Every tax is a pay cut.  Every tax cut is a pay raise. Citizens for Limited Taxation

Holiday Trick	Thursday, October 30, 2003
Rick Holmes	Metrowest Daily News
Editorial: Holiday trick Thursday, October 30, 2003 A "sales tax holiday" was a bad idea when Jane Swift proposed it two years ago. It still is. The proposal now being circulated in the Senate would order that no sales taxes be collected the Saturday before Christmas and the Saturday before Patriots Day.  Unlike Swift's proposal, the holiday wouldn't apply to the purchase of cars and boats, but would cover such high-end items as computers and furniture. But the objections Senate Democrats, among others, had two years ago still apply.  Since most of the purchases that weekend would have been made anyway, the tax cut's value as an economic stimulus is debatable.  Then there's the paperwork that would be required for businesses to separate out one day's receipts in a monthly sales tax report. Moreover, it would make the Saturday before Christmas, already one of the busiest shopping days of the year, even more crowded.  Penny-pinchers would stay home on other days, then all jam the stores at once. Then there's the cost to the state: an estimated $15 million in uncollected sales taxes at a time when state government needs every dollar to avoid more cuts in essential services.  Falsely billed as economic development, the sales tax holiday is an expensive gimmick that's not worth the trouble.

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