State of Alabama, City of Opelika, citizens of both cannot afford tax-free days/weekends. Although it does little good to keep reminding us all, we are already the lowest taxed state in the nation.
We don’t rank anywhere near the top in any category of what tax revenues go to pay for, particularly in the fields of education and infrastructure.
We’ll be voting in a few weeks whether to “borrow” from the state’s gas and oil trust fund to finance needed activities that couldn’t be financed by current tax revenues. Fewer tax-free weekends would help meet these needs.
On another front, we sometimes promote the tax-saving notion so much that less sophisticated consumers pass up 30 percent-off sales on “regular weekends” so that they can save nine percent on the tax-free weekend.
A state that is hurting for revenue and a city that needs every cent of revenue it can get can’t afford tax-free days or weekends.
Elected officials ought to be ashamed of themselves for trying to deceive taxpayers into believing they are saving money by shopping in tax-free periods.
Smart shoppers can save more by looking for store sales. You aren’t very likely to find them on tax-free weekends.
