ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – A proposal advancing in the Missouri Senate could directly affect how much families pay at the grocery store \u2014 and how much revenue local governments collect.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers will hold a hearing Tuesday on a bill that would eliminate Missouri\u2019s 1% state sales tax on food. The measure also would phase out local grocery taxes over several years.<\/p>\n
Supporters say the change would provide relief at the checkout line as families continue to face high food prices. But some municipalities warn the move could create significant budget shortfalls.<\/p>\n
The issue is not new. A similar proposal was considered in 2025. At that time, about 10 states still collected a statewide grocery tax, and eight others allowed local governments to impose one.<\/p>\n
Illinois stopped collecting its state grocery tax at the start of this year. However, many Metro East cities opted to keep a 1% local grocery tax in place.<\/p>\n
A new fiscal note from the St. Louis Budget Division outlines the potential impact if the Missouri bill becomes law. According to the estimate, the local grocery tax would begin phasing out in 2027 and be fully eliminated by 2031.<\/p>\n
The city projects annualized revenue losses of approximately:<\/p>\n
$5.2 million in 2027$10.4 million in 2028$15.6 million in 2029$20.8 million in 2030 and beyond<\/p>\n
City officials estimate the first year of the phaseout would result in about a $5 million loss, growing to more than $10 million the second year and more than $15 million the third. By 2030 and beyond, the city projects nearly $21 million annually in lost revenue.<\/p>\n
Those funds support city services, though officials have not yet detailed how they would offset the projected losses if the measure passes.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s action was limited to a Senate hearing. The bill would still need approval from both legislative chambers and the governor\u2019s signature before becoming law.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KMOV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – A proposal advancing in the Missouri Senate could directly affect how much families pay at the grocery store \u2014 and how much revenue local governments collect. Lawmakers will hold a hearing Tuesday on a bill that would eliminate Missouri\u2019s 1% state sales tax on food. The measure also<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[8087,20395,8086,1530,3642,3640,3638,3641,3639,4015,20396,4127,4126,5561],"class_list":["post-21944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-missouri","tag-first-alert-4","tag-grocery-sales","tag-kmov","tag-local","tag-missouri","tag-missouri-dining","tag-missouri-food","tag-missouri-grocery-stores","tag-missouri-restaurants","tag-mo","tag-senate","tag-st-louis","tag-stl","tag-tax"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117303764989696900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}