[EDITORIAL] Massachusetts sales tax holiday not worth it

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  Posted Jul. 25, 2015 at 9:00 AM 

  
  

  NORWOOD

  It’s late July, so that means there’s the annual last-second buildup for a sales tax holiday weekend in August.

  The idea touted by the Massachusetts Retailers Association is in favor of such a weekend, arguing it keeps money in the state that would be spent in New Hampshire or online.

  The MRA asked the Beacon Hill Institute to measure the economic impact of the holiday.

  The study is based on the responses of 63 business owners asked by the MRA how the reprieve impacts their shops. Having the business association handpick owners’ answers is in not a good way to measure impact, as the MRA could have stacked the deck in emailing business owners to get favorable results.

  Even then, the owners’ responses were lukewarm, at best.

  The answers in favor of the concept are all the standard answers that don’t really have any specifics. They’re all vague generalizations like “it stimulates the economy” or “people spend more than they otherwise would have.”

  The answers from owners who aren’t in favor are more telling.

  “There is no cash flow for three weeks before,” one owner wrote.

  Another stated “five weeks of business are crammed into two days” and that the totals don’t match five normal summer weeks.

  A majority of business owners, 60 percent, stated in the survey they believe any sales from the weekend came from other weeks in the year, not money that would have been spent out of state.

  That means the holiday isn’t any sort of economic boost, just a rearranging of when purchases would occur.

  Only 13 percent said the sales come from the boogey men of “tax-free” New Hampshire and the Internet.

  One of the major points the paper points out is that 72 percent of shoppers were at least somewhat likely to spend in state if there were a holiday. The question was leading at best.

  There was no response in that question indicating whether to indicate if a responder was not planning to partake, just whether it would make a difference between shopping in state or elsewhere.

  Another question found that 68 percent of respondents hadn’t taken advantage of the holiday. While no one likes paying taxes, savvy shoppers can find better deals on other weekends.

  The institute concluded the weekend generates the equivalent of about 627 jobs. Realistically, employers aren’t hiring new workers to deal with the supposed benefits, but just scheduling more hours to their current work force. That works out to about six hours for every one of the 225,000 retail workers in the state.

  Via: Wicked Local Norwood

  
  
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