| by Bill Tibbitts, Coalition of Religious Communities Director On February 20, 2018, the Utah House of Representatives passed HB 148, sponsored by Representative Tim Quinn, that would have eliminated the state portion of the sales tax on food in Utah. Unfortunately, it did not pass in the Senate. However, 5 of the 29 members of the Utah Senate are not running for reelection and so there is an opportunity to educate the candidates to replace them about the sales tax on food. If you are interested in talking to candidates about this issue here are two things you can share with them: 1)The sales tax on food is weird and unpopular. That is why Only 15 states tax grocery purchases. 2) Food taxes are regressive and hurt low income families. Families in the bottom 20 percent for income spend 30 percent of their income on food. Families in the top 20 percent for income spend less than 10 percent of their income on food. Here is a list of all the candidates for the Utah Senate general or primary election. |  Rep. Tim Quinn explaining his bill eliminating the state portion of the sales tax on food at CORC's Faith & Poverty Day on January 25, 2018. |
| Utah State Senate Candidates Salt Lake County Senate Districts District 2 Democratic Primary candidates: Derek Kitchen, derek.kitchen@gmail.com Jennifer Plumb, voteplumb@gmail.com Republican candidate: Chase Winder, chasewinder53@gmail.com District 3 Democratic Candidate: Gene Davis, wgdavis@msn.com Republican Primary Candidates MARLIN R. BAER, mbaer@xmission.com JEREMY D. EGAN, eager4egan@gmail.com District 4 Democratic Candidate, Jani Iwamoto, iwamoto.jani@gmail.com Republican Candidate: Alan Monsen, ab.monsen@gmail.com Senate District 5 Democratic Candidate Karen Mayne, karenmayne@gmail.com Republican Candidate: Kimdyl Allen, kcallen001@aol.com Senate Disrtrict 8(2 year terms) Democratic Candidate: Kathleen Riebe, mskriebe@gmail.com Republican Primary Candidate: Brian Zehnder, brian@votebrianz.com Jaren L. Davis, jarenldavis@gmail.com Senate District 9 Democratic Candidate, Abbey Wright, abigail@jwright.biz Republican Candidate: Kirk A. Cullimore, Jr., kcullimorejr@gmail.com Mixed Districts covering Salt Lake and Utah County Senate District 11 Democratic candidate: Christian Burridge, christian.burridge@gmail.com Republican Primary Candidates Dan McCay, vote@danmccay.com Delaina Tonks, delainatonks@gmail.com Senate District 12 Democratic Candidate, Clare Collard, electclarecollard@gmail.com Republican Candidate, Daniel W. Thatcher danielwthatcher@gmail.com State Senate Candidates from Utah County Senate District 15 Republican Candidate: Keith Grover, kgrover2014@gmail.com State Senate Candidates from Davis County Senate District 21 Democratic Candidate: Jake Penrod, Jacob.Penrod@outlook.com Republican Candidate: Stuart Adams, sadams1776@gmail.com Senate District 22 Republican Candidate: Stuart Adams, sadams1776@gmail.com State Senate Candidates from Weber County Senate District 17 (not available at time of post) Democratic Candidate: Michael A. Keil, mike.keil@comcast.com Republican Primary Candidates: Clark Davis, davisclark98@gmail.com Scott Sandall, sandallscott@gmail.com Senate District 18 Democratic Candidate: Jason Yu, Jason4senate18@gmail.com Republican Candidate: Ann Milner, ann@annmilner.com Multi-County Candidates Senate District 26 Democratic Primary Candidates: Eileen Gallagher, gallagherforutahsenate@gmail.com Pat Vaughn, patvaughnspeaks@gmail.com Republican Primary Candidates: Brian K. Gorum, gorum4ut@gmail.com Jack Rubin, utahjack26@gmail.com Senate District 28 Democratic Candidate: Mark Chambers, mark@undertheeaves.com Republican Candidate: Evan J. Vickers, bullochdrug@infowest.com |  |
