CHEYENNE - Wyoming residents strongly favor a permanent sales tax exemption on food over other tax relief being considered by the Legislature, a new Casper Star-Tribune poll shows.

Sixty-four percent of registered voters prefer eliminating the food tax, which is set to resume in 2008 unless lawmakers extend the exemption or make it permanent.

"Everybody buys food," said Kathy Davis, a Laramie resident who favors eliminating the food tax. "It would benefit everybody in the state."

Voters are less supportive of property tax breaks and a once-a-year sales tax holiday on clothes, sporting equipment and school supplies.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research conducted the telephone poll of 625 registered Wyoming voters Jan. 9-11. The margin of error is 4 percent.

In line with public opinion, a legislative committee Friday endorsed a food tax exemption bill. House Bill 93 would permanently repeal the tax and use state surplus funds to reimburse cities, towns and counties that depend on the revenue. The cost to the state is about $50 million a year.

But the bill's authors, Rep. Rodney "Pete" Anderson, R-Pine Bluffs, chairman of the House Revenue Committee, and Rep. Tom Walsh, R-Casper, delayed House debate on the legislation Monday to accommodate a slew of complicated last-minute amendments.

"It won't be a fight over the bill," Anderson said. "It'll be a fight over the amendments."

The most contentious point appears to be reimbursements for optional fifth- and sixth-penny sales taxes.

Some lawmakers want the state to reimburse cities, towns and counties for the loss of optional sales tax revenue. Others want counties that charge optional sales tax to continue collecting it.

The state collects a 4 percent sales tax, and allows counties to charge up to two additional cents per dollar for local needs.

"There is a lot of feeling that they shouldn't be compensated for the fifth penny at all - that they voted it in and they should take their licks," Anderson said.

Another amendment would overhaul the reimbursement formula from one based on where the taxes are collected to one based on population.

About 15 counties lose out under the current system. The richest counties in the state would lose a few hundreds thousand dollars each under the population formula.

"I don't see a lot of objection to that, because it just makes good sense," Anderson said.

The Star-Tribune poll asked people to choose the top tax-cutting priority from a list of four proposed tax cuts that may be considered by lawmakers. A distant second to the permanent food tax exemption is a proposal to exempt the first $5,000 of a home's value from property taxes - that is favored by 17 percent of voters.

Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, had said he would sponsor the bill, which he said would save the average homeowner about $300 a year. But the bill had not been filed as of Monday.

The Joint Interim Revenue Committee did endorse a bill that would give a break to homeowners whose property value is lower than the median rate in their counties. The legislation would cost the state $4 million a year.

The committee also endorsed a bill to provide relief for combat and disabled veterans. Qualifying veterans will receive a $3,000 deduction on the taxable value of their homes if the bill becomes law in its present form.

Julian McClenahan, a former teacher who repairs band instruments in Casper, said he supports property tax relief, but he'd like to see a more comprehensive approach. He favors a property tax system like California's that prevents high taxes from forcing low-income homeowners to sell.

"It's not geared to inflation on a year-to-year basis," McClenahan said.

The Revenue Committee killed a bill that would have allowed county commissions to give property tax dollars back to homeowners if they had enough money in their treasuries.

"It was generally felt on the fairness thing that rich counties could probably do that, but if you lived 10 feet across the county line you don't get that benefit because you are in a poor county, and that's probably not the way to do business in Wyoming," Walsh said.

Another bill that died in the Revenue Committee would have reduced the property tax rate from 9.5 percent to 8.5 percent across the board.

"That would have included oil companies and Wal-Mart and everybody, so that didn't make it," Walsh said.

According to the Star-Tribune poll, about 7 percent of voters like Gov. Dave Freudenthal's proposal to suspend the 12-mill tax levy for education, which would save a homeowner with a house valued at $200,000 about $228 per year.

Freudenthal proposed the one-year property tax break totaling $250 million as a way to share with the people what was expected to be a $800 million budget surplus. Several lawmakers advised him before the Legislature convened that the idea to suspend the 12-mill levy would be "dead on arrival," and the governor noted last week that the surplus projection had been reduced to about $550 million - close to the amount his tax break proposal would have cost.

According to the poll, about 6 percent of voters endorse the tax holiday on school clothes and equipment for their children proposed by Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne.

It would take place on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday each August and apply to clothes priced at less than $100 per item; computers and computer-related hardware that cost $1,500 or less per item; school supplies that cost less than $50 per item; and sports supplies that cost less than $50 per item.

"That's probably a good idea, because the schools are demanding more equipment as well as insurance from the people," McClenahan said.

Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.