Sales tax holiday legislation passes House
The bill, approved 95-1, creates a sales tax holiday for the period between the first Friday in August until that Sunday.
It applies to clothing and school supplies with a sales price of $100 or less per item, and computers with a sales price of $1,500 or less per item.
The current statewide sales tax is 7 percent, with local governments allowed to add up to 2.75 percent for a maximum combined rate of 9.75 percent — one of the highest in the nation.
Supporters of the legislation say such a holiday has been successful in Georgia, where the say “merchants are covered up with business” during that time.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has said he supports the bill but probably won’t be able to fund it until 2006. The holiday is expected to cost the state about $7 million in revenues.
Rep. Charles Curtiss, the only dissenting vote, said his “conscience” wouldn’t let him support the bill knowing that hundreds of thousands of TennCare enrollees may be cut under the governor’s plan to reform the $8 billion expanded Medicaid program.
“In my heart, I know that I’m going to have to face people who are about to lose their health care,” the Sparta Democrat said. “And there’s no way in the world that I can explain to them why I voted to give away $7 million that could have kept some of them on TennCare.”
The bill is scheduled to be heard next week in the Senate Finance Committee.
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Read HB2314/SB2294 at http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/