Tax Bite’s Sour Aftertaste : Budget: The poor and those who run charitable organizations say the state’s new levy has the greatest effect on the needy.

Ventura resident Michael Ham says there is nothing sweet about the state’s new tax on candy and other snack foods.

“To me, it’s like saying the poor people are going to pay for all the problems we got,” he said of the new tax, which became effective last week. “I don’t think it’s fair. I’m starting to feel like those people who revolted against taxes in England.”

Ham, who is unemployed, said he, his wife and their four kids barely make it now on what they receive in welfare payments.

He said he would like to be able to buy candy and other sweets for his children as other parents do, but with the new tax, that will be impossible. Ham and his family live in a Ventura housing project on Ventura Avenue at Simpson Street.

“We’re going to have to reduce the food we buy to the extreme basics,” he said.

Kenneth Sola, another resident of the housing project, said he will have to make some changes in what he buys at the grocery store because of the new tax.

“I think we’re being taxed to death,” said Sola, who lives on the $640 that he receives each month from Social Security. “But what can we--the poor people--do about it, except bitch a little. And that doesn’t do any good.”

The Rev. Jim Gilmer, who runs the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard, which provides free meals to the needy, said the state is making a mistake with the new tax.

“The state sales tax will definitely have a big impact on low-income people,” Gilmer said. “It’s mostly low-income people who buy snacks because they don’t have the facilities to cook a full meal.”

Moreover, the state will be cutting back on welfare programs for the needy, Gilmer said.

“The state has already cut Aid to Families With Dependent Children by 68% across the board,” he said. “By increasing the sales tax on snack foods, the low-income people are being doubly penalized.”

Gilmer and officials of other charitable organizations in the county that provide food for the needy said they already have seen a jump in the number of people relying on their services. And with the new sales tax, even more people will be clamoring for their help, they said.

“We’re going to give all the support we can,” Gilmer said. “But we’re getting less each year to help these people, and every year the need is increasing.”

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who made a personal donation of $1,000 to the Zoe Center last week, agreed.

“I think we have a really screwed-up taxing system,” he said. “There are a lot of inequities.”

But Flynn said he did not blame Gov. Pete Wilson or the Legislature for the budget package that resulted in the new tax on snack foods. With the state facing a $14.3-billion deficit, the lawmakers had little choice but to raise the sales tax on certain food items, he said.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Carl Foster, a maintenance worker at the Ventura housing project. “If they don’t stop taxing everything, everybody’s going to quit working. If you get Americans into a corner, they are going to balk. And the government is pushing it.”