Sales Tax Holiday a Hit

Congratulations to El Dorado Rep. Matthew Shepard (R), the primary house sponsor of the bill to grant a sales tax holliday to Arkansans. By all accounts, businesses under the purview of the tax break had an amazing amount of revenue.

Governor Mike Beebe had groused that the tax cut would "cost" the state two million dollars, but it seems like state businesses made many times that amount in extra profits. Beebe's real complaint is not that the state would lose money, but that state government would lose it. I doubt his static calculations considered people from border areas who shopped in state rather than went out of state to do back to school shopping, or the increased tax revenues that come from merchants making more profits.