PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The South Dakota House has approved a plan to scrap a tax refund program for poor people and instead give the money to a nonprofit organization that provides food to low-income families.
The bill would repeal a program started in 2004 that has given low-income families refunds of the sales tax they pay on food. Because of rule changes, only 264 households are now receiving the refunds.
The measure sponsored by Representative Suzy Blake of Sioux Falls will take the $838,000 remaining in the tax refund program and spend it over four years to help the nonprofit organization called Feeding South Dakota distribute food to needy families around the state.
A committee had rejected the bill, but Blake persuaded the full House to debate the bill and pass it.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
