Yes, there's a proposal to eliminate sales taxes and the 13 percent school lunch tax levied on alcoholic beverages - but the state also is marking up its cut from liquor to 86 percent from 64.5 percent.

Children eating school lunches still will be subsidized to the tune of 10 percent from the sale of spirits, wine and heavy beer based on gross sales of the higher mark-up prices, meaning there should not be less money for the program.

"It's confusing," said Mary Ann Mantes, a member of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. "We're going to get a lot of bad publicity over this."

On Monday, hers was the only "no" vote among the five commissioners as the proposal won passage to the Legislature as part of several proposed changes to state liquor laws.

The changes in the cost of liquor are "revenue neutral," according to commission chairman Larry Lunt, in that those who pay for a drink or purchase alcohol will not be paying more.

The Utah Restaurant Association and its 4,260 food outlets had been pushing for the change.

"Trying to record, pay and assess taxes on liquor was a convoluted mess," said association President Melva Sine. "Restaurants were getting fined" for not paying the full amount of their sales tax.

Now, when food outlets in Utah buy alcohol from the state, they are charged a sales tax. But when the same outlet buys, say, a side of beef from a wholesaler, there is no sales tax until the item is sold at retail.

But in the case of alcohol, when it is sold to a customer, some restaurants charge a sales tax again. This means consumers are subject to paying sales taxes twice when the outlets try to cover their costs.

Some restaurants, such as Lamb's Grill Cafe in downtown Salt Lake City, have chosen not to charge consumers a sales tax on drinks. Lamb's owner John Speros said that because he has already paid the tax, he doesn't charge a sales tax a second time. He does charge a sales tax on a minimal set-up service fee for drinks.

"It's difficult to imagine how this will affect us or what the commission will expect us to do in the future," said Speros.

Food outlets are seeking a simplified process to make it easier to figure out what to charge.

Sales taxes vary, depending on where people live. The state's lowest sales tax is 5.75 percent in Millard County and in some municipalities in Sanpete County, according to the Utah Tax Commission. In Salt Lake County, the sales tax is 6.6 percent. All cities in the county charge the same, except for Alta, which charges 8.1 percent - the state's highest.

dawn@sltrib.com

Liquor taxes

* 13 percent school lunch tax

* Sales taxes, which range from 5.75 percent to 8.1 percent, depending on where you live.

What's in ?

* Liquor markup increases from 64.5 percent to 86 percent

* School lunch program gets 10 percent of total gross sales on liquor, wine and heavy beer