Hurricane season sales tax break
For the second year in a row, the State of Florida declared a 12 day sales tax exemption on supplies and other merchandise used for hurricane preparation. The tax holiday started Sunday, and continues through June 1st, the start of hurricane season.
Tax exempt items include:
Whether shoppers are taking advantage seems to depend on how far inland they are. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Central Florida merchants say sales are sluggish, while the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports brisk sales in Broward County, which was hit hard by Wilma last year.
In other hurricane season related news, state emergency officials are concerned that beefed up FEMA preparations will cause shortages and competition between state and federal agencies for supplies, and restructuring within FEMA is raising questions about who's in charge.
Meanwhile, New Orleans and FEMA officials will be testing an updated evacuation plan over the next two days. According to the report, the test will consist of 80 people riding a bus to the convention center and train station and being tagged for tracking. Maybe it's just me, and maybe there's more to it, but this doesn't seem to inspire much confidence.
UPDATE: Unbelievable.
Tax exempt items include:
- Flashlights and portable, self-powered light sources – $20 or less
- Portable radios, two-way radios and weather-band radios – for $50 or less
- Flexible waterproof sheeting (tarps) – $50 or less
- Gas or diesel fuel containers – $25 or less
- Batteries – $30 or less
- Non-electrical food storage coolers – $30 or less
- Portable generators – $1,000 or less
- Carbon monoxide detectors – $75 or less
- Storm shutter devices – $200 or less
- Cell phone batteries – $60 or less
Whether shoppers are taking advantage seems to depend on how far inland they are. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Central Florida merchants say sales are sluggish, while the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports brisk sales in Broward County, which was hit hard by Wilma last year.
In other hurricane season related news, state emergency officials are concerned that beefed up FEMA preparations will cause shortages and competition between state and federal agencies for supplies, and restructuring within FEMA is raising questions about who's in charge.
Meanwhile, New Orleans and FEMA officials will be testing an updated evacuation plan over the next two days. According to the report, the test will consist of 80 people riding a bus to the convention center and train station and being tagged for tracking. Maybe it's just me, and maybe there's more to it, but this doesn't seem to inspire much confidence.
UPDATE: Unbelievable.
3 Comments:
I realize that computers take much of the hassle out of these type of things, but on the surface, that tax holiday seems like one big administrative headache.
Brian, it is. But, they've had a "back to school" tax holiday off and on for several years, so the systems are all setup, I guess. I do recall a lot of scrambling at first.
Also when they dropped the sales tax on groceries, but not everything was considered groceries, such as candy bars or microwave burritos. It was quite confusing there for a while.
I feel priviledged. It's only 7% here in Clay county!
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