Next year's back-to-school shoppers could experience a new form of student aid in the form of a "tax holiday" proposal introduced by gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis.
Green hopes the proposal, which was unveiled earlier this month, will offer tax relief to Wisconsin students, especially in light of perennially rising tuition costs at the state's public colleges and universities.
"Wisconsin would join 14 states that offer some kind of sales tax exemption to give shoppers relief on items ranging from notebooks to laptop computers," Luke Punzenberger, Green's campaign spokesman, said.
The holiday, which would begin the first Friday of August at 12:01 a.m. and end Sunday at midnight, aims to exempt Wisconsin's current 5 percent sales tax from school supplies up to $50, clothing and shoes up to $100, and computers up to $1,500. The price limits for items would be tallied as a whole, not individually.
Punzenberger said the campaign has not estimated a specific cost for the tax break, but he said shoppers in other states have seen a total savings of up to $10 million.
The proposal is being introduced as a campaign issue, as Green has made tax relief a centerpiece of his campaign against the incumbent Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
But Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for Doyle's campaign, called Green to task on his standing tax record.
"Green voted for $12 million in cuts to student financial aid, which is the largest cut in the history of student aid," she said. "Any suggested attempt to cut taxes by Congressman Green is laughable."
Lupardus added Doyle has doubled financial aid and balanced two straight state budgets during his four-year term. She also noted a student-oriented program Doyle proposed that is awaiting legislative approval.
"Doyle proposed a really innovative program, the Wisconsin Covenant, in which eighth-graders take a pledge to take difficult classes, maintain a B average, and stay out of trouble," she said. "In turn, the state would ensure the opportunity in financial aid for them to walk through the door at a Wisconsin university."
Along with the tax holiday, Green also proposed an education-funding plan requiring 70 cents of every tax dollar spent on education to be directed at classroom expenditures. Punzenberger cited recent studies showing a direct correlation between standardized test scores and dollars spent in the classroom.
But the Green campaign still attests the Wisconsin holiday will generate extra retail activity, bringing in out-of-state spenders from bordering states that do not have the tax exemption.
While Green continues to promote the proposed holiday plan as an effective tax relief program for Wisconsin students, others point warily to the proposal's possible counterproductive effects.
Ryan Burruss, communications associate for the Federation of Tax Administrators — a trade group for tax collecting agencies — said tax holidays are fairly common in some areas but are not a highly effective relief program.
"Generally, if people are saving money, they are just going to buy more," he said. "It doesn't cost the state a lot, but the savings are not huge."
Burruss added that some states are implementing holidays unrelated to back-to-school expenditures, giving tax breaks on items for hurricane preparedness and energy-efficient appliances.
Green's proposed exemption would require approval from the state Legislature, where a similar proposal has already failed to pass.
