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Sales-tax holiday benefits consumer, retailer
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Cathleen Puskar is always buying items for her sixth-grade English classroom at Boardman Center Intermediate School.
On Wednesday, she was picking up some from The Supplyroom Inc. on Belmont Avenue in Liberty.
This weekend, she plans to grab more during Ohio’s three-day sales-tax holiday, which helps teachers and parents save.
“It’s terrible for parents,” the mother of three grown children said of back-to-school shopping. “They really get hit hard.”
Puskar, who has been teaching for more than 30 years, tries with the other teachers to keep back-to-school shopping lists to a minimum.
“I do a ton of school buying during this time of year,” she said. “I sometimes have kids who don’t have the supplies, so I supplement.”
Puskar wishes the sales-tax holiday would even be extended because of how expensive this time of year is for parents.
The National Retail Federation expects total back-to-school spending for K-12 and college to reach $75.8 billion, up from last year’s $68 billion.
This is the second sales-tax holiday the state Legislature enacted. The holiday started today and ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
During the holiday, sales tax is exempt from clothing priced at $75 per item or less; school supplies priced at $20 per item or less; and school instructional material priced at $20 per item or less.
It’s a holiday that both customers and retailers appreciate.
Sharon Blumental, owner of The Supplyroom for 34 years, thanks the state for bringing the holiday back during her busy season.
“This is the perfect weekend because people don’t think about school until the first week of August,” she said. The Eastwood Mall Complex in Niles promotes the holiday throughout the mall with signs and banners.
“I know the stores are stocking up their sales staff, and they are expecting a jump in traffic,” said Alyson Moliterno-Carson, the mall’s marketing director.
Over the weekend, customers who stop at the customer-service center in the mall can sign up to win a $100 gift card for the mall.
Southern Park Mall in Boardman has extended its hours for the weekend by one hour. The mall will stay open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
The mall also will have an “Arrive in Style” back-to-school event with activities for children, visits from local mascots and giveaways from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
“Southern Park Mall is anticipating a robust shopping weekend as students and their parents complete their back-to-school shopping during Ohio’s sales-tax holiday,” said Beth-Ann Maro, the mall’s general manager, said in a statement.
The Ohio Council of Retail Merchants was the entity that sought the sales-tax holiday for more than a decade. To prove the economic benefits of the sales-tax holiday, the council’s nonprofit, Focus on Ohio’s Future, had the University of Cincinnati Economics Center prepare a report on the economic impact of 2015’s sales-tax holiday in Ohio.
In part, the report found that overall retail sales in Ohio increased by 6.48 percent year-over-year during August 2015. Over the three-day period, sales-tax collections increased 9 percent. The increase is attributed to consumers’ purchasing nonexempt items.
The economics center study estimates the state saw an increase of about $8 million in sales-tax collections while foregoing taxes of $3.3 million on exempted goods during the sales-tax holiday period, which resulted in a net increase for the state of $4.7 million.
“Retailers reported that sales figures for that weekend were in some cases 12 to 20 percent higher than the year before,” said Lora Miller, director of governmental affairs and public relations for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants. “Ohioans love a sale, and we certainly know they really love not having to pay sales tax. We believe it will be even better [this year] because more people will be aware.”