Restaurant Owners Plan To Fight Proposed Meals Tax Hike

They fear raising the tax to 10 percent will send customers across the border.

Ask Roger Savini about Statehouse plans to boost the meals and beverage tax from 8 percent to 10 percent, and he can't help but raise his voice. "I can hit a golf ball into Massachusetts from my parking lot," says the owner of Savini's Restaurant on Rathbun Street. "And over there the tax is only 6.25 percent. If this passes, someone spending $100 a week dining out could save enough in a year by crossing the border that they could eat free for a week." He's not the only one opposed to the state squeezing more revenue from restaurant customers. Across the state, owners of taverns and eateries are speaking up in opposition to the proposed increase, part of Gov. Lincoln Chafee's $7.9 billion budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year. The …

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