3-day sales tax exemption made official

The holiday was made an annual event after a trial run in 2004 resulted in increased state revenues and an overwhelming response from grateful teachers and parents.

“Last year, it did no harm to local government revenues,” said Karen Buschmann, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry director of communications. “I have a CD that has different TV clips of the day of the holiday last year, and you can see it was an overwhelming success in the eyes of teachers and parents.”

In 2004, Greene County chose to opt out of the exemption and has done so again for 2005.

“Nobody could give us a definitive answer of what this would do for the county. For that month (August 2004), numbers were all over the place,” said Greene County Commission Budget Officer Jeff Reinold. “There was a lot of speculation that it would help us and a lot of speculation that it would hurt us. It’s a big gamble and there are no guarantees.”

Reinold said the county will wait to see results of the holiday in upcoming years and decide to participate or not based on consistent figures.

Items included in the exemption are clothing items under $100 each, personal computers under $3,500 each and school supplies under $50 each.

All state sales taxes on school supplies are exempt, but local governments have the option of including local sales taxes in the exemption. A list of participating cities and counties is available at www.mochamber.com.

The idea for the holiday stemmed from a similar exemption in other states, including Texas and Iowa. Buschmann said state legislators noted the success of the holiday and chose to push for it in Missouri.

According to the Chamber’s Web site, the holiday is expected to save shoppers as much as $3 million statewide.