Lively tax holiday

It will be interesting to see what happens to sales-tax receipts for August as a result of the recent back-to-school sales-tax holiday.

Recall, if you will, that Cape Girardeau briefly opted out of the holiday based on the city's experience of revenue dips during the first two years of the holiday. In the end, the city participated in the holiday.

Perhaps it takes a few years for something like a sales-tax holiday to really take hold. This year's weekend of no state, county or city sales taxes on certain school-related items had a festive air. Parking lots at shopping centers were packed. Merchants widely advertised the potential savings.

The Missouri Municipal League and other groups have touted the sales-tax holiday not only as a boon to shoppers, but also as a boost to sales of other items that were not exempt from sales taxes.

The turnout of bargain hunters this year should be a good test of that expectation. If stores were properly charging sales taxes on items that were not included in the holiday, this area should see a jump in sales-tax revenue when the figures are compiled.