A sales tax holiday

El Dorado (Ark.) News-Times: The Arkansas House of Representatives (recently) voted 90-3 in favor of a bill that would grant a sales tax holiday one weekend each August for clothing, accessories, school supplies, school art supplies and school instructional material.

The bill would exempt from sales taxes clothing items that cost less that $100 and accessories that cost less than $50. School supplies and instructional materials would be exempted without a cap.

The measure, sponsored by District 6 Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, has run into some opposition from Gov. Mike Beebe, but we here in South Arkansas applaud Mr. Shepherd’s efforts to keep those dollars within the borders of the state.

“Every state around us has a sales tax holiday,” Shepherd said, “so it just makes sense (for Arkansas to have one). We believe this bill is targeted to help families, targeted to help students with the cost of school supplies and it is also designed to protect Arkansas businesses. With so many dollars flowing out of the state, we hope this bill ... would encourage people to shop in the state of Arkansas.”

We believe this measure is important for the entire State of Arkansas, but especially so for residents of the Golden Triangle where Louisiana, which has a sales tax holiday, is only a hop, skip and jump away.

Let’s keep those dollars at home.