Options for tax reform include tax on food

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Economic consultants looking for ways to improve Kentucky's tax system are offering a variety of options that include imposing a tax on food and a variety of services ranging from haircuts to automotive repairs to funerals.

One of those consultants, longtime University of Kentucky economics professor William Hoyt, emphasized that the ideas were options, not recommendations.

Hoyt presented the options Wednesday to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform, a group that will make recommendations to Gov. Steve Beshear and lawmakers by Nov. 15 on ways to improve the state's tax system.

Hoyt and two other economists, Michael Childress of UK, and William Fox of the University of Tennessee, prepared the options for the commission.