Return to school can sting parents’ wallets
Posted on Monday, August 4, 2008
August may be one of the top months for purchasing crayons, glue, markers and pens.
Last weekend, many parents started buying supplies in preparation of their children going back to school. Besides things for the classroom, many parents also buy their children new clothes and backpacks.
At Wal-Mart Supercenter on Sixth Street in Fayetteville, many individual supplies such as pencils, crayons and glue sticks were priced less than a $ 1, depending on the quantity.
But the expense can add up by the time all the items are purchased, especially for families with multiple children. Backpacks or new clothes can add to the expense of getting ready for schools. Many children’s school backpacks cost between $ 10 to $ 25 each.
Fayetteville parent Ron Warren said he doesn’t mind buying his children school supplies, viewing it as simply part of sending a child to school and an expense parents should bear if they can afford them.
“ For families with low incomes, it’s a real hardship, I’m sure, ” he said. “ For families who can afford it... the schools are strapped enough for money. ”
Some people are offering families help this year.
LaTayna Greene, principal at Asbell Elementary in Fayetteville, decided to spend some of the school’s Title I federal grant dollars on supplies for the schools approximately 430 students so their parents wouldn’t have to buy them.
The school has one of the highest rates of participants in the free and reduced lunch program for low-income students. Greene estimated the cost of buying the school supplies at $ 15, 000.
Other students may be assisted by the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, which is offering 1, 500 backpacks filled with school supplies to area kindergarten through fourth-grade students on Aug. 14.
According to the Jones Center’s Web site, children must be present to receive a backpack and tickets will be handed out for recipients.
Some states also offer a little help each year. The majority of states that border Arkansas hold a sales tax holiday during which items such as clothes, school supplies and computers are exempt from the stateissued sales tax. Most of the holidays started Friday and ended Sunday.
In Missouri, the exemption includes clothing items less than $ 100 each, school supplies less than $ 50, computer software that costs less than $ 350 and computers that are less than $ 3, 500.
The sales tax holiday in Oklahoma exempts clothing items and shoes that cost less than $ 100 each.
The Tennessee Department of Revenue outlines 18 types of clothing that are exempt if they cost less than $ 100. It also exempts a variety of school and art supplies and computers that cost less than $ 1, 500.
Louisiana also has a sales tax holiday for most personal property items that lasts Friday and Saturday only.
The Missouri and Louisiana exemptions apply only to the state sales tax on items, so municipalities can still levy their sales taxes that weekend. The Oklahoma sales tax holiday applies to all applicable taxes — state, county and city — on the exempt items during that weekend.
State Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista, supported creating an Arkansas sales tax holiday during the last legislative session, but the bill did not advance far. She plans to bring up the idea again in 2009.
Hutchinson said she thinks the sales tax holiday would be “ a nice compromise” to completely eliminating sales tax on groceries. In 2007, the state cut in half the sales tax on groceries.
A sales tax holiday would provide benefits to families as they buy items in preparation to go back to school, she said.
“ Families with children definitely need a tax break, ” Hutchinson said.
The holiday would also provide a boost for local businesses, she argued. The Jane, Mo., Wal-Mart Supercenter north of Bella Vista is packed with vehicles with Arkansas plates during the sales tax holiday weekend, she said.
“ The stores are smart; they’re going to make money, ” she said. “ They know the families are coming in to shop, and they offer some good sales. ”
Hutchinson said she knows of people who wait to do most of their back-toschool shopping until that weekend. She also likes the idea of a tax break on clothing items that cost less than $ 100.
“ This is zeroed in on lower- to middle-class people, ” she said. “ I think it’s just the right thing to do. ”
State Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville, said she thinks a sales tax holiday has potential to be a good tax break for families, but there are some complications that have to be addressed, and those have probably prevented the law from being passed already. One issue could be a concern that businesses would take advantage of the law to do bulk purchases, she said.
“ I think there are some good pluses with doing this. It does focus on the family and helping the family, ” Smith said. “ A lot of the tax exemptions, subsidies and tax credits that are given by law never trickle down to the family. ”
State Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, however, said she does not support a sales tax holiday in Arkansas. Among her reasons are:
• Making retailers change their tax collection practices for one weekend, which she said would likely be much more complicated for a mom and pop operation than a major retailer
• Many of the proposed items for exemptions are not necessities for everyone, like food, so it is “ not fair across the spectrum, ” she said
• Taxes provide essential revenue for government operations and services
“ If people need a tax break, they need it every day of the year, not just one weekend, ” Madison said.
Furthermore, she said, if people choose to shop out of state that weekend to take advantage of nontaxed items, they should follow that up by reviewing the state’s sales and use tax form for reporting non-taxed, outof-state purchases.
The form is often included in state tax form handbooks and is intended mostly for catalogue and Internet orders for which a person was not charged sales tax.
Arkansas citizens who go out of state for sales tax holidays in border states technically may be required to remit tax on those items to Arkansas, Madison said.
Warren hadn’t heard of the sales tax holiday in Oklahoma and Missouri, but he said it probably wouldn’t be a worthwhile trip from Fayetteville to those states given the current cost of gasoline.
“ If I was in Siloam (Springs ), that might make a difference, but I don’t know that there is anywhere is West Siloam (Springs, Okla. ) to buy school supplies, ” he said.
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