Two bills seek to create a back-to-school tax holiday

by Jasmine Hall

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE —Two bills were filed in advance of the Wyoming Legislature’s general session that would create a back-to-school tax holiday for families. 

Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, and Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, put forward separate pieces of legislation that will be introduced in their chambers but are nearly identical in content.  

The bills would implement a sales and use tax break the first weekend in August, and it would extend to the sale of clothing, computers, school supplies and sports equipment with some restrictions.

While the lawmakers didn’t know the other was drafting a tax holiday bill, they said their motivation stemmed from constituent requests. 

Schuler told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle she was approached by women in her coffee club, some of which are retired teachers. They spoke to inflation and the impact it was having on families preparing for their children to go back to school, and that some were having a hard time making ends meet. She said it is difficult to make a decision on whether to pay for gas, rent, groceries and school supplies. 

A similar story was shared by Brown, who said a constituent was traveling through Texas and called him after learning about the southwest state’s tax holiday. 

Texas is one of 12 other states offering the break and supporting families in the wake of high inflation. 

He saw a need for it in his own state. 

“This is one way that we can lighten the burden on Wyoming families,” Brown said. 

If either of the lawmakers’ bills pass the general session, there will be a holiday from the first Friday of August at 12:01 a.m. until the following Sunday. 

The only restrictions on school supplies and sports equipment relate mostly to price. The exemption doesn’t apply to any clothing item with a sale price more than $100, any computer valued more than $1,500 or software more than $100 and a school supply or sports equipment more than $50. 

There would also be no tax break for clothing accessories, sales of an item purchased for resale or rentals. 

This may impact vendors and retailers, as well as the amount of revenue for the general fund and local sources fund. 

A fiscal note on both bills estimated a decrease of around $1.7 million per fund in a fiscal year, after calculating the shopping purchases of 93,000 K-12 students and 20,000 higher education students. 

The Evanston state senator said it may be a point of tension for some lawmakers, but the state should take advantage of the high revenue estimates reported in the next biennium. 

Brown added that $1.7 million is important revenue, but it is a much smaller figure when it comes to running a government. 

Ultimately, he sees it in a positive light because it will stay in families’ pockets. He also said the state’s sales tax model disproportionately affects those in lower income brackets. 

When their children have to go to school and they are penny-pinching, he said a tax holiday could have an impact, whether it’s on buying pencils or a laptop for educational purposes. 

“$1.7 million to the average family in Wyoming is a ton of money, and I’d rather see that money stay with the individuals and not with the government,” he said. 

The two legislators aren’t the only supporters of their bills. 

Wyoming Education Association President Grady Hutcherson said this legislation takes a small, but meaningful step toward alleviating some of the inflationary pressures families feel when shopping for supplies. He recognized it is a challenging time economically for Wyoming families, as prices are high and incomes are flat. 

“We also know that many educators personally purchase supplies for students and classrooms. Ideally, school supplies would never come at a personal cost to our education employees. But we know that, in reality, they do,” Hutcherson said in a statement. “This legislation bolsters buying power for parents and education employees, and ultimately, students benefit.”