Carmen Loeb said while grocery shopping Tuesday. "It's a lot of money for food -- for other things I understand, but for food?"

Contact Ginny Skalski at 706-8144 or . To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.