Food is a necessity of life, and it seems morally wrong to keep a sales tax on it. The tax also is regressive, meaning that it hurts low-income people most, because they pay a larger portion of their smaller incomes toward this tax.

That, coupled with nearly $1 billion in so-called state budget surplus, is the essence of the Utah House leadership's argument for eliminating sales taxes on food. It's the moral thing to do, they say, and besides, the state government can afford to do without the $167 million in revenues that would be lost.

Their moral argument is a strong one, as far as it goes. But the sales tax on food should be evaluated within the larger context of state spending and tax reform.

The sales tax is the major source of money for most state programs except public education, which is supported by the income tax. So if you reduce state revenues by $167 million, you are cutting the money available for programs that benefit low-income people, from Medicaid (health insurance) to substance abuse treatment to low-income housing.

Viewed in that light, it may not be such a bad thing to tax food in order to help provide the necessities of life to people who cannot get by on their own.

The ideal solution might be to exempt only people in poverty from paying the food tax. Trouble is, that is difficult to administer. The most practical way may be to provide an annual rebate to low-income people that would offset what they pay in food tax.

That is what the Utah Senate is proposing. The down side is that low-income people would have to file an income-tax return or some other form to get the refund, and many would not do that. Plus, it's expensive to administer.

Nevertheless, as a matter of equity, the Senate proposal makes more sense.

Besides, simply removing the sales tax on food would claim other casualties. It would, for example, reduce the Utah Transit Authority's operating revenues by an estimated $12 million, about 10 percent of its sales-tax funds.

Finally, one early goal of tax reform was to expand the tax base, perhaps by including services. Without compensating reforms, removing the sales tax on food actually narrows the base.

Utah budgets are flush now. That won't be true when the business cycle turns.