More Games in Tallahassee
The (mostly) annual sales tax holiday on clothes is a popular idea. Just in time for back-to-school shopping, Florida has been allowing an annual sales tax holiday. This gives consumers a break and boosts sales for retail businesses. It costs the state only about $40 million. It’s not a good idea to give a temporary reprieve on taxes, but this one has been going on for years, and it’s relatively harmless.
As I mentioned before, it’s not a good idea to extend a similar temporary tax break for gasoline. Gas prices are much more volatile, and reflect the simple economics of supply and demand. I could go on. But the Senate essentially rejected the $90 million gas tax break last week. But now the House has attached the gas tax break to the sales tax break.
So basically, if your idea sucks, and everyone knows it sucks, you simply make it a part of another idea that has more support. It’s the last week of the session, so time is running out to get laws passed. To make these bills (all bills) more complicated just bogs down the entire process.
By the way, not to play favorites, the Senate attached the budget cigarette tax to their version of the sales tax holiday bill. We’ll see how this plays out.
Tags: tampa
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