COLUMBUS – The three-day sales tax holiday last August was a net benefit for the state and many counties, an economics professor told a Senate panel Wednesday.
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Despite clothing, school and instructional items being exempt from the sales tax, Julie Heath, director of the University of Cincinnati Economics Center, said that based on her model, the state saw a net gain of $4.7 million in additional tax revenue.
That would be a big swing from estimates made before the holiday by the Ohio Department of Taxation, which projected the state would lose $21 million, and counties would lose $4.7 million.
Heath testified on behalf of Senate Bill 264, which seeks to make permanent the one-time sales tax holiday over three days in August 2015. She studied the 2015 holiday on behalf of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.
The tax department is still working to develop a clear picture of the effect of the holiday, said spokesman Gary Gudmundson. As of now, he said, officials there have no plans to testify on the bill.