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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Sales Tax Rebate Program in Need of Reform

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Monday, August 29, 2011   

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The State of South Dakota collects a 4 percent sales tax on food, and to offset that outlay for low-income families, a program was implemented to provide rebates on the tax. While there are 42,000 families that would qualify for the program, Cathy Brechtelsbauer, volunteer coordinator for the group Bread for the World, says the program is falling far short.

"The dismal record is that currently the food tax rebates are reaching only 319 households in the whole state, and of the total tax people are paying on their food, the refunds are returning to the people less than one-tenth of one percent of what people are paying."

A family of four with a monthly income averaging $2800 would qualify for a quarterly rebate of $98.

Opposition to cutting the tax on food is based on the effects it would have on the tight state budget. Brechtelsbauer says they would work with lawmakers to eliminate the tax over time.

"I mean, even if they took a half-percent off and then later found a way to take another half-percent off, as they are able to find ways to take a little bit off at a time, it would be progress."

Brechtelsbauer says low-income families are facing tough times with food prices rising, and a slow economy limiting job prospects.




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