The City of Hoover said the State of Alabama is blocking a 0.5% local grocery tax cut that was supposed to go into effect on Tuesday.
City public information officer Melanie Posey-Joseph said in a statement on Tuesday, "In October 2023, the Hoover City Council unanimously voted to lower the city's sales tax on groceries by half a percentage point from 3.5% to 3%."
"The goal of the measure was to provide residents with relief from inflation as they shopped for groceries," she added. "That tax drop was supposed to go into effect today, Tuesday, October 1, 2024. However, the State of Alabama did not agree with the City's assessment to lower the tax by half a cent. Instead, the State requires a 25-percent reduction with no leeway in it. To achieve that, the city would have had to lower the tax to 2.625% to comply with state law. In other words, lowering the tax to 3% was not low enough. In addition, the State also requires certain general fund growth requirements which the City did not meet."
Posey-Joseph continued, "At Monday night's Hoover City Council meeting, the Council will repeal the ordinance that was enacted for this tax drop and reinstate the ordinance that was in place prior to the change. That meeting will take place on Monday, October 7, 2024, at 6:00 pm in the City Council Chambers at Hoover City Hall."
A law passed in 2023 that cut the state sales tax on groceries by 1% allowed cities and counties to cut their local sales tax on groceries by 25% by resolution or ordinance if the local government's revenues increased by more than 2% over the previous year's revenues.
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