DeLeo predicts sales tax holiday bill’s passage
by Statehouse News ServiceJULY 17, 2006 -- The state will sanction a weekend of tax-free retail shopping next month, two powerful Beacon Hill lawmakers predicted Monday.
Legislation establishing the “sales tax holiday” on August 12 and 13 earned committee approval Monday, with potential for attention on the House floor Tuesday, sponsor Sen. Jack Hart said.
House Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo said he anticipated the passage of the legislation, with two weeks remaining in formal legislative sessions and businesses requiring lead time to prepare for the suspension of the state’s 5 percent sales tax.
“Although I can’t say it’s right on the immediate radar screen, it’s going to have to be on soon if we’re going to address it,” DeLeo said.
The Senate backs the sales tax holiday, but its proposal never made it out of budget conference committee. DeLeo said he was “working with” Committee on Revenue House Chairman John Binienda and Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Senate Chairman Daniel Bosley, whose committee redrafted the bill and polled it out favorably Monday.
“I think that something will be done relative to it,” DeLeo said. “I don’t want to say that too quickly until I talk to the other chairs, but I’m presuming that, as in the past, we will have it again this year.”
A redrafted version of the bill (S 265) garnered majority backing in the Economic Development Committee, after lawmakers confined the bill’s language to this year, rather than establishing the so-called holiday in perpetuity, said Hart, Bosley’s co-chair.
The tally was 8-0 in Monday’s vote, Hart said, adding he was hopeful the House would tackle it Tuesday.
“Hopefully, if the House is ready and able, they’ll take it up tomorrow and we’ll do it Wednesday,” said Hart, a South Boston Democrat. But Kyle Sullivan, spokesperson for House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, said the House will not act on the measure Tuesday.
Calling it a “measure of goodwill” and a cure for a traditional sag in the retail calendar, Hart said the measure is expected to hit the state for $15 million in sales tax revenue.
Gov. Mitt Romney supports the measure, his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said.
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