Hoover slated to lower grocery sales tax in 2024

If everything goes according to their plans, the grocery tax for the city of Hoover will be a half of a percent less in October of 2024.

This past spring the Alabama Legislature passed a law lowering the state’s grocery tax by one percent beginning on September 1st, with the possibility, if certain conditions are met, to lower taxes on food an additional one percent next fall.

Because the new law finally defined grocery taxes, local municipalities were empowered to lower their taxes on food too.

That’s exactly what Hoover has done.

Hoover votes to lower grocery sales tax in 2024

According to Hoover City Councilor Casey Middlebrooks, Hoover’s current sales tax on groceries is 3.5%. With some stipulations the new state law allows cities to lower their grocery tax by up to 25% annually. 

“We hired a financial consultant to study what that might mean (lowering Hoover’s grocery tax .5%) to the city of Hoover as far as revenue goes.”

The consultant, economist Dr. Keivan Deravi, estimated the city would lose about $2 million in revenue if Hoover lowered its grocery tax by a half of a percent.

“We felt good with that number. We felt like we can still provide quality services without taking any sort of hit and give our citizens a tax break.”

Casey Middlebrooks, City Councilor, City of Hoover

This fall, in accordance to the state law, Hoover passed a measure lowering its grocery tax for next October, the earliest time possible.

State + local – 2.5% by October 2024

On the state side of the ledger, if the one percent tax break on state grocery sales taxes do not impact revenue for schools, the state will implement an additional one percent grocery tax cut in 2024. 

If this happens, Hoover’s can expect to pay 2.5% less in grocery taxes—state and local—by October 2024.

Middlebrook summed up the tax breaks best:

“Every little bit adds up. And for some families,  every dollar counts. They’re counting every penny and this is important to them. We felt like it was important to our people.”

Casey Middlebrooks, City Councilor, City of Hoover

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