Income below $30,000

l Families with children.

l Age 65 or older.

l Physical disability.

Income below $18,000

l Single individuals.

l Married couples filing jointly.

-Source: Utah Issues Despite widespread popularity among Utahns and their governor, a drive to eliminate the sales tax on food appears to have succumbed to opposition in the Legislature.

Activists for the poor acknowledged Thursday that hope for the food tax elimination is all but gone after a legislative work group embraced a "compromise" proposal. If adopted, the compromise would allow low-income families to apply for a refund of taxes they paid on food.

As the Legislature's Tax Reform Task Force begins working in earnest this month on recommendations for a tax overhaul, the governor acknowledged that another of his priorities - elimination of corporate income taxes -probably will not make it to January's lawmaking session.

The Legislature, however, is expected to offer lower income taxes to businesses that base their operations and hiring in Utah.

Utah Issues, a poverty think tank, offered the grocery tax credit early this summer. Under the proposal discussed Thursday, low income households and individuals could apply for a $75 per person refund.

A complete elimination of the sales tax would cost the state an estimated $200 million in revenue. The tax refund plan would only cost the state about $50 million to $55 million if everyone eligible signed up for the refund, said Sarah Wilhelm, a fiscal analyst at Utah Issues. Advocates, moreover, figure only about half the people eligible for the refund will actually do the paperwork to get it.

"We see this as a compromise," Wilhelm said. "A removal of the sales tax on food would be better, but I'm not convinced we could get that passed. I hope this is a start - and not an end."

But Linda Hilton of the Coalition of Religious Communities, said lawmakers are ignoring the will of the people. A Salt Lake Tribune poll in June found that about 67 percent of Utahns supported eliminating the tax on groceries.

"It's a cop out," Hilton said of the Utah Issues plan. "It has given the legislators a convenient out that they have addressed removing the sales tax on food when they have not really addressed it."

At his monthly news conference Thursday, the governor reiterated his support for removing the tax on food. "I would love to see it done. I think it's a tax that hits people in all the wrong places," Huntsman said. "I am an advocate of this. I will continue to be an advocate of this."

But the governor's representative at a food tax elimination rally, indicated the administration may be now lukewarm on grocery tax elimination. "There are other ways this issue may be addressed," said Huntsman legislative aide Mike Mower, after accepting nearly 7,000 signatures of Utahns calling for the elimination.

Huntsman backed off of another of his tax priorities: eliminating corporate franchise taxes.

"More important to me is a flatter, fairer tax. The corporate income tax [elimination] is certainly important . . . but not at the expense of destroying broader tax reform . . . like income tax and like the sales tax. Those are priorities before we get into the corporate tax."

At his news conference, Huntsman said he expects the Task Force to have a tax reform package ready this fall. "I'm going to be pretty active through September, taking this discussion to the people of this state and talking about it on the stump," Huntsman said. "Because I do believe that once people understand the importance of a flatter, fairer tax, they will buy into the concept of what we are trying to do."

Otherwise a rare opportunity for reform could be lost, Huntsman said.

"If we don't do it this year, it's very difficult to do it in lean years," he said, pointing to current budget surpluses. You can't punt and leave it for the lean years, it just isn't going to get done then at all. It's now or never."