Sales-tax holiday after Thanksgiving would be big boost

Sunday, November 4, 2001

This past legislative session saw this writer championing a measure called the sales-tax holiday bill. A concept that has worked well in six other states (including Texas and Florida, where the governors Bush signed it into law) plus New York City, sales-tax holiday is simply the suspension of sales taxes on purchases of $100 or less. This would last -- according to my original proposal -- for a nine-day period in August as parents are preparing their children for the return of school. The loss of revenue to cities and counties would be made up by the state. Our bill passed the Senate with relative ease only to die in the House as Democratic leaders didn't see it as a priority.

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