Bob Damron is at it again. Always game for a half-baked scheme that resonates only under insufficient scrutiny, Damron is pushing for an annual weekend of exemption from sales taxes for back-to-school shoppers. This idea is popular for all the wrong reasons. It sounds good because everyone in Frankfort likes the idea of helping out the poor working folk with trying to send their crumb-crunchers off to school. It sounds better because retailers want a Christmas-like shoppers' feeding frenzy in August. But the net effect of such holidays in other states has been negligible for retail sales or economic activity. The claims of consumer savings are extremely dubious.
Having been unable to find any evidence of economic benefit for any state, municipality, retailer, or service provider in the dozen or so states with sales tax holidays, I will leave it to you to determine the value on a macro level. As a parent of four school-agers, let me suggest doing most of your back to school shopping in February or March, when sales are much better than 6%.
Let's drop the sales tax holiday foolishness.
