The Ohio Senate has approved a bill making the state's temporary sales tax holiday permanent.
Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
The sales tax holiday for school items up to 20 dollars and clothing up to 75 dollars has been scheduled in early August since 2015. Republican Senator Kevin Bacon sponsored the permanent holiday, so lawmakers don’t have to keep passing bills on it.
“And the General Assembly is free every year to continue to make changes to the bill, to change the dollar amounts, to change the dates – perhaps you’ll find that there’s a better weekend for it, for whatever reason.”
Supporters say sales tax holidays help low-income people and that tax collections go up then as shoppers buy other non-exempt items. But critics say these events just shift when consumers buy things, and that they’re complicated for retailers, some of whom raise their prices.
