Parents are getting ready for back to school. In my household, we are already getting some back-to-school clothes shopping in, updating our school supplies and preparing for the year ahead. The beginning of a new school year is a time of excitement and anticipation for kids and parents, but it’s also a time of anxiety for many families faced with tight family budgets and the pressure of new purchases.
We are all well aware how inflation has impacted the cost of so many things, and we see it with the price of new clothes, shoes, technology and other back-to-school items.
Other states around the country have instituted “sales-tax holidays” to help relieve some of the cost pressures surrounding back-to-school time. Florida specifically has a back-to-school supply sales tax holiday where during this period many typical school supply items that are $50 or less, clothes and shoes that are $100 or less per item, and laptops, calculators, or tablets that cost $1,500 or less are sold sales-tax-free.
Florida’s sales tax holiday also includes puzzles, some books, and toys that teach reading or math skills.
I believe that we absolutely need a permanent reduction and all-out cut in so many taxes paid by Californians. However, in the very near term, California could easily implement a month-long back-to-school sales tax holiday to help reduce the cost burden on families, parents and teachers.
Let’s not forget many teachers spend their own money to purchase supplies.
So, let’s take a model like Florida, or even Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and other states that have a sales tax holiday, and bring that to California. Depending on how many kids a family has and back-to-school purchases, the savings to families can total in the hundreds or even thousands.
And it doesn’t just apply to families with kids. Every California consumer will feel the impact of those lowered costs.
Just to provide some context, someone purchasing a new MacBook Pro would save $115 or more. Families with multiple kids spending thousands on new clothes, shoes and technology could see savings that well exceed that.
While there is no doubt California could do so much more to lower costs and the tax burdens across the board, a month-long back-to-school sales tax holiday will make an immediate positive impact on every Californian.
Unfortunately, California policy for the past two decades has largely been to over-tax those who can least afford it. It was one reason I fought so hard to suspend the gas tax and lower costs while I served in the state Assembly.
I earned an “A” rating from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and those who think they know better how to spend taxpayer money than the actual taxpayer who earned it weren’t as fond of me.
But the truth is we aren’t going to get lower taxes and costs in California unless we all are willing to speak loudly and push for these changes. Be bold and cut the sales tax for school supplies, and everyday costs like California’s highest-in-the-nation gas tax.
Middle- and working-class families have given so much to California, they need some return on their investment in our great state.
Let’s take the anxiety out of the back-to-school season and give our wallets and bank accounts some relief.
Suzette Martinez Valladares is Santa Clarita’s former assemblywoman, wife, girl mom, avid DIY’er and a monthly contributor to The Signal’s “Right, Here Right Now,” which appears Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
