Sales-tax holiday bill has opt-out provision for cities, counti

Two years ago, this writer received a call from Lisa Zeigman, a reporter for KMOV-TV in St. Louis.

"Senator Kinder," she began, "are you indeed the sponsor of the bill that would create the sales-tax holiday I just learned about?"

"Guilty as charged," I replied. "How did you hear about it?"

"It's interesting," Zeigman answered. "My mother called from Florida to ask the sizes of my children, and when I asked why, she said the Florida sales-tax holiday is coming up, and 'I want to go out and get stuff for your kids.'"

This past legislative session, on the third attempt, Lady Luck smiled on a measure this writer had unsuccessfully pushed the two previous years. It is Senate Bill 11, the Sales Tax Holiday Bill, signed into law by the governor in mid-July. As a result, Missourians will join the nine other states that have enacted this enormously successful suspension of the sales tax on certain limited items. A year from now, as Missourians are preparing to send children back to school, you will be looking at a three-day weekend -- the second weekend of the month -- of no sales-tax collections on items of clothing not to exceed $100, school supplies not to exceed $50 and computers costing up to $2,000.

As Zeigman said, "Gee, what's not to like?"

The answer to that question is supplied by budget-conscious county commissioners and some city officials across the state, who fought us tenaciously.

(Had lawmakers heeded my appeals, we would be celebrating Missouri's first sales-tax holiday this month. This would have required approval of what we lawmakers call an emergency clause, specifying that the bill takes effect immediately upon the governor's signature. Emergency clauses require two-thirds approval of both houses of the legislature. While we achieved that in the Senate, intense lobbying by opposing county officials denied us the requisite two-thirds vote in the House. So with all other laws taking effect on Aug. 28, our first holiday will be next August.)

Enacted to great public acclaim in states such as Georgia, New York, Florida and Texas -- the latter two signed into law by the Bush brothers -- the sales-tax holiday has united Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, as do few other proposals.

In a rare blue-moon convergence, champions include arch-liberal Sen. Ken Jacob, the minority floor leader, and yours truly, a mainstream conservative who counts as my heroes Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Jack Kemp.

A provision thought necessary to soften opposition, and guarantee passage, and therefore included in the bill, is the section authorizing counties and cities to opt out of the sales tax holiday by a vote of their governing body. In fact, these local officials had sought a provision requiring cities and counties to opt in before that city or county would participate in the holiday. It hadn't been done this way in any other state, and so we successfully beat back this hostile amendment.

So with the chance to opt out, a question is heard across Missouri:

Will local officials steal your 72-hour sales-tax holiday? Stay tuned.

Peter Kinder is assistant to the chairman of Rust Communications and president pro tem of the Missouri Senate.