January 28, 2026
To: Senator Brown and Members, Senate Economic Workforce and Development Committee
From: Amanda Berry, Food Security Policy Manager, Empower Missouri
Re: Support for SB 1017
Empower Missouri is the state’s largest anti-poverty advocacy organization, working across rural and urban communities to advance policies that promote economic stability, affordability, and opportunity for Missouri families. Through our statewide coalitions, we collaborate with community organizations, service providers, faith leaders, and policy experts to ensure families can afford basic necessities, including healthy food, while strengthening long-term self-sufficiency and community resilience.
Missouri has already seen the benefits of reducing the grocery tax. In the late 1990s, this body reduced the state sales tax on food from 4.225 percent to 1.225 percent. That decision provided meaningful relief, particularly for households with the least flexibility in their budgets. Families in lower-income households spend a significantly larger share of their income on food than higher-income households. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, households in the lowest income quintile spend more than 25 percent of their income on food, compared to less than 5 percent for households in the highest quintile.
Today, approximately 756,528 Missourians, roughly one out of every eight residents, live below the federal poverty level, which is an annual household income for a family of four of $33,000. For these households, food budgets are already stretched thin. A tax on groceries directly reduces the dollars available for nutritious food, utilities, transportation, and medical care. As food prices and other household costs continue to rise, even a small sales tax on groceries has a disproportionate and unavoidable impact. Eliminating the grocery tax is a targeted, fiscally responsible way to let families keep more of what they earn while reducing downstream costs tied to poor nutrition and preventable illness.
Across the country, most states recognize groceries as an essential good and exempt them from sales tax. Only thirteen states impose a state sales tax on food, and Missouri remains among them. SB 1017 would eliminate the state grocery tax, providing broad-based relief to working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and households living paycheck to paycheck, without creating new programs or mandates.
This issue is especially important in the broader fiscal context facing Missouri. Governor Kehoe has prioritized the elimination of the state income tax, and proposals to offset lost revenue have included increased reliance on sales taxes and the creation of sales taxes on services. Sales taxes are widely recognized as regressive, meaning they take a larger share of income from lower-income households than from higher-income households. As Missouri considers significant tax restructuring, it is critical that we do not shift the tax burden further onto basic necessities like food. Eliminating the grocery tax helps offset the regressive effects of broader tax changes and protects families with the least ability to absorb higher costs.
This policy also aligns with Missouri’s growing emphasis on health, prevention, and self-sufficiency. In Executive Order 25-30, Governor Kehoe emphasized that “healthy and nutritionally secure Missouri families are critical to supporting a path to self-sufficiency and, ultimately, a thriving state,” and directed state agencies to incentivize access to healthier food choices. Eliminating the grocery tax supports this goal by making nutritious food more affordable, empowering families to make healthier choices without government mandates or expanded bureaucracy.
Eliminating the grocery tax is a fiscally responsible investment in Missouri families. When basic necessities are affordable, families are more financially stable, more productive, and less likely to require costly downstream interventions. Keeping taxes off essential goods strengthens household budgets, supports local businesses, and promotes long-term economic resilience without expanding government programs. Making healthy food accessible is one of the most cost-effective ways to invest in long-term fiscal stability, because prevention costs less than correction.
For these reasons, Empower Missouri strongly supports SB 1017 and urges the committee to advance this legislation as a fiscally responsible, health-promoting policy that provides meaningful relief to Missouri families while supporting long-term economic stability.
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