Missouri is one of 10 states that impose a statewide sales tax on groceries. As the cost of food soared in recent years, states have moved to reduce or eliminate sales taxes on groceries.
Kansas started this year without a state grocery sales tax after gradually reducing it in recent years. Illinois plans to eliminate its tax at the start of next year.
Slashing Missouri’s grocery tax has been a bipartisan pursuit for years in Jefferson City, although the topic has never gained enough traction to make it across the legislative finish line.
Democrats and Republicans will try again in 2025. But Republican lawmakers who control the General Assembly have a laundry list of changes to taxes in Missouri that could take priority over the state’s 1.225% cut of grocery sales.
Cities or counties often layer additional sales taxes on top of the state’s rate, making total grocery sales taxes in some parts of the state up to 8%.
“I think the goal overall is to decrease the burden for low-income people,” said Bill McKelvey, a senior program support coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri.
In fiscal year 2024, the state brought in over $1 billion through the tax, which funds education and conservation efforts.
Some lawmakers propose slowly reducing the state sales tax over a number of years, while others have proposed taxing things like yachts or foreign ownership of farmland. Other legislation aims to eliminate both the local and state food sales and use taxes, while some target just the state rate.
Despite the bipartisan backing, there are concerns from local governments about what ditching the tax may mean for their revenue. The question of how to recoup those costs has held the legislation back in recent years.
As of December, prices for food were up 1.6% from the year before, data shows. Prices on items like meat, poultry, fish and eggs rose even further. From 2019 to 2023, though, the consumer price index for food soared by 25%.
“There is a close tie between food insecurity and food prices,” said Craig Gundersen, an economist professor at Baylor University who specializes in food insecurity. “In 2022 and 2023, food insecurity rose. And it was almost exclusively due to the increase in inflation over this time period.”
How Missouri ranks

Feeding America estimates that just under 1 million Missourians, about 15% of the state’s population, were food insecure as of 2022, meaning they had limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
The Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at MU produces a report on the state of hunger in Missouri. The center’s 2023 report found that food insecurity is most prevalent for adults and children in the southeast corner of Missouri, where more people are living in poverty compared to other areas of the state.
Because of the close link between poverty and food security, advocates have pointed to gutting the food sales tax as a way to reduce the financial strain of purchasing groceries.
Any sales tax is regressive — meaning low-income people pay a higher share of their take-home pay on the tax.
“To some extent, it is poor people who are disproportionately having to pay,” Gundersen said.
A 2017 study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the lowest-income fifth of families spend almost twice the share of their annual income on food at home as the highest-income fifth of families do.
Gundersen has seen the same in his research.
“As people’s income increases, they spend proportionately less on food,” he said. “Low-income Americans spend between 20% and 25% of their incomes on food. Upper-income Americans — depending on how high up you go on the income spectrum — it’s between 5% to 10%.”
Part of the MU center’s work is studying the behaviors of Missourians and evaluating areas for improvement. One area for improvement is participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
About one-third of Missourians who are eligible to participate in SNAP based on their income do not.
Advocates have suggested finding ways to make it easier for Missourians to sign up for and receive food assistance. For example, state agencies that run social safety net programs could work to improve data sharing and enhance cross-program eligibility.
The state launched a food security task force, which produces reports for the governor and the General Assembly. The latest report found that there is $80 billion in federal assistance nationwide that goes unclaimed annually.
“There’s some work at the state to look at some of these programs across the board to determine which ones link up in terms of eligibility, and what could be done to kind of enhance this process and lower the application burden,” McKelvey said.
The path ahead for eliminating the Missouri grocery tax
Lawmakers have already started filing legislation to consider during the spring legislative session. A St. Louis University/YouGov poll in February 2024 found that 81% of Missouri voters support eliminating the state sales tax on groceries, while 72% support eliminating local sales tax on groceries.
Legislators are suggesting different ways to eliminate the tax, at the state or local level or both. Legislation to eliminate it has often been combined with bills to eliminate the tax on diapers and period products.
There is bipartisan support for that approach. Still, lawmakers face a tough question. How, if at all, can they help local governments recoup the cost?
The city of Manchester has been vocal about the threat eliminating the tax could have on its local budget. Justin Klocke, the Manchester city administrator, said the impact to the city could be upward of $5 million annually.
“The vast majority of our revenue is generated from local sales taxes,” Klocke said. “While it is difficult for us to nail down exactly how much of that comes from the sale of food, it’s pretty clear when you look at other sources of data that most of our sales tax is generated from food sales.”
Klocke said he appreciates lawmakers looking for paths to make life more affordable for Missourians. But he wants them to understand the strain it puts on local governments who are trying to provide services, such as policing and road maintenance, through the revenue generated by their food sales taxes.
“In Missouri, cutting food sales tax isn’t the only thing that is on the chopping block this year,” Klocke said. “Left and right what we see out of the state is: what revenue source can they cut? And it really puts us in a bind.”
This story was originally published by The Beacon, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.