No Sales Tax Holiday

This weekend our state celebrated back to school shopping with a no sales tax holiday. I'm not entirely sure how much people will actually save, but every dollar counts. According to Google, 16 states celebrated this holiday. This is a first for our state. People seemed really excited to shop with no sales tax! I mean, we are taxed to death aren't we? So any break we get from taxes I think we should all take advantage of.

The state published a list of items that were tax free. The list was absolutely hilarious. I would love to know what they were thinking upon making this list. School supplies obviously were on the list, but some of the items were ridiculous like garters & garter belts, suspenders, beach capes, footlets, disposable diapers, wedding apparel, insoles & costumes. Please explain to me what person who attends school wears footlets? Does anyone wear footlets? And what exactly is a beach cape? Is that what Batman wears to the beach? And what 6th grader needs shoe insoles? Or what sophomore wears suspenders? And on the list was hosiery, pantyhose, AND stockings? Really? Isn't that overkill? Does anyone even wear those things anymore?

I'm wondering do the people creating this list even have kids who attend school? Or are these people who have absolutely no clue? The more I read the list the funnier it actually got. I kept thinking is this a list from the 1950s? Because who actually needs these things to go back to school? Baby receiving blankets? Honestly!

I'm extremely thankful for the break, but honestly, if we're going to pass a sales tax free holiday, we need to have progressive-minded people creating the laws & making the lists. Not people who obviously haven't looked at a school supply list in the last decade.

I am anxious to see how much our cities lost in sales tax this weekend. I know I've heard several mayors already griping about losing the money. When I heard that it made me realize how much our governments don't really care about giving the citizens who provide their jobs, a little break in such an awful economy. It will be good for people to see how much revenue is created to operate city & state budgets in a 2 day period.

We took advantage of the opportunity. We bought things we were already going to buy so nothing extravagant or anything. But it was fun to think that we were getting away scot-free so to speak. I think that I will plan for next year's event & try to buy a lot of stuff tax free! Just for the fun of it!!!! I'm planning my list now....beach cape, suspenders, footlets, earmuffs, pantyhose.... :)